At a Friday press conference, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration announced three new rulemakings and sweeping new steps in its fraud crackdown involving ELDs, CDL and ELP enforcement, "unpredictable" roadside blitzes, and much more.
Most notably, FMCSA announced new points of emphasis and expanded on the agency's ongoing efforts against fraud, including the following:
- Ending "Ghost offices" -- carriers and CDL schools must have a physical location where records can be inspected within 48 hours.
- Revoking licenses from those who fail English Language Proficiency tests rather than simply putting them Out-Of-Service.
- Expanding reach of the recent Operation SafeDRIVE inspection effort in more states to pull unsafe drivers off the road.
- More sting operations to shutter CDL Mills that are certifying unqualified truckers.
- Restructuring the training school certification process.
- Shutting down "chameleon carrier" networks that use fraud and shell companies.
- Continuin ELD revocations and increased vetting, with the end of "self-certification"
The agency in this news year has taken strong enforcement action against foreign drivers involved in accidents and the carriers who employ them, too.
FMCSA Administrator Barrs emphasized the range of activity represented in the agenda: “Biting off a lot at FMCSA, but we’re going to keep chewing and keep going after it to make sure our American roadways are safe.
"If you’re not following the rules, we’re going to put you out of business."
Principal Place of Business enforcement
What the agency called "ghost offices" are those used by carriers or brokers that do not meet federal regulations. Often, entities will use a Principal Place of Business that isn't their physical location. The practice has long been associated with fraud and fake carriers and/or brokerage entities. Reference the "WTFFMCSA" group of some 600 carriers that once claimed offices at a single small building.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy promised "way more stringent regulations for our carriers. We're going to verify physical locations. You can’t have 200 DOT numbers going to a P.O. Box."
More detail about "shutting down chameleon carriers" with enhanced procedures, Duffy noted, would be forthcoming in FMCSA rulemakings.
FMCSA's Barrs touted the agency's new registration system MOTUS, initially announced in March 2025, as "protecting our front door" by modernizing a 40-year old system.
Increased ELP enforcement
DOT also announced it would take ELP enforcement a step further by going beyond simply placing non-English speaking drivers out-of-service, which does not always stop the driver from continuing to drive. Follow-on actions by states to actually revoke the CDLs of drivers who can't pass an English test would increasingly be the norm.
Already 14,000 drivers have gotten OOS violations for ELP, DOT said.
Overdrive reported in February that California had already begun sending letters to drivers with ELP violations asking them to retest or lose their CDL.
"What we’re going to do is ask states to disqualify your license" if you get an ELP violation, said Duffy. "I would love if I had the power to revoke their licenses."
More roadside enforcement blitzes
Operation SafeDRIVE, which took place in January, was "a high-visibility" enforcement and education effort across 26 states that touted putting 2,000 drivers out-of-service, including nearly 500 for lacking English language proficiency.
Barrs said efforts like that were "going to be reoccurring, widespread, and unpredictable," and that operation was just one of many the organization was partnering with states on.
CDL schools getting shut down
DOT on Wednesday announced FMCSA had shut down "550 sham CDL training schools" after a wave of in-person audits in December.
Barrs said FMCSA will initiate a rulemaking to end self-ceritificaiton for CDL schools.
In total, FMCSA since 2025 has removed more than 7,000 CDL schools from its Training Provider Registry, Barrs added.
On Friday, DOT referred to those audits and described "sting operations," saying they'd found evidence of corruption and fraud both with CDL schools and third-party testers.
"You can go to a fake school, no training, and then in some states you go to a third party tester and the third party tester is participating in the scam because they're not adequately testing," said Duffy. "Our rules require [states] to audit all of these third party testers, to do covert operations."
"Unmask 'chameleon carriers'"
Barrs invoked the recent deadly crash in Indiana with a non-domiciled driver and a "chameleon carrier."
"This is not an isolated incident, it exposes serious vulnerabilities," said Barrs.
He added that fraudsters with multiple DOT numbers were running operations designed to avoid "enforcement, compliance, and doing the right things."
FMCSA in early February took just about 24 hours to get on the ground to investigate an interconnected network after the deadly crash in Indiana.
Already, the investigation has led to several, interconnected "ghost office" carriers behind the crash being put out of service, as well as the "sham school" the driver attended, said Barrs, calling the speed at which it all happened "record time."
"We do not have time for this," he said of the old process that could allow months to pass before a regulated entity was shut down.
DOT also announced it had taken action on ELDs. "Bad actors were using fraudulent ELDs to violate Hours of Service," according to a press release issued Friday. FMCSA's purged 42 non-compliant ELDs from the approved list of devices and blocked 238 new ELDs from self-certifying.
The Secretary pledged "stronger vetting" for vetting for ELDS would also be included in future FMCSA rulemakings.
