The emergency rulemaking restricting non-domiciled CDLs in September found strong support among owner-operators in a survey by Overdrive, but a new analysis of 7,748 public comments on the Federal Register shows the resistance was vocal and voluminous.
The Department of Transportation's rulemaking sought to tighten CDL eligibility for non-citizens such that 194,000 current non-domiciled CDL holders would lose their licenses, and met with stiff opposition on and off the Federal Register.
Comments there came out to 86.7% opposing the rule, with just 12.2% in support and 1.1% neutral, according to analysis from factoring services provider AltLine, which is owned by the Southern Bank Company.
That's nearly the exact opposite of what Overdrive found in a December report.
Overall support results from Overdrive's 2025 survey are shown here.Overdrive's report summarized responses from 5,165 readers, finding 88% in support of the rule, with 70% saying the move would boost rates. The survey allowed readers to self-identify their citizenship status -- 94% of natural-born U.S. citizens supported the rule. Among non-citizens who would lose their CDLs under the rule's terms, 79% signaled opposition.
The public comments analyzed by AltLine look as if they came largely from the latter population. Negative comments about the rule focused on livelihoods of impacted drivers and civil rights concerns.
[Related: Non-domiciled CDL drivers say DOT's new rule violates their civil rights]
Overdrive's survey respondents, four out of five of whom were U.S. citizens, supported ousting non-citizen drivers from CDL eligibility on economic fairness and safety grounds.
Evidence of corruption or errors made within state licensing agencies and "CDL mill" driver-training operations, many recently highlighted by FMCSA itself, led to a general lack of confidence among readers in the credentialing process for recent arrivals to the U.S.
AltLine's analysis zooms in on perspectives both in favor of and opposed to the rule, also highlighting the stances of major organizations.
The comment period for the rule ended Nov. 28, 2025, at which point a court had already ordered a pause of the rule until it could render judgement on a lawsuit brought by a non-citizen owner-operator. The lawsuit advances broadly the same civil rights cases made by many commenters on the Federal Register, and pokes holes in the government's underlying logic in issuing the rule.
[Related: ‘No evidence’ non-domiciled CDLs bad for safety: Lawsuit to block DOT's new rule]
For example, in rebutting the lawsuit, U.S. DOT told the court that "state licensing authorities do not (and cannot) assess with the same degree of confidence a non-domiciled applicant’s safety because individuals domiciled outside a given State but seeking a CDL -- a category almost entirely comprised of non-domiciled aliens -- tend to have driving histories outside the reach of U.S. State-level agencies."
The lawsuit, however, came from an owner-operator, Jorge Rivera Lujan, who had lived in the U.S. since he was two years old and had years' worth of U.S. driving records for review upon applying for his CDL.
It could take months for the court to hear the case against the rule, and even longer than that to determine if the rule has merit.
But since the pause, DOT has gone on to individually block California, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and Minnesota from issuing non-domiciled CDLs. All but California have complied so far.
Despite the paused rule and most other states' ability to resume non-domiciled CDL programs, Overdrive has yet to find a single state to do so.
To read AltLine's full analysis, click here.
Download Overdrive's December report on driver attitudes and market expectations toward DOT's non-domiciled CDL crackdown via the short form below.
