Surface Transportation

USDOT has taken 3,000 drivers off the road for ELP violations in 2025, up from just five last year. Chizhevskaya Ekaterina / Shutterstock. com non-domiciled CDL and ELP requirements, could cut into interstate drayage capacity, Kempisty said.

“ If there’ s strict enforcement, Southern California is going to be the hardest area hit,” he said.

Multiple executives mentioned tougher enforcement of those and other existing rules during the conference.

“ It may be odd to say there are regulations on the books that aren’ t currently being enforced, but that’ s a theme right now,” said Chris Burroughs, president and CEO of the Transportation Intermediaries Association( TIA).

Burroughs pointed to penalties for double-brokering and freight fraud and called on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration( FMCSA) to do more to enforce them.

“ We’ re working with Congress to restore some penalties against these criminal actors,” he said. The FMCSA, he noted, often lacks the funding and personnel needed for enforcement.

“ Even the threat of enforcement has a deterrent effect,” Mark Rourke, president and CEO of Schneider National, told the conference. But the impact of enforcement has yet to be seen.

OOS orders rising

Tougher regulations could tighten US port trucking capacity

By William B. Cassidy

The US drayage market is weak amid plenty of capacity available to start the fourth quarter, but that could change quickly if demand rises or a regulatory crackdown limits capacity, according to speakers at the Journal of Commerce’ s Inland Distribution Conference in Chicago.

“ If we lose 25 % of the [ drayage ] drivers in California, you’ ll have a real problem real fast,” Brian Kempisty, founder of Port X Logistics, warned during the conference. Many of those drivers could be caught up in a US crackdown on non-domiciled commercial driver’ s licenses( CDLs), with California ground zero in that campaign.

The US Department of Transportation( USDOT) in late September ordered California to stop issuing non-domiciled CDLs and to review all such licenses. The state has 30 days to identify those CDLs that don’ t meet new standards introduced to identify illegal CDL holders.

In late August, USDOT gave California, New Mexico and Washington State 30 days to begin enforcing its English-language proficiency( ELP) requirements or risk losing Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program( MCSAP) funds appropriated by Congress. California received approximately $ 30.7 million in MCSAP funds in 2024.

The impact on drayage is difficult to predict, but strict enforcement of federal CDL licensing regulations, both the

According to FMCSA data, approximately 3,000 drivers had been placed out of service( OOS) as of Aug. 29 this year in more than 7,000 inspections for failing to meet ELP standards during roadside inspections. Those ELP requirements only became an OOS criteria in June.

By contrast, about 5,700 ELP violations were reported in 2024, with only five OOS orders during roadside inspections, FMCSA data shows.

The number of ELP out-of-service orders issued in the first eight months of this year is still dwarfed by those handed out for driving without a valid CDL( 25,874) or without an FMCSA-required medical certificate( 26,483). The potential impact on drayage, truckload or lessthan-truckload transportation of the US DOT drive to get non-English speaking drivers and those obtaining CDLs illegally off the road remains unclear.

For Kempisty, Rourke and other trucking executives, however, heightened regulatory enforcement is one more straw thrown onto the backs of small trucking firms.

“ We’ re already starting to see capacity come out of the [ drayage ] market,” Kempisty said.“ We’ ve seen some businesses close down, and the driver pool in some ports is starting to reduce.”

The main reason is continued low rates, but higher insurance costs, wages and equipment costs also put a thumb on the scale.

If freight demand picks up as inventories shrink in 2026,“ maybe there’ s not much capacity that needs to leave,” Kempisty said.“ Things have been slow for two years, and they could take off fairly quickly.”

US importers need to make drayage more a part of their supply chain strategy and less an afterthought, he added.“ When you need capacity and your old carrier goes out of business, you don’ t want to be stuck,” Kempisty said.

email: bill. cassidy @ spglobal. com www. joc. com November 3, 2025 | Journal of Commerce 43