SAUNDERS: Trump’s transportation mission: Keep on truckin’ with safe, trained, vetted drivers

WASHINGTON

What happens when rules designed to ensure public safety fray so much that undocumented residents can obtain commercial drivers licenses for big rigs, even if they are not qualified to drive them and do not speak English?

In 2025, Americans saw the danger of allowing unvetted migrants to drive big rigs without obtaining bona fide commercial driver’s licenses, often thanks to what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy calls “scam schools.”

In November, an illegal immigrant with a California commercial driver’s license was charged with killing a newlywed couple in Oregon.

In October, an immigrant truck driver who had been in the United States illegally since 2011 allegedly caused a fatal accident. He did not hold a valid CDL, the New York Post reported.

In August, three people were killed in Florida after an Indian driver made an illegal U-turn on a major freeway. If you see the video, you have to wonder, what was the illegal immigrant from India thinking when he blocked all lanes of the highway? And who gave this guy a CDL? The answer, according to the Department of Homeland Security: California. Again.

After President Donald Trump withheld $40 million in federal funds to punish California for not complying with its new English-speaking requirements, Gov. Gavin Newsom revoked some 17,000 CDLs. Good.

Fatal crashes were bound to happen more frequently when unqualified individuals who should not be behind the wheel were able to drive 18-wheelers that weigh as much as 80,000 pounds — and on roads with family cars, light trucks and pedestrians.

As Paul Enos, CEO of the Nevada Trucking Association, said of big-truck drivers, “They should be able to read a runaway ramp truck sign.”

Truckers who can’t read traffic signs won’t see warnings they need to see.

But as a report you can read at TruckingResurgence.com informed, the requirement that truck drivers be able to read road signs and basic English instructions “was essentially removed in 2016.”

“This administration is cracking down on every link in the illegal trucking chain,” Duffy maintained. “Under Joe Biden and [his Transportation Secretary] Pete Buttigieg, bad actors were able to game the system and let unqualified drivers flood our roadways.”

According to the report, “90 percent of trucking carriers remain unrated for safety.” Scary.

When truck drivers aren’t properly trained by experienced professionals who know why smart regulations make travel safer, they may not appreciate how lethal their profession can be. So they might flout the rule limiting drivers to 11-hour days behind the wheel, Enos noted. And they might tinker with electronic monitoring devices meant to make sure that they don’t drive too much in a day.

Another issue is the problem of “chameleon carriers” who shutter when they are busted for flouting regulations, then reopen with new names.

It takes brass to go after bad actors at a time when America is experiencing a trucker shortage. That’s probably why the Biden administration did not make compliance a top priority.

On the one hand, trucking provides opportunities to men and women who aren’t interested in desk jobs. But the demands — long hours, living on the road away from family — mean the job is not for everyone.

The rules and testing regimen can discourage marijuana users, which Enos tells me has limited the driver pool. But professionals want a system that protects them from bad actors.

So it’s heartening that the Trump administration isn’t out to simply cut the size of government. Duffy wants to make it work.

Contact Review-Journal Washington columnist Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com. Follow @debrajsaunders on X.