Trucking news and briefs for Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025:
- Results from inspection blitz released by this state highway patrol, also involved in efforts to arrest and deport CDL drivers.
- Environmental groups petition truck makers to adopt CARB electric-truck push.
- Fines/other punishments pile up on trooper convicted for role in fake-CDLs-for-Swedish Fish bribery scheme.
Wyoming Highway Patrol puts 12 drivers, 42 trucks OOS in week-long blitz
At the beginning of this month, the Wyoming Highway Patrol deployed a Mobile Education Enforcement Team (MEET)/K9 detail near Evanston to conduct commercial vehicle inspections during a week-long event.
During the event, inspectors initiated 132 traffic stops and conducted 98 total inspections. Results of the inspections included:
- Out-of-service violations -- 45
- Total drivers OOS -- 12
- Total trucks OOS -- 42
- Total decals issued -- 22
- Total violations found -- 253
- K9 deployments -- 9
- Misdemeanor drug arrests -- 7
- Felony warrant arrests -- 2
- Possession of child sex abuse material -- 1
Further MEET/K9 details are planned for 2026, WHP noted.
The state's highway patrol was also involved in an immigration-focused enforcement event with the Laramie County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that LCSO called "Operation Safe Haul." That event, conducted over two days along I-25, I-80, U.S. 85 and other roads with traffic stops and other activities, resulted in dozens of arrests of CDL drivers processed for deportation, according to LCSO. Read more about it via this link.
Commercial-vehicle enforcment efforts in the state analyzed recently in Overdrive showed a more than 100% uptick in English language proficiency violations issued after the late-June return of the violation to the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance's out-of-service criteria. Likewise, the state ranked No. 4 in the nation for its own proficiency, of a fashion, in finding and issuing brakes-related violations.
[Related: Can the courts stop DOT's crackdown on foreign drivers?]
Petitions call on OEMs to drop Clean Truck Partnership lawsuit against California
More than 50,000 people have signed petitions calling on the world’s biggest truck manufacturers to drop their lawsuit against California and commit to clean trucking.
Truck manufacturers have received the petitions -- led by environmental and public interest groups Sierra Club, Ekō, and Public Citizen -- in recent days, as groups held meetings this week with the Daimler Truck CEO at their global headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, and with Daimler North America representatives at their U.S. headquarters in Portland, Oregon.
Sierra Club, Public Citizen and Ekō have been gathering signatures for the petition, which calls on the four manufacturers suing California -- Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, Paccar and International Motors -- to “drop your disastrous lawsuit against clean trucks and healthy communities.”
The move follows previous calls to end the legal case by business groups, public health advocates and communities.
The lawsuit centers on the Clean Truck Partnership (CTP), which OEMs signed with the California Air Resources Board to meet California’s vehicle standards and required the sale and adoption of zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) technology.
“These truck manufacturers are turning their backs to their commitment to truck drivers, fleets, and communities eager to receive the economic and health benefits of electric trucks,” said Sierra Club Clean Transportation for All Director Katherine García. “Thousands of our members are calling on them to reverse course and deliver the clean air they promised.”
The petitioners added that, along with the legal action, “truck manufacturers have been failing to live up to their commitments to ramp up electric truck sales.”
[Related: Honor CARB emissions deal: Environmentalists to truck makers]
Massachusetts trooper sentenced, ordered to forfeit CDL bribery scheme proceeds
Former Massachusetts State Police trooper Gary Cederquist, who was at one time in charge of the agency’s CDL unit, was sentenced on Oct. 14 to six years in prison with two years of supervised release and a $30,000 fine. He was also ordered to pay $18,300 in restitution and a $4,800 special assessment.
Then, on Oct. 23, the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts ordered Cederquist to forfeit $20,961 in proceeds from the convicted offenses.
On May 2, a jury found Cederquist guilty of orchestrating a series of schemes to give false passing scores to certain CDL applicants, including individuals who had failed or did not take the CDL skills test, as part of a multi-year bribery and extortion conspiracy.
Those schemes, according to prior reporting, saw police partnering with a local beverage hauler to mint fake CDLs for drivers that sometimes didn't even take the skills test in exchange for bribes like fancy bottled waters, iced teas, boxes of Twizzlers and Swedish Fish and more.
In exchange for the passing tests, Cederquist was provided beverages and other favors from around February 2019 to January 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. "Cederquist accepted a variety of bribes including inventory from Mathison’s water company valued in the thousands of dollars; a $750 granite post and mailbox; a new driveway valued at over $10,000; and a snowblower valued at nearly $2,000," a May press release stated.
[Related: Police officer convicted of extortion over fake CDL testing]
