The Marx Brothers Consulting

02/11/2026

Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Contact: [email protected]
For immediate release:

Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Puts Safety First, Finalizes Rule to Stop Unqualified Foreign Drivers from Driving Big Rigs on American Roadways
At least 17 fatal crashes and 30 deaths in 2025 alone were caused by non-domiciled drivers who will now be ineligible to get a license

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today issued a final rule to stop unqualified foreign drivers from obtaining licenses to drive commercial trucks and buses. These unqualified foreign drivers pose a significant safety threat to the driving public.

These reforms will address safety concerns by preventing foreign drivers who have not been subject to consular and interagency screening from receiving a commercial driver’s license (CDL). While U.S. drivers are subject to strict checks through national databases for past violations—such as DUIs, reckless driving, or crash involvement—states lack the ability to access the driving records of foreigners and illegal immigrants. This loophole allowed individuals with dangerous driving histories to obtain a trucking license simply by presenting an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), which does not screen for transportation safety.

“For far too long, America has allowed dangerous foreign drivers to abuse our truck licensing systems – wreaking havoc on our roadways. This safety loophole ends today,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “Moving forward, unqualified foreign drivers will be unable to get a license to operate an 80,000-pound big rig. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are putting the safety of the driving public first. From enforcing English language standards to holding fraudulent carriers accountable, we will continue to attack this crisis on our roads head on.”

“A critical safety gap allowed unqualified drivers with unknown driving histories to get behind the wheel of commercial vehicles,” said FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs. “We are closing that gap today to ensure that only qualified, vetted drivers are operating on our nation’s roadways. If we cannot verify your safe driving history, you cannot hold a CDL in this country.”

These reforms are a follow up to Secretary Duffy’s emergency action to end the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs to truckers with unverified driving histories following a surge of deadly crashes involving non-domiciled drivers last summer.

Additional Information:

This Final Rule closes two critical failures: a safety gap that allowed State Driver’s Licensing Agencies (SDLAs) to issue CDLs to foreign drivers without verifying their driving history, and a reliance on EADs that resulted in more than 30 states illegally issuing tens of thousands of licenses to ineligible drivers.

Key Provisions of the Final Rule:

Strict Eligibility: Eligibility is limited to H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 nonimmigrant status holders, who undergo enhanced interagency vetting.
Elimination of EADs: EADs are no longer accepted as proof of eligibility due to the systemic noncompliance at the SDLAs. Applicants must present an unexpired foreign passport and specific Form I-94 documentation.
Mandatory SAVE Verification: States must query the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system to confirm every applicant's lawful immigration status
Notable crashes caused by truckers holding non-domiciled CDLs include:

February 14, 2025: A non-domiciled driver triggered a multi-vehicle crash inside a tunnel on I-80 in Wyoming, resulting in three fatalities and 20 injuries.
August 12, 2025: A non-domiciled driver caused a crash killing three people on the Florida Turnpike after attempting an illegal U-turn.
October 21, 2025: A non-domiciled driver failed to stop for traffic on a California highway, causing a collision involving eight vehicles that killed three people.
December 3, 2025: A non-domiciled driver collided with a train at a marked crossing in Ontario, California, killing a crew member.
This Final Rule is effective 30 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

The announcement follows President Trump’s Executive Order last year, which placed a renewed focus on roadway safety and directed the Department of Transportation to take swift action.

Since September, the nationwide audit has resulted in exposing systemic non-compliance in issuing non-domiciled CDLs across several states–including New York, California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Colorado, and North Carolina.

In June, Secretary Duffy announced a nationwide audit of states issuing non-domiciled CDLs and unveiled a pro-trucker package that includes millions to expand truck parking, removing one-size-fits-all mandates, modernizing driver resources, and slashing red tape.

In May, Secretary Duffy signed an order announcing new guidelines to strengthen English language enforcement for commercial truck operators. Under the new guidance, commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers who fail to comply with FMCSA longstanding English-language proficiency (ELP) requirements will be placed out-of-service.

In March, President Trump signed an executive order designating English as the official language of the United States.

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Office of Public Affairs | Newsroom | 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE | Washington, DC 20590
Phone: 202.366.9999 | Email: [email protected]

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Copied from FMCSA

02/06/2026

"Yea Boss, the roads are unsafe!!!" OK driver, pull it over on the side and wait till it's safe!

