On November 19, 2025, North American trucking executives gathered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, for the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) Bridging Border Barriers conference to discuss current and upcoming cross-border issues affecting the industry.
During the event, David Heller, TCA’s senior vice president of safety and government affairs, provided a summary of regulatory and other actions that could impact trucking on the U.S. side of the border.
Heller’s presentation, “Staying Ahead of the Curve: What’s Coming in Trucking Regulation” began with an overview of October 7, 2025, confirmation of Derek Barrs as administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Over the past eight years, nine different people have served as head of this agency. Most of them had titles that included words like “acting” and “deputy.”
“He’s been a breath of fresh air. He’s a great representative of the industry and is certainly bringing a strong enforcement flavor to it,” Heller has said of Barrs’ appointment and his background in trucking regulation enforcement.
Bills Address Trucking Issues
The work in Washington, D.C., however, began long before Barrs’ confirmation, with initiatives announced by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.
On June 27, 2025, Duffy announced a flurry of efforts that will benefit trucking. Leading the list was $275 million in grant funding for truck parking, making parking a national priority under Jason’s Law, included in the 2012 MAP-21 funding and authorization bill.
“Truck parking is first and foremost,” Heller told Truckload Authority in a March 25, 2025, interview. “Without places to safely and securely park a truck, it’s going to remain a problem until those parking spots can be increased.”
Heller also addressed the FMCSA’s withdrawal of its Speed Limiter Rulemaking before highlighting two agency pilot projects designed to add flexibility to hours-of-service regulations. One project would provide drivers with more options in splitting their sleeper berth times; the other would allow for a pause of the 14-hour clock for periods from 30 minutes to three hours.
Other initiatives covered in Heller’s presentation included modernization of government digital systems, updating the DataQ system, ELD exemptions for pre-2000 model year trucks, and a commitment to address unlawful brokering. Heller also discussed the initiative to reduce the regulatory burden on trucking with FMCSA’s pledge to eliminate 10 regulations for each new one created.
English Language Proficiency
Shifting to President Donald Trump’s April 28, 2025, executive order, Heller addressed efforts to enforce English language proficiency (ELP) standards, noting that statistics show a clear correlation between carrier crash rates and ELP violations.
“The reality is, there is a safety issue when it comes to (a driver’s ability to communicate in English),” he said.
The ELP requirement is not new; it was initially introduced in the 1930s by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
However, Heller noted, the out-of-service penalty for ELP violations was eliminated from the regulation in 2016 under the Obama administration’s efforts to ease immigration restrictions. That out-of-service provision was restored in May 2025, and enforcement began the following month.
According to Heller, the FMCSA’s Women of Trucking Advisory Board (WOTAB) in 2023 estimated that 3.8% of U.S. commercial vehicle drivers were unable to comply with ELP requirements, potentially disqualifying 136,800 drivers out of the 3.6 million active CDL holders in the U.S.
Non-domiciled Drivers
Addressing the FMCSA’s interim final rule on non-domiciled CDL holders, Heller explained that the trucking industry could lose an estimated 194,000 drivers who were issued CDLs improperly.
In addition to prohibiting the granting of CDLs to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, the ruling would limit the visa types that would qualify for a CDL and requires CDL expiration dates to match those on temporary visas. Non-citizen applicants would also be required to show up in-person for any issuance, renewal, transfer or upgrade of the CDL.
On November 10, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an administrative stay against the FMCSA’s interim rule, halting enforcement of the rule until it decides the case. Plaintiffs in the case argue that the FMCSA did not follow the normal rulemaking process and failed to demonstrate the need for an emergency rulemaking. Heller explained that the court could lift the stay and allow FMCSA enforcement, declare the ruling invalid, ordering the FMCSA to reissue following the non-emergency process, or simply extend the stay indefinitely as they consider the case.
Truck Driver Training
A more recent initiative is Duffy’s October 30, 2025, announcement of a crackdown on “CDL mills.” At issue are registered schools that falsify or manipulate training data, fail to meet curriculum standards set by FMCSA, or that don’t maintain or refuse to provide training records when investigated.
One issue that impacts the CDL school registry is the requirement that a school “self-certify.” This is a tactic FMCSA uses for other registries, such as the Electronic Logging Device registry and the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners. Without strict oversight, allowing self-certification results in a percentage of unqualified people or products to end up on government lists — while dodging the regulations designed to keep them out.
Duffy’s announcement and the subsequent removal of nearly 3,000 CDL schools from the registry — and about 4,500 more placed on notice — are a sign that needed oversight is now in place.
Highway Reauthorization Bill
Finally, Heller discussed at length the upcoming highway reauthorization bill. The current bill, the Infrastructure Improvement and Jobs Act (IIJA), which was signed into law by President Joe Biden on November 15, 2021, is set to expire September 30, 2026.
That date is a little over a month before mid-term elections that could change the makeup of Congress, so extending the current highway bill could mean losing out on some important issues. According to Heller, discussions are already underway for hair follicle testing, automatic emergency braking, CDLs for younger drivers, truck parking and the elimination of federal excise taxes.
One issue looming large for the next highway bill is how to fund badly needed infrastructure improvements.
The current federal tax on diesel fuel is 24.4 cents per gallon, unchanged since 1993. While construction costs have risen dramatically, Highway Trust Fund revenues have been impacted by improved vehicle fuel mileage and the introduction of hybrid and electric vehicles. The IIJA funded infrastructure repairs by taking $118 billion from the country’s general fund to supplement the Highway Trust Fund.
A proposal, backed by TCA, for the next highway bill calls for rebranding the fuel tax into a Gallons-Based User Fee of 52.9 cents per gallon of diesel. Heller noted that other funding methods exist, but none with the low 1% administrative cost of the current payment system.
With numerous initiatives already underway and a September 30, 2026, deadline for a new highway authorization bill, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of positive change for the trucking industry.
This story originally appeared in the January/February 2026 edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.
Cliff Abbott is an experienced commercial vehicle driver and owner-operator who still holds a CDL in his home state of Alabama. In nearly 40 years in trucking, he’s been an instructor and trainer and has managed safety and recruiting operations for several carriers. Having never lost his love of the road, Cliff has written a book and hundreds of songs and has been writing for The Trucker for more than a decade.
