Trucking industry groups are asking the Trump administration to accelerate recent efforts to ensure safety on the nation’s highways in reaction to a Florida crash involving a freight truck that left three people dead.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is investigating the August 12 crash, in which the truck driver allegedly made an illegal U-turn on a divided highway, causing the truck to jackknife and collide with a minivan. FMCSA began its investigation of the driver, Harjinder Singh, and the freight carrier, California-based White Hawk Carriers, Inc., on August 14. Singh—who federal authorities say entered the United States illegally in 2018 and has been pending immigration charges—failed FMCSA-administered English proficiency and road tests following the crash. Singh was driving under a limited-term commercial driver’s license (CDL) issued in California.
The incident highlights recent efforts by the Trump administration to tighten safety standards and scrutinize the issuing of CDLs nationwide, efforts that have earned praise from industry trade groups. In April, President Trump signed an executive order requiring strict enforcement of English proficiency standards for drivers, rescinding 2016 guidance that had relaxed those rules. In May, FMCSA announced a two-step test for enforcing the standards, which took effect June 25. The Trump administration has also said it will review and evaluate state policies and protocols for issuing CDLs for interstate commerce.
Trucking groups are asking federal and state regulators to do even more in light of the Florida crash, which they say exemplifies the problems resulting from lax enforcement policies and loopholes they say allow unqualified drivers to obtain CDLs.
In a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Monday, The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) asked the Trump administration to suspend states’ authority to issue non-domiciled CDLs, which some states provide to non-U.S. citizens or out-of-state applicants under certain circumstances. OOIDA and others say those particular licensing procedures are problematic and inconsistent, often putting unqualified drivers behind the wheel. They cite the inability to verify a non-U.S. citizen’s foreign driving record as one example. OOIDA followed the letter with similar requests to individual states that issue non-domiciled CDLs.
Singh was issued a non-domiciled CDL in California last year and had previously been issued a regular, full-term CDL in Washington state, according to the Department of Transportation.
“We are certainly doing everything we can to make sure there is preventive action taken at both the federal and state level,” OOIDA president Todd Spencer said in an interview Thursday, emphasizing the need for better truck driver training overall. “If we’re serious about improving highway safety, we have to basically increase the entry-level experience for new people coming into the industry, where you don’t wonder whether or not a driver knows what the heck they’re doing. Where they’ve gone through comprehensive, real-world training to be able to do what they are asked to do.
“It’s more than just English; it’s basic qualifications. And I suspect in [the Florida incident] there were no qualifications. That’s just further evidence that no state should have given this guy a CDL—and two states did, Washington and California.”
He says better training is the best way to improve highway safety as well as transportation and supply chain efficiency.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) also weighed in this week, renewing its support of English proficiency enforcement and urging greater scrutiny of driver training and licensing programs as well.
“This incident underscores the importance and urgency of the work that the Trump Administration is doing to audit CDL issuances nationwide, in addition to its enhanced enforcement of English language proficiency—a fundamental requirement for operating commercial vehicles in interstate commerce,” ATA’s Chief Operating Officer Dan Horvath said in a statement Monday. “ATA believes robust entry-level driver training standards are critically important to preventing accidents like this one, but we remain concerned that fraudulent and non-compliant entities continue to fast-track CDL applicants with minimal, if any, training—as emphasized in ATA’s April letter to FMCSA. Greater enforcement is needed, and we call on FMCSA to ensure unlicensed and unqualified entities are immediately removed from the training provider registry.”
The Florida crash remained under investigation Thursday. Singh faces deportation and three counts of vehicular homicide.
