ELP, non-domiciled CDLs: What fleets need to know

Matt Cole:
English language proficiency, non-domiciled CDLs, chameleon carriers. What do fleets need to know about these regulatory issues?

Jason Cannon:
Hey everybody. Welcome back. I'm Jason Cannon and my co-host is Mac Cole. Most of the big regulatory news coming out of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in this second Trump administration has resolved around immigrant truck drivers, their ability to communicate in English and licensing standards for non-citizens.

Matt Cole:
Since English language proficiency returned to the out- of-service criteria last summer and has now been codified into law, it has become imperative for motor carriers to ensure their drivers can read, speak, and understand English to avoid negative marks on their safety scores.

Brandon Wiseman:
English language proficiency, as we all know, has been a hot topic for the last several months. The uptick in enforcement is pretty clear. One of the things we do at TruckSafe is track the data daily, really. And so looking at the data now, when we are recording this in February of 2026, there are over 14,000 ELP out of service violations issued since enhanced enforcement started back in June of 25. So fairly significant numbers. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, not outrageous, that's for sure, but still something fleets need to be on the lookout for and make sure that they have implemented proper controls at their fleet to make sure that they don't run into trouble themselves.

Jason Cannon:
So what do fleets need to do to make sure that their new hire drivers are in the clear?

Brandon Wiseman:
Certainly as part of the driver onboarding process for all fleets, we're recommending that they have some kind of a English language proficiency test or assessment. And I mean, it can be as simple as just talking with the folks that you are onboarding to make sure that they can communicate proficiently in English with you. Otherwise, you're going to run the risk of having those drivers out on the road and then ending up with an out of service order. Then you're going to have to repower the unit and everything like that. It's going to make your customers upset and also negatively impact your CSA scores. So make sure you're doing that, make sure you have some controls in place. And yeah, I think we're just going to continue to see enforcement move along. And you're right, this has been codified now into federal statutes. FMCSA, for its part, will now have to change its rules to implement that statutory directive that it got from Congress.

So I expect we'll see that later this year.

Matt Cole:
For drivers already employed, Brandon says it should be a full team effort in the office to ensure drivers are compliant.

Brandon Wiseman:
What I would recommend is that you at least make sure your entire operations team is aware of this rule. So the frontline managers or the dispatchers that are talking with your drivers on a regular basis and let them know that if they are communicating with the drivers and they notice a problem with English proficiency, that they alert your safety team to that fact so that then you can do it on a case by case basis when it comes up in that context.

Jason Cannon:
Earlier in February, FMCSA also finalized its non-domiciled CDL rulemaking that limits which classes of work visa holders can obtain a CDL. While that rule has already been challenged in court, it did include some good news for fleets with non-domiciled CDL holders already on the payroll.

Brandon Wiseman:
I still don't envy those fleets because it's still kind of up in the air for the reasons you've hinted at, which are that I think I saw in the news that a group has already filed suit against FMCSA challenging the final rule. And so that's just going to be the way it goes for the foreseeable future here. It's going to be tied up in litigation and whether we end up with another court-directed stay of the rule, we'll just have to wait and see. But yeah, fleets are going to have to deal with that uncertainty for the time being. I think what we know from the final rule is that the FMCSA is not intending for the existing non-domiciled CDLs of which there are around 200,000 according to the FMCSA's data. And they're not envisioning those just being invalidated because of the final rule. They're going to let them expire on their own terms, which in the final rule, they said many have like five-year terms.

So the agency is anticipating a phase out, a gradual phase out of non-domiciled CDLs, at least the unlawfully issued ones over the next five years. So the impact's not going to be as dramatic as we had originally thought, unless states themselves decide to proactively invalidate some of these license, which may be an outcome. We're just going to have to wait and see. But for now, I think fleets can ... The thing I've always recommended to my clients is that you at least take stock of your existing pool of drivers and see which ones have non-domiciled CDLs and make sure that they're aware of these potential changes and that they are in communication with their state licensing agency to have a better sense of what to anticipate with their particular licenses. Because the last thing you want, if you're a fleet, is to have non-domicile CDL holders out on the road and then their licenses get yanked from underneath of them, and then you've got an unlicensed driver out there operating on the road.

That would be a serious violation on your part. So you need to take stock, first of all, of which drivers in your fleet have these licenses. And then beyond that, one of the things I always recommend to my clients, a lot of large fleets have already implemented this, but continuous license monitoring, a service that does that type of monitoring is invaluable, not just for this reason, but for many reasons. It's not a mandated thing under the regulations to have that type of service, but it really gives you some great insight into the current or near current status of all of your driver's licenses. So if you have one of these drivers who's out there driving and their non-domiciled CDL gets yanked, you should be alerted to it through that subscription service fairly shortly after that happens. So I think that would be wise for fleets to consider.

Matt Cole:
In light of a recent fatal crash in Indiana and subsequent investigations, the DOT has put a renewed spotlight on chameleon carriers who shut down one business to avoid safety related issues only to reopen a new business. Why are these companies so difficult to detect?