02/05/2026

FMCSA designates English proficiency ‘safe zones’ - FreightWaves

FMCSA clarifies that while most English proficiency failures now trigger out-of-service orders, truck drivers in designated border zones will be allowed to continue their routes.

01/22/2026

Youch!!!
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17Fwphtz9x/

The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) highlighted results achieved during a year of increased scrutiny and enforcement of the trucking industry

01/15/2026

About time...
Hmmmmm????

01/11/2026

https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-exposes-over-50-north-carolina-trucking

The Department will withhold nearly $50 million in federal funding if North Carolina fails to revoke licenses issued illegally to foreign drivers

01/01/2026

Happy Truckin' New Year!!! Stay Safe my Friends. What's new for 2026??? Now offering CDL & Class D.

12/04/2025

Interesting article... The FMCSA requested credentials from the Trainers as well as the Company... hmmmm

Overdrive found a familiar name among training providers proposed for removal from the provider registry. The company's story illustrates realities of FMCSA's registry-cleanup effort.

12/03/2025

This just in...

11/15/2025

The man in the three-thousand-dollar suit looked at my hands and asked if I was there to fix the air conditioning. My hands are thick. The knuckles are scarred from busted wrenches, and there’s a permanent line of grease under my fingernails that no amount of scrubbing can remove. I looked at his hands. They were smooth, pale, with a heavy gold watch on the wrist.

“No, sir,” I said, my voice too deep for the quiet high school library. “I’m here for Career Day. I’m Jason’s dad.”
His smile was polite, but his eyes said it all. You?

My name is Mike. I’m 58 years old. For thirty of those years, I’ve been a long-haul trucker. I’m a widower, a veteran, and a father. My son Jason is a good kid, a senior at this shiny suburban school where I feel about as welcome as a mudflap in a ballroom.
This school… this was my late wife Sarah’s world. She was a teacher here. She loved these hallways, loved these kids. When she passed, this school set up a scholarship in her name. And when my son Jason, God bless him, told his homeroom teacher I was a “logistics and supply chain expert” and that I should speak, I couldn’t say no. It felt like I’d be letting Sarah down.
So I showed up. I parked my F-150—the one I still haven’t paid off—between a brand-new German sedan and a luxury electric SUV. I walked in wearing my best jeans, a clean flannel shirt, and my work boots.

The library was packed with the “A-Team” of parents. Dr. Chen, a neurosurgeon, had a slick video presentation about brain mapping. Mr. Davies, the man with the expensive watch, was next. He ran some kind of investment firm and talked about “leveraging assets” and “Q4 projections.” He used the word “synergy” five times.

I saw the kids’ eyes glazing over. I saw the other parents nodding, pretending they understood. I saw my son Jason slouching in the back row, trying to become invisible.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was the principal. “Mr. Riley? You’re next.”

I walked to the front. There was no PowerPoint. No video. Just me. I could feel the weight of their judgment. The whispers from the moms in their yoga pants. “Is he the janitor?” “Whose dad is that?”

I gripped the wooden podium. It was the same one Sarah used to stand at during assemblies. I took a deep breath.
“Good morning,” I said. My voice echoed. “My name is Mike Riley. I’m not a doctor or a banker. I never finished college. I’m a truck driver.”

The silence in the room changed. It went from polite attention to cold, awkward curiosity. The finance guy was already checking his phone.

“My son calls me a ‘logistics expert,’ which is a nice way of saying I drive a very big truck for a very long time. And I guess I’m here to tell you why that matters.”

I looked at Dr. Chen. “Ma’am, with all due respect, what you do is incredible. You save lives. But that machine you use for brain mapping… it didn’t just appear in the hospital. The plastic, the wires, the microchips… they all came from a different factory. They were all put on a pallet, loaded onto a truck, and driven—probably 2,000 miles—by someone like me.”

I turned to the finance guy. “Sir, your graphs are very impressive. But those numbers… they represent ‘things.’ Corn from Iowa. Steel from Ohio. Computers from a port in California. This country… it’s not a website. It’s not an algorithm. It’s a real, physical place. And the only thing connecting all of it… is the highway. And the men and women who refuse to stop driving on it.”

The room was dead quiet.

“In March 2020,” I said, “when the whole world shut down, you were all told to stay home. You learned how to bake bread. You did puzzles. We were told to keep driving.

