In a decisive move to restore order and strengthen roadway safety, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy has announced a sweeping crackdown on states and trucking companies that fail to comply with federal safety regulations. While the initiative is framed as an effort to enforce long-overlooked standards, sources suggest that it may be just the surface of a much larger investigation—one that could expose years of systemic failures across the American trucking industry.
Duffy’s announcement in August 2025 follows a devastating truck crash in Florida the previous month that claimed several lives and highlighted glaring regulatory gaps. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) responded by opening a compliance investigation on August 14, examining driver qualification files and crash footage. Investigators discovered that a New Mexico driver, involved in the crash, had been issued a commercial license without undergoing the mandatory English Language Proficiency (ELP) test during a roadside inspection on July 3. Despite federal rules that took effect in June requiring ELP violations to result in drivers being pulled off the road, New Mexico had not yet adopted the measure.
This failure, Duffy argued, reflects a broader problem. In fact, he tied it to other recent incidents, including a January 2025 crash in West Virginia where a driver required an interpreter. “Drivers operating 40-ton vehicles must be able to read and understand road signs,” Duffy said, stressing that safety must come before all else. His stance aligns with President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order directing federal agencies to enforce compliance and remove what Trump called a “lawless frontier” in the trucking sector.
Earlier this year, Duffy rolled back an Obama-era policy that had relaxed ELP enforcement. By May, he had signed an order in Austin, Texas, mandating that commercial drivers who fail ELP requirements be immediately taken out of service. Backed by the FMCSA and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance, this move reinstates out-of-service penalties for language violations. The decision comes after years of decline in enforcement—ELP violations plummeted from 100,000 in 2015 to just 10,000 in 2024, with virtually no drivers sidelined.
But Duffy’s crackdown goes beyond language standards. In June, he announced a $275 million investment to expand truck parking nationwide, reduce outdated regulations by cutting nearly 1,800 words from rulebooks, and upgrade the FMCSA’s digital systems. The reforms also target unlawful double brokering and other industry practices that put truckers and motorists at risk. On June 27, Duffy ordered a nationwide audit of non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) amid allegations of exploitation and fraud within state licensing systems. He has frequently linked these issues to what he describes as the dangers of “radical immigration policies,” framing the reforms as necessary to protect both American drivers and families.
Still, insiders say the highly publicized reforms may be masking a deeper investigation. The Florida crash probe, now supporting a state-level criminal case, appears to have opened the door to a wider review. According to sources within the Department of Transportation, the FMCSA is quietly analyzing years of crash reports, inspection records, and licensing data to identify patterns of negligence across multiple administrations. The findings could implicate state agencies and motor carriers that ignored or skirted federal requirements, leading to major penalties and far-reaching reforms.
For Duffy, the stakes are high. With roughly 40,000 roadway deaths each year, he argues that even incremental steps are critical to “move the needle” on safety. But the trucking industry—an essential pillar of the U.S. economy—now faces a moment of intense scrutiny. Whether this crackdown is simply about compliance or the beginning of a reckoning for long-buried failures remains to be seen. For now, Duffy is positioning himself as a leader determined to pair visible reforms with a quiet but powerful pursuit of accountability, reshaping the future of American trucking.
