The times they’ve been a’changin’— especially when it comes to enforcing the rules of the trucking industry.
Maj. Erick McGuire of the Florida Highway Patrol said as much during a panel discussion at the Truckload Carriers Association’s (TCA) annual convention in Orlando on March 3, 2026.
The discussion, moderated by Dave Heller, senior vice president of safety and government affairs for TCA, also included Adrienne Gildea, deputy executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) and Andrew Poliakoff, executive director of the Commercial Vehicle Training Association (CVTA).
From enforcing English language proficiency requirements to restricting the issuance of CDLs to non-domiciled drivers, eliminating fraudulent training providers and logging devices, and other initiatives, North America has seen a tidal wave of changes in the past year.
McGuire says the Florida Highway Patrol has been on the front lines of enforcement — as well as in the public eye because of a fatal 2025 crash involving a non-resident truck driver who did not speak English and was determined to be in the U.S. illegally.
“It’s not just the regulations that we have to deal with,” McGuire said. “It’s, how do we implement it? How do we train our people? How do we get on the same page with other jurisdictions?”
According to McGuire, keeping up with enforcement policy is as much about technology as keeping pace with the changing regulations.
“We can’t just go out and hire a hundred more troopers,” he said. “So, we leverage technology to help make the road safer. We all have to get used to the technology, and it’s something I’m excited to try in order to help push our agency forward.”
Poliakoff describes the events of the past year as a paradigm shift into an enforcement blitz.
“In the past — we’ll call it six months — you have seen an absolute change,” he said.
“Some of that is because of environmental conditions changing around awareness of these bad actors in the training space,” he continued. “But some of it has come, sadly, from tragic accidents that have occurred.”
According to a February 11, 2026, statement issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation, notable crashes involving non-domiciled commercial truck drivers in 2025 year include:
- February 14, 2025: A non-domiciled driver triggered a multi-vehicle crash inside a tunnel on Interstate 80 in Wyoming, resulting in three fatalities and 20 injuries.
- August 12, 2025: A non-domiciled driver caused a crash on the Florida Turnpike after attempting an illegal U-turn; three people were killed.
- October 21, 2025: A non-domiciled driver failed to stop for traffic on a California highway, causing a collision involving eight vehicles; there were three fatalities.
- December 3, 2025: A non-domiciled driver collided with a train at a marked crossing in Ontario, California, killing a crew member.
Entry-Level Driver Training
In addition to enforcing English language proficiency requirements and regulations impacting non-domiciled commercial drivers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has put a spotlight on the very foundation of trucking — entry-level driver training (ELDT).
During another session at TCA’s convention, FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs discussed the agency’s ongoing purge of the CDL Training Provider Registry, noting that more than 7,000 non-compliant facilities have already been removed from the list.
“Roadway safety is a national priority. I think that’s the first time in history I’ve ever heard a president talk about this industry at the State of the Union address,” Barrs said, referring to President Donal Trump’s February 24 endorsement of Dalilah’s Law.
“Your CDL actually should mean something. It shouldn’t be, ‘I went through a fly-by-night training school, and I went and got a job with some fly-by-night company,’” he said. “Your CDL should represent real training, real qualifications, real competency — and it must be issued in a way that is consistently resistant to fraud.”
Poliakoff applauds federal efforts to improve training and driver qualifications.
“It is utterly refreshing. I walk into rooms and start talking about ELDT — Entry Level Driver Training — and people actually know what that is,” he said, noting that until recently, truck driver training was “this bizarre thing no one knew about.”
“And now it’s being enforced, and we have leadership that’s willing to do it. It’s remarkable,” Poliakoff said, pointing to current Department of Transportation and FMCSA leaders.
“What really changed and changed in earnest when Administrator Barrs stepped into the space,” he continued. “Fifteen-hundred training providers were audited over one week by 300 FMCSA inspectors; that resulted in a more than 30% failure rate.”
Advanced Enforcement Techniques
In addition to developing training and guidelines for enforcement personnel as noted by McGuire, CVSA’s Gildea points to shifting strategies employed by “bad actors” in the industry.
“As we continue to make advancements in enforcement techniques — lock down and figure out ways to identify and look for the bad actors, they evolve,” she said, pointing to fraudulent or noncompliant electronic logging devices (ELDs).
“ELD fraud is front and center with us right now, and there are so many shapes and flavors, it’s exhausting. You’ve got what we affectionately call ‘ghost drivers,’” she said. Ghost drivers are fictitious or unauthorized co-driver accounts created within ELDs to bypass FMCSA hours-of-service (HOS) regulations.
“That’s like a second set of logbooks, essentially,” she continued. “But we’re also hearing (about) more instances where the logbooks have been manipulated on the back end.”
Gildea noted instances of law enforcement personnel inspecting ELD logs at roadside and then discovering the data had changed when reviewing the information just minutes later.
“The driver is calling back to somebody, and that person is going in and cleaning up their books for them — which is obviously not allowed,” she said.
“I think the biggest struggle for us as an organization and our members — and I count our industry members and that as well — is keeping pace with the efforts,” she continued. “Folks who don’t want to comply with the regulations will go around them. Our job is to take the bad actors off the road, whether it’s a driver or a motor carrier.”
New Lanes of Enforcement
How can law motor carriers adapt in this new world of heavy enforcement?
McGuire has one simple piece of advice: “Take care of your people. Good quality instruction training, that’s the main thing.”
This holds true for motor carriers, enforcement agencies and CDL training providers, he says.
“You can’t get enough training, and consistent training — and don’t just train once a year as an excuse to have a cookout or something like that,” he said. “It’s really talking to your people. Understanding. Communication, training and having an open ear to input from your employees.”
This story first appeared in the May/June 2026 print edition of Truckload Authority, the official publication of the Truckload Carriers Association.
Bruce Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has lived in three states including Arkansas, Missouri and Georgia. During his nearly 20-year career, Bruce has served as managing editor and sports editor for numerous publications. He and his wife, Dana, who is also a journalist, are based in Carrollton, Georgia.
