A Letter Demanding A Stop To Non-Domicile CDLs And An Increased Demand For Drivers

The great news is at the end!

Zerohedge posted an article:

Letter Urges Transportation Sec. Duffy To Ban Foreign CDLs Amid Series Of Highway Crashes Tyler Durden's Photo

...a powerful movement is gaining momentum in Washington to address a national security crisis in America's trucking industry...American Truckers United has sent an urgent letter to Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy, demanding a ban on non-domicile Commercial Driver's Licenses (CDLs) for non-citizens and restrictions on foreign CDLs to commercial trade zones.

The letter exposes how illegal labor, exploiting loopholes from Biden-era policies, has flooded the industry with unvetted drivers. A recent Zero Hedge report highlighted how CDLs were handed out "like candy," creating a "public safety nightmare."

Another quote from the article:

The majority of the truckloads in Americas two largest ports are now being hauled by Non-Citizen truck drivers when shipped over the road by semi-truck

There has been a multi-pronged strategy to flood our country with untrained, unskilled, and inexperienced truck drivers.

Over the past few years, the government flooded our highways with immigrants, granting almost one million non-domiciled CDLs. Mexico has been handing out CDLs illegally as well, and sending drivers over here to haul freight. Several states have had major corruption scandels regarding bribery for handing out CDLs.

The Great News

Enforcement on the highways has increased in recent months after President Trump issued an executive order titled "Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America's Truck Drivers."

It seems to be working. Two of the majors have contacted me in the past two weeks, saying they need more applications. Not only has AI killed traffic to websites where they used to get many of their applications, but the flood of CDL holders that invaded our highways in recent years is in retreat.

Demand for drivers is picking up again and will continue to do so in the coming months.

I believe our economy is on solid ground and will gain momentum over the coming months and years. I think Trump is making the right moves, not only with tariffs but also with his executive order aimed at cleaning up the trucking industry.

This bodes well for driver demand, which will drive wages higher.

Have you guys been getting the miles?

I've been very busy. I was just looking at it last night because we're coming up on being half way through this year. I'm on pace to have one of my strongest years yet.

I sometimes think my situation is nontypical, but I have no way of really knowing that. I have noticed our office people are being asked to do more with less personnel. I'm not sure if that is attributed to AI or just financial necessity.

Trucking stocks are fairly volatile still, and frankly I don't always understand what makes them jump around like they do. For the most part, it seems we may be heading into better times.

I have noticed our office people are being asked to do more with less personnel.

That's funny, because one of the majors recently told me, "I was told to try getting more without giving more."

I said, "Well, you wouldn't have a very business-savvy boss if he didn't expect that sometimes."

I think almost everyone is trying to stay conservative in this volatile environment, but I believe enforcement is having a positive impact on driver demand (and hopefully salaries) and will continue to do so for the coming months and years. As is often the case, fixing the mess will take longer than creating it.

It's incredible that they gave almost one million non-domiciled CDLs to immigrants in an industry with three million drivers.

What have you guys been seeing regarding roadside checks in recent months? It's summer, so enforcement always goes up with better weather, but do you think this administration is pushing enforcement harder than the last administration?

This is going to be a very mixed bag I think. In May I took a permitted load from Ga to Salem Or. As such I met alot of DOT officers across 12 states. I’ll share a couple interactions I had. 3 days were during blitz week.

AL on I20 at the scale house I saw alot of state and US DOT officers. They were lined up pulling trucks over to the side. A state officer looked at my permit and the load and told me to be safe. This took about 30 seconds. Before I started moving 2 young federal officers walked over and were looking at the load and pointing. They didn’t really approach me, but out of caution I got out and asked them if they needed something. One said no he was using my load to point out a few things to the other officer with him for training. We spoke briefly and another truck had pulled in close to us and it was quickly noticable the driver didn’t speak English. They said things would be changing alot starting June 25. They told me there would be more field agents working with state officers.

AR: I had to stand in line at the scale house on I40 at the TN line. There were 3 drivers ahead of me and I just stood there listening and all 3 drivers at best were struggling with understanding the officers. Finally one asked me what I needed. I told him I was the oversize and I held up my permit. He had the driver at his window stand aside while he looked at my permit. He asked a couple questions handed me back my permit, thanked me, and sent me on my way. I really still don’t know what he thanked me for, but I’m guessing for having my act together and not creating them any issues.

