New safety objectives start with trained, qualified truck drivers

Everyone involved in the trucking industry wants safer highways. Everyone wants fewer crashes.

However, the way to go about achieving that goal has produced a wide variety of opinions over the years.

Some have believed that the road to safety revolves around more and stricter regulations. Others have pointed to technological innovations that aim to overcome human error.

But opponents of those ideas contend that increased compliance doesn’t equal increased safety, and tech that’s mandated before it’s perfected creates a false sense of security.

Instead, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has always stood by the idea that the fastest route to highway safety starts with a well-trained and professional driver behind the wheel.

The U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have recently demonstrated a desire for this safety approach.

In the past year, the administration has:

• Enforced a longstanding regulation that truck drivers must possess basic English skills
• Taken steps to make sure applicants are well-vetted and legally authorized to work in the U.S. before receiving a CDL
• Removed thousands of CDL training providers for falsifying data or failing to meet curriculum standards
• Hinted at taking steps toward strengthening the existing entry-level driver training rule

FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs, who was confirmed in October, has already demonstrated a commitment to the new approach.

During the 2025 Midwest Commercial Vehicle Safety Summit on Dec. 16 in Kansas City, Mo., Barrs told a room full of FMCSA officials and other trucking stakeholders that reducing crashes won’t be achieved by acting like business as usual.

“As we move into 2026, there’s one clear objective, and that has to be saving lives,” Barrs said. “We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect different results.”

Emphasizing driver standards could increase demand for the most qualified truck drivers, improve pay, and ultimately, lead to better safety results.

“No. 1 is to strengthen driver qualifications to ensure that we have the most qualified drivers on our roadways,” Barrs said of things he would like to accomplish during his time as administrator.

Barrs, who spent much of his time at the safety summit chatting with truck drivers, also sat down for an interview with Land Line to discuss how FMCSA can improve CDL standards.

“Entry-level driver training should be the basics of making sure that someone is qualified and knows how to drive a commercial motor vehicle,” Barrs said. “But if you’re not going through the steps that need to be taken, then you’re compromising safety.”

FMCSA’s entry-level driver training rule took effect in 2022, but the DOT has concerns about training schools that are skirting the rules and failing to produce qualified commercial drivers. It is not uncommon to find CDL schools advertising that they get applicants a license in one day.

Barrs said that the agency has concerns about the self-certification process allowed with entry-level driver training schools, electronic logging devices and medical examiners.

“The issue is that it opens the door up for a lack of oversight, which opens the door for potential fraud occurring,” Barrs said. “People not following the rules because no one is watching. I use the no one’s minding the story type of analogy. If nobody’s watching, then I’m going to find a way to skirt the system, which then compromises safety.”

In December, FMCSA gave the boot to 3,000 CDL training providers and placed another 4,000 on notice.

“This administration is cracking down on every link in the illegal trucking chain,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said.

But cracking down on CDL schools that don’t follow the current rules is just a start. Much more needs to be done to strengthen those rules.

OOIDA will be quick to tell you that the entry-level driver training rule does not even include a minimum number of behind-the-wheel training hours.

Barrs acknowledged that there are likely opportunities to strengthen the rule, but that there also are steps that must be taken now as the rulemaking process can take months, if not years.

“If you want to strengthen the rule, then you’re going to have to go in and change the rule … That takes time,” Barrs said. “But what do we do with the current regulation we have now to be able to verify that you’re at least following the curriculum that is set forth? Do you actually have a curriculum that you are using to train drivers? Are you putting them behind the wheel? We have to have more oversight with what we have today until we can work through tightening the belt with the current regulations.”

Another concern from the DOT is about the number of truck drivers who have received CDLs despite not possessing basic English skills.

In May, the DOT announced that it would begin requiring enforcement of longstanding English-proficiency regulations. During a news conference in Austin, Texas, Duffy said that truck drivers who are unable to read electronic road signs or communicate with law enforcement officers present a threat to highway safety.

“We’re here to restore common sense and safety to our roadways,” Duffy said. “For too long, misguided policies have prioritized political correctness over the safety of the American people … We are issuing new guidance that ensures a driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country. Period. Full stop. Enforcing out-of-service violations is about preventing tragedies and saving lives.”

Barrs said it’s another reason that shows the CDL process deserves further scrutiny.

“If they could not speak English, how did they get past the driver training piece of this,” Barrs asked.

Meanwhile, the agency could also use compliance investigations to look into trucking companies that repeatedly hire drivers who don’t meet this standard.

A study released on Oct. 1 titled, “Are English-Language Violations Associated with Unsafe Carriers,” found that motor carriers with English-proficiency violations have received poor safety scores from the Department of Transportation.

“Our research agenda is tightly aligned with FMCSA’s current priorities and that includes improving safety outcomes by strengthening the integrity of our training and licensing systems and processes … and improving our ability to identify high-risk carriers sooner and taking action,” Barrs said.

“Safety is not just a concept. It’s personal. If you don’t have that passion, then you probably should be doing something else.” LL