After an immigration enforcement raid on I-40 and DOT's new "emergency" rule seeking to oust 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders from commercial hauling, reports of non-citizen drivers fleeing the industry lit up with a spark of credibility as spot rates rose slightly.
Conversations with truck parking lot owners, a broker, and a small fleet owner paint a picture of a fear-driven capacity crunch among carriers that relied on non-domiciled CDL holders to move freight.
John Roller, owner of P&J Truck Parking south of Indianapolis, said his 554 parking spots were "90% full" most of the time, but that "we're starting to have a little bit more empties."
Roller checks drivers' CDLs, insurance and cab cards before renting them space. He's got a good finger on the pulse of the non-domiciled CDL population.
Roller estimated 20% of his customers were non-domiciled CDL holders, mostly with New Jersey or California credentials. "They come in with a tablet," often with a dispatcher translating on the line, and "tell you what they want."
Sometimes that includes requests like "park my truck for me cause I can’t back up," said Roller.
After the ICE action in Oklahoma and DOT announcing its plans to purge almost 200,000 non-domiciled CDL drivers from trucking, Roller said many non-citizen drivers are eyeing the exit. "We’ve already had people come in and sell their trucks for whatever they can get out of them," he said, noting that he had recently bought one.
Roller said some have even gone as far as getting a shipping container dropped off at the lot and packing it full of their belongings as they prepare to leave the country long-term. He added that it's been common in past for a truck owner to pay to park the truck for four months at a time as they return to the home country and get their work authorizations re-done.
Another truck parking lot operator in Texas near where the recent ICE raid took place on I-40 described a similar pattern.
"I have a lot of repeat customers, and most of the times the guys that are going to and from Africa are normally gone for three or four months at time," the owner said. "Now they're gone for six to nine months at a time."
So far, only one or two foreign drivers haven't returned, but the owner said "it's odd" to see the change.
Yet another lot owner said it was too early to tell just yet if the foreign driver population was really on the move.
[Related: Legislation aims to codify non-domiciled CDL rule change]
Freight brokers are seeing a shift, too. "Our rates have significantly gone up with carriers the last couple weeks," said one owner of a mid-sized brokerage. "Our carriers for the most part are all immigrants and some do have the non-domiciled licenses. I do know a lot of carriers that are both owner-ops and employee drivers who have stayed off the road."
Not only off the road, but some have completely exited the business, the broker said. Surinder Gill, a California-based owner-operator and an observant Sikh, said he's "getting pulled over quite a bit more for 'inspections'" not just at the scale house, but randomly roadside too. Gill mostly sees this in Texas, Arizona and Colorado, however, not in his home state, which still doesn't enforce English language proficiency as an out-of-service violation.
"Being Sikh, brown skin, and having a California license plate all have been a factor, but we pass with flying colors," he said. "No issues, no language barriers. We have always only employed drivers with two-plus years' experience" and U.S. citizenship.
Still, Gill has seen a change. "I know many" non-citizen drivers who "just hope they stay local and away from big metro areas," he said, as ICE raids spread to the interstates.
FTR and Truckstop's October 6 rates update found freight volume ticking up just 0.8% while rates, generally, were up 1.5% overall, and gainining the most for dry vans. All three major segments were up, considered individually.
We'll continue to monitor impacts of recent actions, but we're also asking you: Has anything changed? Do you have concerns or evidence of immigration enforcement impacting drivers? Contact me at [email protected].
[Related: 'Foreign driver capacity' hit incoming? Fleets watch, as owner-op income back on a slow rise]
