Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced an investigation into a handful of CDL schools "for Certifying Unqualified and Non-English Speaking CDL Drivers," according to a press release.
Overdrive spoke to nearly all of the five schools singled out by the AG, and three said they hadn't heard anything from the state at all, and that they're unsure of what they're even being accused of.
One, however, definitely does advertise CDL training in Spanish, and Overdrive found no record of the school in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Training Provider Registry.
As reported here, Texas AG Paxton's release said his office "opened an investigation into numerous trucking schools for endangering Texans by providing inadequate commercial driver training, including to non-English speakers, in violation of state and federal law."
It goes on to say Paxton "has sent Civil Investigative Demands" to five CDL schools:
- EP Texas Trucking School
- Trucker Certified LLC
- Fast Track CDL LLC
- CDLCALL.COM LLC
- Lindenwood Education System, owner of the Ancora CDL schools
But EP, Trucker Certified and Ancora all say they haven't heard a peep from Paxton.
The release cites federal ELP regs as well as Texas law mandating that CDL training providers require English from all students.
"Preliminary findings suggest that certain schools are disregarding these requirements," according to the release. "For example, EP Trucking tells prospective students that English proficiency is not necessary to complete the program and advertises its services in Spanish."
EP Texas Trucking School
EP Texas Director Lucy Rivera told Overdrive that they "absolutely do not" tell students they don't need to know English. The school said it offers English classes and requires students to interact with Texas' Department of Public Safety and transact with them in English.
"When [prospective students] call, my recruiter makes sure to ask, 'How’s their English?'" Rivera said. "We send them to DPS so they can pay their $25 to do their knowledge exams, and here in Texas they are allowed to take their written tests in Spanish."
Rivera added that "all skills evaluations at our school are administered in English by qualified examiners." The final skills test does have to happen in English.
"As a professional truck driver myself, I fully understand the importance of the English language in this industry," Rivera said in a statement. "I have personally experienced being stopped by a DOT officer and being asked questions in English, including being asked to spell the state I was coming from. One of the first questions asked was whether I spoke English."
Furthermore, CDL schools don't actually license anyone in Texas.
"We are certified to administer CDL skills tests," Rivera said, adding that "we do not issue or authorize CDL licenses. All applicants must apply for and obtain their CDL through the Texas DPS. We strictly follow all required protocols and regulatory procedures."
As for advertising in Spanish, Rivera said her school certainly does, but she felt "singled out," as they're not the only one and there's no law against it. El Paso, Texas, right on the border, is 85%-90% Hispanic, she estimated.
An EP Texas graduate. Remember, all Texas CDLs come from Texas Department of Public Safety staff, not CDL schools. EP Texas
Paxton also alleged that "several entities under investigation have also falsely claimed to be a certified school" without giving any specifics. All named schools but one on Paxton's list have registered with the FMCSA's Training Provider Registry.
Paxton mentioned "some programs advertise accelerated training timelines that are as short as approximately 20 days, which is well below the industry norm of three to seven weeks," but none of the school websites or representatives Overdrive surveyed included any claims like that.
Ancora says it's passed in-person audits
Ancora, a large career training company with hundreds of CDL training locations, including several in Texas, forcefully pushed back on Paxton's claims in a statement.
"Ancora strongly rejects any implication that its CDL programs certify unqualified drivers or disregard federal English-language requirements," the organization wrote. "As of 4 p.m. April 28, 2026, Ancora has not received any communication or Civil Investigative Demand from the Texas Attorney General’s Office and is not aware of any allegations or compliance concerns the State of Texas Attorney General’s Office may have that are specific to Ancora."
Furthermore, Anocra isn't just on the FMCSA's TPR, they're also registered with the Texas Workforce Commission.
Jeff Burkhardt, Chairman of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association and Senior Director of CDL Operations at Ancora, regularly advocates for tougher standards and stricter enforcement of CDL training schools.
[Related: FMCSA pins 'CDL mills' problem on self-certification: Are owner-ops to blame?]
In December, when FMCSA did in-person audits of 1,500 CDL schools, ultimately leading to 550 such schools getting closed, Ancora schools were among those surveyed, and they all passed.
Ancora had "zero findings of non-compliance when reviewed by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) Safety Investigators in December 2025, as part of their nationwide review of CDL training programs," the release said.
Trucker Certified LLC
Trucker Certified's Oaty Scott said he's the real deal.Trucker Certified
"I want the safest possible drivers," said Scott. "As far as the non-domiciled CDL stuff, I totally understand how having those drivers is dangerous cause I’m a truck driver, and I'm 100% agreeing we can’t have people who can’t understand signs driving trucks, but have I trained any of those and given a CDL that didn’t pass? No."
Scott said he ensures the English language proficiency of every single student and has even had "people get upset" when he rejects them for lacking English.
CDLCall.com shows potential red flags
"Entrenamiento disponsible en Espanol," the website displays. That means having more than just ads in Spanish, as EP does; they do in fact do CDL training in Spanish.
CDLCall guarantees the success of its students and has locations in Phoenix, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Pasadena.
Of course, it's not illegal to advertise in Spanish, and Texas CDL applicants can take the knowledge test in Spanish, so while this lines up with Paxton's allegations, it's likely not straightforwardly illegal.
A scan of FMCSA's TPR, however, shows no entity with the CDLCall name, nor does the removed providers' registry or the one for providers with notices of proposed removal. Taking money for required entry-level driver training without being on FMCSA's list, if that's what's happening, could get a school in trouble.
Ultimately, it may be the advertising element Paxton is targeting, as suggested by his release. It claimed the listed schools may have violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act "and pose a significant risk to public safety."
