The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s AI-powered emergency removal of 110 “sham” CDL schools is going down in flames as those same schools get placed back on the Training Provider Registry.
In August, as part of the Department of Transportation, Department of Homeland Security and White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud’s “Joint Task Force Crossroads of America,” FMCSA shut down 110 CDL schools for a rule that did not, and still doesn’t, exist.
Those schools had each graduated more than 10 students who went on to get English language proficiency violations, DOT said.
But while almost all of trucking and its owner-operators agree English is a non-negotiable rule of the road, there’s more than a few problems with that approach.
First, a roadside violation minus a fully adjudicated citation is effectively an allegation, not a conviction. Second, there’s no rule requiring Entry Level Driver Training in English. FMCSA has frequently provided training information in other languages, and regs only require drivers to promise they speak English.
FMCSA’s own August 31 letter shutting down the 110 CDL schools states that plainly.
“While FMCSA’s regulations do not require that ELDT instructions be provided in English, the regulations do require training providers to provide theory instruction about ELP and require [behind-the-wheel] driver-trainees to certify they will comply with the qualification standards, including ELP,” the letter said.
Sources close to FMCSA’s administrative process in issuing the shutdown orders said the agency used AI to track down drivers with ELP violations and trace them back to the schools they graduated from. The initiative came at the request of Vice President J.D. Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, according to the sources.
The White House and FMCSA did not respond to Overdrive‘s requests for comment.
Vibe-coded broadside meets its match, but federal efforts aren’t dead by any stretch
Eli Soler Negrin, owner of Soler & Soler CDL School in Miami, Florida, got shut down in August, but he’s already back on the Training Provider Registry.
“It’s a blessing, it’s biblical,” said Negrin. “It was up to God, that letter, and ChatGPT,” referencing a letter he got on August 19 concluding an audit into his school and finding no wrongdoing.
Negrin, who graduates about 500 CDL students a year, said he immediately used AI to file an administrative appeal with FMCSA, who then got 10 days to present evidence as to why he should stay shut down.
On the 10th day, “around five or six p.m.,” Negrin was reinstated with no new evidence provided by FMCSA.
Negrin said the shutdown was damaging to his business, as he needed to refund students, but that they’re coming back “one by one” now.
Ironically, Florida allows third-party testing, and while Negrin could no longer offer ELDT training, he was allowed to continue actually testing CDL students.
Despite the hardship, Negrin is nothing but thankful. “It’s a blessing, I have nothing to complain about now, I’m back in the game,” he said.
Negrin isn’t alone either. Five other schools have been reinstated, and a New Jersey CDL school, Start CDL, sued FMCSA over the emergency shutdown order. Start CDL said FMCSA mistakenly included ELP violations associated with drivers who went to other schools, Star CDL Training LLC and Punjabi School of CDL.
Start CDL had also passed an FMCSA audit in July, the lawsuit states. The court ordered FMCSA to respond to a show-cause order on jurisdiction within seven days as of Monday.
Other CDL schools shut down by FMCSA on August 31 (full list here) have also already been reinstated.
Sources close to the legal battle over the emergency shutdowns say some 20 schools have contested the shutdowns, and many are reputable vocational schools.
Another glaring oversight of the “10 ELP violations and you’re shut down” approach comes from the fact that new schools that haven’t yet graduated a lot of drivers on the road get the pass.
One major online ELDT provider said their analytics indicate that they’ve lost the top position online to an newer school, ELDT Nation. ELDT Nation advertises a $25 CDL Class A course that it says takes two hours.
Yet there’s at least some hope for genuine action against CDL mills.
FMCSA in September called for emergency action in an Information Collection Request submitted to the White House to tighten rules on the Training Provider Registry. That effort would require some pre-vetting of CDL schools, which right now can “self-certify” their credentials and hop on the TPR.
The Commercial Vehicle Training Association praised the move, thanking FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs “and the dedicated staff and leadership at FMCSA for taking this important step to require submission of documents indicating compliance with ELDT training requirements,” the organization said.
“CVTA joins FMCSA in welcoming this critical step to end the ‘self-certification’ structure of the Training Provider Registry that CVTA’s ELDT Task Force has advocated for since 2022.”
Negrin said he could have started a new CDL school and gotten right back in business under FMCSA regs, but he wanted to clear Soler & Soler’s name.
“Overall for us it’s a blessing,” he said of the reinstatement. “God works in miraculous ways.”
