The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently found more than 550 commercial driver’s license (CDL) training schools in violation of the agency’s safety standards during a five-day sting operation.
During the operation, more than 300 FMCSA investigators conducted 1,426 on-site investigations of driver training providers nationwide. The operation resulted in 448 notices of proposed removals and 109 training providers voluntarily removed themselves from the Training Provider Registry. Another 97 training providers are under investigation for compliance issues.
“We mobilized hundreds of investigators to visit these schools in person to ensure strict compliance with federal safety standards,” FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs said. “If a school isn’t using the right vehicles or if their instructors aren’t qualified, they have no business training the next generation of truckers or school bus drivers.”
Common violations included unqualified teachers, improper vehicles, incomplete assessments, and state noncompliance. Unqualified teachers are instructors who don’t hold the correct licenses or permits for the vehicles they were teaching their students to drive. Improper vehicles are vehicles that don’t match the type of training the school is offering. Incomplete assessments means providers failed to properly test students on basic requirements while some schools failed to meet their state’s specific requirements.