Brandon Wiseman:
I think it's two things. I think one is the fact that FMCSA is perennially short on staff. I mean, at any given time, FMCSA has around a thousand employees or fewer, and they are charged with regulating over 800,000 truck and bus companies in the United States. And so they're spread thin to begin with. And so they've got many different priorities. Catching chameleons is certainly one of them, but they run into issues with manpower when it comes to actually pursuing them. So I think that's one thing. The other thing I also think is the evolving complexity of these fraudulent carriers. And chameleon carriers have been on FMCSA's radar for many years. I mean, it's regulations for many years at this point have had provisions in them that allow FMCSA to investigate suspected chameleons and to prosecute them and get them shut down. And so it's not like it's a completely new issue, but what is new is just the evolving complexity of how these networks are run and the number of carriers that are involved in some of them and the tactics that they use to avoid a negative compliance history or out of service orders or anything like that.

And so FMCSA, in addition to the short staffing issue is having to keep up with the evolving tactics of these networks. And I think both of those things are compounding and creating significant trouble for the agency. But I have faith that they're going to figure out some ways to get better control of this, including through the use of technology and AI to help them. We saw a hint of this. I think there was a internal FMCSA policy document that was released late last year, it may have been earlier this year, that hinted at them making some tweaks or revisions to their systems, their tech systems, their data systems to better catch these chameleons. So I have faith that that will happen in the near future.

Jason Cannon:
Now, beyond the obvious safety concerns of skirting out of service orders and other issues, there are other reasons compliant fleets should care about the chameleon carrier problem.

Brandon Wiseman:
I mean, in several different ways. Number one, screwing everybody else over when it comes to insurance premiums and stuff like that, just by virtue of the safety problems they cause, and then ending up in these accidents that end up with multimillion dollar jury verdicts. That just is a bad outcome for everybody else in the industry in that respect. Then also just putting a black mark on the industry as a whole. As more and more of these very high profile accidents happen throughout the country and make national news, I mean, it just does not paint a good picture for trucking in general. So what makes us all look bad is another thing, and it makes it look like our industry is rampant with fraud, and maybe it is. So several different ways that it just puts a stain on the industry as a whole.

Matt Cole:
One thing that could help FMCSA solve this issue is its upcoming modus registration system rolling out throughout the

Brandon Wiseman:
Year. I don't know that we have a ton of details about what the system will look like when it comes into play for fleets and how they use it. Right now, we have a portion of the new system in play and it's mainly functional for third party administrators that service the industry, so like insurers and others that make filings on behalf of regulated motor carriers. So what it looks like in terms of actually ingesting new motor carriers, I'm not sure that we have a whole lot of detail on it. I know from listening to FMCSA talks at previous conferences and stuff like that, I know that they have a pretty robust identity verification system in mind for the system that will require, as I understand it, applicants to upload copies of their license and maybe even get a picture of them to verify they are who they say they are.

So I know that there will be that included in it and fleets will need to be prepared for that. So I don't know. It's kind of one of those wait and see type issues as well.

Jason Cannon:
Brandon says he doesn't see much in the way of major regulations on the horizon, but fleets should be aware of a few things when it comes to enforcement.

Brandon Wiseman:
Not so much regulations, but kind of along the theme of enhanced enforcement, some of the other things that I know you all have reported on and that are worth continuing to watch are increased crackdowns by the FMCSA on electronic logging devices, ELD providers, and removing from the list of self-certified devices, devices that they find to be non-compliant with the technical specifications. We're starting to see more and more of those devices yanked off the list. And once they're yanked off the list, motor carriers who have those devices installed can no longer use them. So it warrants caution to fleets to make sure you are leveraging or using a reputable provider for your ELDs because last thing you want to do is invest all that money and then have to pull them all out of the truck if they're found to be non-compliant. So watch out for that along the same lines cracked down by FMCSA on entry level driver training providers.

We saw them start this late last year and it continues on to this year. FMCSA taking a hard look at the quality of the thousands of training providers that are on the registry and that are out there training truck drivers to get CDLs or upgrade their existing CDLs. They've already removed several thousand training providers from that list for various reasons, and I expect we will continue to see that. So another word of caution, this one mainly to folks looking to get a CDL or looking to upgrade a CDL, make sure you do your research, your due diligence before you select your training provider to make sure that they're a legitimate training provider. Because the last thing I would want for you is to go through some shoddy training through a provider that's self-listed themselves on the list, and then you end up getting your CDL, but then that training provider gets yanked from the list.

That doesn't look good for you on the backend of things. So those things I'm watching in terms of rulemaking, there's not a whole lot pending at the time we're recording this. Some things that I would anticipate coming down the road this year. We've been waiting a long time on planned updates to the safety measurement system, the CSA scoring platform. We've been talking about that for over two years at this point. So I would anticipate FMCSA would pull the trigger on those this year. And then also potential changes to carrier safety ratings. The three tier rating system that we have currently is showing its age at this point. And so I would anticipate the agency moving forward with some rulemaking on that topic sometime this year possibly. So those are the things I'm watching at the moment.

Jason Cannon:
That's it for this week's 10-44. You can read more on ccjdigital.com. While you're there, sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date on the latest in trucking industry news and trends. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments below. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell for notifications so you can catch us again next week.