Letter from the Editor

There’ s a bigger shadow fleet of illegal truckers on the road than imagined.

By Bill Cassidy

The results of this year’ s International Roadcheck truck inspection blitz in the US and Canada, released in August, contained a real shocker: the appalling number of truck drivers behind the wheel without a commercial driver’ s license( CDL) or even a medical certificate.

The number of drivers pulled out of service( OOS) during“ Roadcheck” for failing to demonstrate English-language proficiency was noteworthy— 9.1 % of total OOS drivers— but what about the number of drivers— 15.6 %— sidelined for not having a CDL of any kind?

That number points to a larger problem than the immigration issue that’ s been the core of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’ s( FMCSA) enforcement crackdown.

There’ s a bigger shadow fleet of illegal truckers on the road than imagined. For years, they’ ve operated brazenly because they have little fear of being caught, with enforcement stretched thin. That impacts not just highway safety, but also the rising threat of cargo crime.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has called trucking“ the Wild West” and promised to bring its lawlessness to an end. On Aug. 7, he announced an intra-agency effort to crack down on trucking fraud, along with the Department of Homeland Security( DHS).

Although much of the focus appears to land on illegal aliens, Duffy said the intra-agency campaign would tackle“ every link in the chain.” The Department of Transportation( DOT) and DHS shouldn’ t ignore unlicensed drivers, many of whom are no doubt as American as apple pie, in the crackdown.

US and Canadian police and safety officials conducted 53,271 inspections involving truck drivers during the three-day Roadcheck campaign in May, placing 3,969 drivers out of service— an 18.8 % year-over-year increase and 7.5 % of all drivers inspected.

The leading reason truck drivers in the US were placed OOS wasn’ t because they couldn’ t speak English or had an illegal CDL, but because they didn’ t have a medical certificate proving their physical fitness to drive a truck, a basic qualification.

During Roadcheck, 1,072 drivers had no medical card proving they had passed an exam by a DOT-qualified physician. Another 929 were placed OOS for hours-of-service violations, and 620 for not having a CDL at all.

Let that sink in. These drivers weren’ t just driving with a dodgy CDL, or a CDL that didn’ t match up with a work visa. They were driving without a license of any kind.

That’ s better than in 2025, when 810 drivers, or 25.7 %, were ordered off the highway during Roadcheck because they had no license. In 2024, 688 drivers were pulled off the road for not possessing a CDL, 25.4 % of the total taken OOS in that year’ s Roadcheck.

As a reminder, driving a heavy commercial truck without a CDL is considered a serious criminal misdemeanor, with penalties including up to a year in jail in some states and fines of more than $ 1,000, depending on the jurisdiction.

English-language proficiency( ELP) was the fourth-ranked reason for OOS orders this year, with 361 drivers, or 9.1 % of the total, failing to demonstrate proficiency either in conversation or reading road signs. ELP only became an OOS violation in June 2025.

The Roadcheck numbers loosely reflect annual FMCSA data for roadside inspections. As of July 31, 188,765 truck drivers had received OOS orders in roadside inspections this year. The largest number placed out of service, 44,154, had no medical card. For all of 2025, that number was 51,913.

Another 35,923 drivers were sidelined for not having a valid CDL, or any CDL— two separate violations— in the first seven months of 2026. For the full 2025, the equivalent number was 61,140, or 21.5 % of the total OOS order count for 2025.

In 2025, the first year in recent years that ELP violations were OOS-level violations, 10,975 drivers were taken off the road for failure to demonstrate proficiency in English. ELP violations represented 3.9 % of total OOS orders.

As of July 31, 16,046 ELP violators had been pulled off the road this year. That’ s a 46 % increase so far this year from last year’ s total, the result of coordinated enforcement efforts such as Operation Highway Shield this July.

Operation Highway Shield, similar to Roadcheck, was a three-day, nationwide inspection blitz from July 28 to July 30 run by the FMCSA and DHS. Inspectors placed 766 drivers and vehicles OOS, DHS said in a statement.

Out of that total, authorities detained 51 illegal immigrants and issued 36 ELP violations. DHS said 21 drivers had non-domiciled CDLs issued by California and New York. A number of drivers were arrested for“ dangerous behavior.”

DHS did not say how many unlicensed drivers or drivers without medical cards were caught in the dragnet. Based on FMCSA data, the number is unlikely to be low.

email: bill. cassidy @ spglobal. com

62 Journal of Commerce | October 5, 2026 www. joc. com