Texas and Pennsylvania are at the center of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s latest crackdown on commercial driver training providers, with each state recording the highest number of brick-and-mortar CDL schools affected by the federal action.
According to a state-by-state breakdown provided by the Department of Transportation to Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin, 13 commercial driver training schools in Texas and another 13 in Pennsylvania were identified as being affected. California followed with 11 schools, while Florida had 10 and Utah had nine.
The figures provide a more detailed picture of the geographic reach of the sweeping enforcement action announced Monday by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Federal officials said 110 commercial driver training schools were being subject to an emergency shutdown following an analysis of drivers who had been cited for failing to meet federal English-language proficiency requirements.
“These are driving schools that account for 5,000 of the violations for English proficiency,” Duffy said Monday during a news conference in Detroit. “There’s 110 of them through a data analysis that are the greatest offenders. As of today, those schools are shut down.”
The state-level figures released by DOT show the following distribution:
| State | CDL schools impacted |
|---|---|
| Texas | 13 |
| Pennsylvania | 13 |
| California | 11 |
| Florida | 10 |
| Utah | 9 |
| Ohio | 7 |
| New Jersey | 3 |
| New York | 3 |
| Wisconsin | 3 |
| Arizona | 2 |
| Colorado | 1 |
| Idaho | 1 |
| Maryland | 1 |
| New Mexico | 1 |
| North Carolina | 1 |
| Oregon | 1 |
| South Carolina | 1 |
| Virginia | 1 |
| Washington | 1 |
| West Virginia | 1 |
| Physical-location total | 84 |
DOT also reported that 23 additional training providers operated online and did not have a physical location. Duffy has ordered a review of those providers as part of the broader enforcement effort.
The 84 schools listed in the state breakdown, combined with the 23 online providers, account for 107 schools. That leaves three schools unaccounted for in the state-by-state figures compared with the 110 schools Duffy said were subject to emergency removal Monday.
Federal officials have not yet released a complete list naming every school affected by the action.
Texas, Pennsylvania and California account for nearly half of physical schools
The concentration of affected providers is particularly pronounced in a handful of major trucking states.
Texas, Pennsylvania and California together account for 37 of the 84 schools with physical locations identified in the DOT breakdown. That represents roughly 44% of all brick-and-mortar providers included in the state figures.
When Florida and Utah are added, the combined number rises to 56 schools. The five states therefore represent approximately two-thirds of all physical-location CDL training providers identified by the department.
The geographic breakdown offers the first detailed indication of where the schools targeted by the federal crackdown were operating. The initial announcement made Monday did not include a complete list of the affected schools or identify all of their locations.
FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said Monday that every school targeted for emergency removal had trained at least 10 drivers who were later cited during roadside inspections for failing to meet federal English-language proficiency requirements.
Taken together, the schools certified more than 5,000 drivers who were subsequently cited for those violations, according to federal officials.
Under federal regulations, entry-level driver training providers are required to educate drivers on English-language proficiency requirements. They must also certify that trainees meet the applicable standards before completing their training.
Barrs singled out two schools during Monday’s announcement.
One was ASC Technical Institute in Texas, which Barrs said certified 58 drivers who were later cited for English-language proficiency violations. According to Barrs, one former trainee subsequently ran a stop sign and killed a man in Texas.
Barrs also identified Platinum Plus Truck Driving School in California, which he said certified 36 drivers who were later cited for English-language proficiency violations. One of those trainees was involved in a fatal crash in Oklahoma, Barrs said.
Why the geographic breakdown matters
The DOT figures show that the federal crackdown is heavily concentrated in several states that play major roles in the U.S. trucking industry.
Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Florida and Utah alone account for two-thirds of the physical-location schools identified in the department’s breakdown. The concentration in these states provides a clearer picture of the scale and geographic footprint of the enforcement action than was available from Monday’s initial announcement.
At the same time, the discrepancy between the 107 providers accounted for in the published breakdown and the 110 schools described by Duffy as subject to emergency removal indicates that the federal government has not yet provided a complete public accounting of all affected training providers.
For trucking companies, prospective commercial drivers and the training industry, the shutdowns could have broader implications as federal officials continue reviewing CDL training providers and the drivers they have certified.
