Illegal immigrants are gaining access to commercial driver's licenses for 80,000-pound semi-trucks through a significant loophole in California's training regulations, exacerbating safety risks on the nation's highways. However, industry experts warn that this issue is merely the latest manifestation of deeper problems plaguing the trucking sector, including inadequate training standards, low wages, and insufficient federal oversight.

In California, while larger driving schools operate under state regulation to issue non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses, small private programs charging $2,500 or less in tuition are exempt from licensing and oversight by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education. This regulatory gray area has enabled nearly 200 such schools to issue credentials with minimal accountability, allowing underqualified drivers—both foreign and domestic—to hit the roads.

Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, highlighted this lack of enforcement as symptomatic of broader federal shortcomings in trucking oversight during an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation. He criticized the inconsistent application of training standards that have persisted for decades.

“We looked at this whole CDL thing back in, I think it’s 91, 92. They’re supposed to make this all universal,” Pugh told the DCNF. “Everybody had the same license, passed the same training, same thing. But the problem was we passed the licensing rule that the states did the app[lication]. But we never really did anything with the training. That’s the problem.”

Pugh further described California's tuition threshold as misguided and advocated for stronger federal intervention, noting that truckers frequently cross state lines and even international borders. “I think California’s crazy for a $2,500 tuition unless you want it to be regulated. Sure, no matter if it’s free, it should be regulated. But the thing is, it really needs to be regulated at a federal level to begin with and come down,” he said.

He pointed to the federal Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) program, launched in 2022 as the first substantive requirement for aspiring truckers, as woefully inadequate despite its intentions. Under the program, applicants complete an online registration, locate a registered trainer with minimal qualifications, and have the trainer verify covered topics—often without substantial behind-the-wheel practice.

“Because again, most people get CDLs and get trucking. They cross state lines. They go out of the United States. So we need something more tangible for that, more teeth into it. I mean, they started what they call the Entry Level Driver Training Program in 2022,” Pugh continued. “That’s the first thing ever that you’ve ever really had to do anything to become a trucker. But even that’s a joke.”