WY: I-80 port of entry w/b. I was behind about a dozen drivers. All of which spoke with heavy accents and spoke to each other in a different language. There were 3 other oversize loads in the lot. An older officer saw me at the end of the line standing quietly. I was dressed well with clean jeans, boots, and a company shirt. He asked if I was the brown peterbilt with the 4 axle trailer. I said yes sir. He came out and walked me outside. He looked at my permit and then said I had a low tire on my trailer according to their heat sensor. We walked to my truck I got a tire guage out and I did have one tire a little low. It wasn’t flat just low on air. He told me I was ok to continue but needed to get some air. I aired it up on the spot. He seemed amazed I had an air hose and air guage. We talked while I did this and he smoked a few cigarettes. He told me the other 3 oversize loads were not going anywhere. 2 didn’t have permits and the other the trailer brakes were in disrepair. He said they get this type of stuff everyday. He did mention they had already been told they were NOT to enforce the english profficiency when it comes june 25. I thought that was odd, and he said they have become much more liberal the last several years.

I think based on some of those contacts I had on that trip states are gearing up to either enforce the rule or ignore it. So in the end I guess it will be wait and see how it all shakes out.

Wow, PJ. So you encountered drivers that could speak little or no English at EVERY Weigh Station???

So it certainly doesn't sound like an exaggeration that a significant percentage of CDL holders out there are immigrants now.

I've said for years that self-driving trucks are not the concern, but I worried about bringing in immigrants for cheap labor, just like they've done in many other industries. Well, it's here now, but will it last? Time will tell.

I can tell you this - almost no one has been looking for new drivers for the past two years or so. This past month, people started calling me again. If Trump's team stays in charge and can focus on this issue, I think they'll clean it up pretty well. It's not rocket surgery. But if they don't get it cleaned up, wages will drop hard.

I've been buried, usually 4 loads or more stacked on me. My company used to offer 5 out and 2 in, they said they are doing away with that, and need drivers to stay out a minimum of 12. I always do anyway, so it wasn't an issue. Then again, its been that way from day one, so its hard to judge. We have very consistent freight.

I was running quite a bit out of El Paso a while back and saw several trucks get pulled out of line and shut down at the immigration checkpoint on 10 as well as the weigh station on US 54.

But then again, I've seen a steady stream of Canadian plated trucks with noticeably non English drivers go in and out of scale houses in other areas.

My old terminal manager has been in touch with me a lot, weve been discussing going owner op at some point in the future. She said they're definitely actively looking for known good drivers and that demands going up.

I've seen a few stories on the eastern European trucking racquet of Chicago collapsing, I can't say the validity of it, but I've noticed an uptick of loads that we didn't do a few months ago in the Chicago area that we're now doing. The jest of the articles was that the carriers were only able to haul freight so cheaply because of using cheap labor and circumventing the regulatory burdens of domestic legal drivers. With crackdowns on immigration and the English speaking enforcement, they're unable to retain and replenish labor, can't afford to hire us drivers, so closing their doors.

We mostly do contract work, but some backhauls are brokered loads, im assuming from the spot market. At some point, capacity has to be forced lower if we're ever going to see wages and rates climb. As far as I understand, the spot market is still flooded with cheap drivers taking cheap loads.

I'm cautiously optimistic. While I think the Trump administration is fighting the good fight, the federal government is still full of corruption and waste. And going up against retail and shipping Goliaths who've been drunk on greedily forcing labor rates to the floor is going to take a long time.

I'd love to see manufacturing and agriculture return here, with the defeat of globalism but it will take time and they're still fighting it. The marxists and globalists have done an enormous amount of damage.

Brett I haven’t been on the road like that trip in awhile, but the amount of drivers I encountered out there and back that were not english proficient was staggering to me.

I had 3 drivers that approached me in rest areas trying to ask questions. They used some app on their phone to show me what they were asking. All 3 were hauling oversize loads.

That is scary!!!

Rates have been in the toilet for 3 years and if they go much lower more companies will go out of business.

Even the mega carriers have consistently been reporting losses in quarterly earnings calls.

Every month I read articles where trucking companies and brokers are going out of business, but yet capacity is still excessive.

I follow the stats every week on rates and capacity and it has not been good in a long time. These are reported off the spot market.