Trump’s Transportation Secretary moves to bar unqualified foreign truck drivers

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today issued a final rule to stop unqualified foreign drivers from obtaining licenses to drive commercial trucks and buses. According to a statement, “These unqualified foreign drivers pose a significant safety threat to the driving public. These reforms will address safety concerns by preventing foreign drivers who have not been subject to consular and interagency screening from receiving a commercial driver’s license (CDL). While U.S. drivers are subject to strict checks through national databases for past violations-such as DUIs, reckless driving, or crash involvement-states lack the ability to access the driving records of foreigners and illegal immigrants. This loophole allowed individuals with dangerous driving histories to obtain a trucking license simply by presenting an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), which does not screen for transportation safety.” These reforms are a follow up to Secretary Duffy’s emergency action to end the issuance of non-domiciled CDLs to truckers with unverified driving histories following a surge of deadly crashes involving non-domiciled drivers last summer. Publicly traded companies in the space include C.H. Robinson (CHRW), J.B. Hunt (JBHT), Landstar System (LSTR), Knight-Swift (KNX) and Werner (WERN), which are all trading significantly lower on Thursday.