I was out there. The highways were empty, like a post-apocalyptic movie. There was no one. Just me and 40,000 pounds of… toilet paper. Yeah, I was the guy hauling the toilet paper. You can laugh. But my dispatcher called me, crying, because her elderly mother couldn’t find any. And I drove 18 hours straight, through three states, because I knew that if I didn’t, the shelves would stay empty. You can’t Zoom a five-pound bag of potatoes. You can’t download a bottle of hand sanitizer.”

I saw a few teachers nodding. The kids were leaning forward.
“Two winters ago,” I went on, my voice getting thicker, “I was locked down on I-80 in Wyoming. A blizzard. Shut the whole state down. I sat in my cab for 72 hours. It was 20 below zero. I couldn’t sleep. Not because of the cold, but because of the sound. The hum.

The hum of the refrigeration unit on my trailer. I was hauling a full load of insulin. Life-saving medicine for diabetics. If that re**er unit stopped… if I ran out of fuel… if I just gave up and went to a shelter… that entire load, millions of dollars worth, would be worthless. But it wasn’t the money I thought about. I thought about the grandmother in Denver, the kid in Omaha, waiting for that little vial.

So I sat there. I ate cold rations. I checked the fuel and the temperature gauge every 30 minutes. For three days. I served this country for 12 years in the Army. I thought that was the hardest thing I’d ever do. I was wrong. That blizzard was harder.”
I looked for my son. He was sitting up straight now. His eyes were locked on me.

A kid in the front row, wearing a “Future CEO” t-shirt, raised his hand. “But, like, don’t you regret it? Not going to college? My dad says people who do jobs like that just… didn’t have other options.”

The air was sucked out of the room. I heard the principal give a little gasp.

I looked at that boy. I wasn’t angry. “Son,” I said, “I respect your path. But when the power goes out in a storm, you can’t read your textbooks in the dark. You wait for a lineman. When your toilet backs up, your business degree can’t fix the pipes. You call a plumber. And when you go to the store, you expect food to be there. You expect the lights to be on. You expect the world to work.

We are the ‘other options.’ We’re the people who make your world work. Don’t you ever, for one second, think we’re not proud of that.”

A new voice cut through the silence. It wasn’t mine.
“My mom’s a dispatcher.”

A skinny kid near the back stood up. He was shaking. “My… my mom. She works for a shipping company. She’s the one who answers the calls. People yell at her all day. They… they call her stupid when a package is late.”

His voice cracked, and tears were rolling down his face. “But she’s the one who finds a driver… like you, sir… when a hospital calls and says they’re out of supplies. She’s the one who works all night, on Christmas, moving dots on a screen to make sure the medicine gets there. She’s not stupid.”

He looked right at the “Future CEO” kid.

“Your dad is wrong. My mom is a hero. And so is he.”

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The finance guy put his phone down. The neurosurgeon was looking at her own hands.

And my son, Jason, stood up. He walked from the back of the room, right up to the front, and stood next to me. He put his arm around my waist. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.
I don’t remember what happened after that. I think some people clapped. The principal shook my hand, and her eyes were wet.
On the drive home, Jason was quiet. Finally, he just said, “Dad… I never knew about the insulin. That was… wow.”
“It’s just the job, son.”

“No, it’s not,” he said. “It’s not just a job.”

Here’s the truth: This country isn’t built on spreadsheets or algorithms alone. It’s built on calluses. It’s built on sweat and steel. It’s built on the backs of people who show up, 24/7, in blizzards and pandemics, to keep the lights on and the shelves full.

We are not invisible. We are the foundation.

Next time you meet a kid, don’t just ask, “Where are you going to college?” Ask them, “What do you want to build?” And if they say, “I’m learning to weld,” or “I’m going to be a plumber,” or “I’m gonna drive trucks like my dad,” you look them in the eye and you tell them, “This country needs you. We are all counting on you.”

From the TruckParkingClub.com team — thank you to the men and women who keep this country moving. Your hard work and dedication inspire us to tackle one of the biggest challenges you face: finding safe, reliable parking so you can keep doing what you do best.

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Original post: https://www.facebook.com/darrell.mcgrady.7/posts/pfbid041JtgY9jXpnim6z6jVqMhK9QxBmzC3R7WgP22ug9WVsErC2KxZPxZNJQ6sy6qcrSl?mibextid=wwXIfr

11/06/2025

Evidently Im an English and CDL Instructor...
IYKYK...

11/03/2025

Get your tail off the rail!!! Or else...