Roundup

Feds pull 110 CDL schools and arrest 95 as a fraud crackdown leads the week

UCR registration fees rise 20%, three states move road money, and the peak-season freight surge still has not shown up.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a federal crackdown on Monday on commercial driver training schools, CDL skills testers and carriers suspected of fraud, with more than 110 training providers facing immediate removal from the FMCSA registry. Separately, Customs and Border Protection said an enforcement operation in Yuma, Arizona arrested 95 people holding CDLs illegally, part of 143 arrests. For a driver who trained straight and tested clean, this thins out the pool you compete against -- and if your school turns up on the removal list, confirm your own credential is not caught in the sweep.

On the cost side, the Unified Carrier Registration fee is going up 20%. FMCSA is moving ahead despite objections from truckers who told the agency the increase was unfair. If you run interstate, budget for it at renewal.

Road money is moving, some of it the way drivers asked. Colorado settled a long-running funding fight with a deal that steers more cash toward repairs, the Federal Highway Administration is sending relief funds to Indiana after flooding tore up its infrastructure, and Caltrans is adding truck lanes on stretches of Interstate 5.

The market itself is quiet for the calendar. FreightWaves reports the pre-Labor Day peak is not materializing -- tender rejection rates are not surging the way they have in past years -- while analysts cited by The Trucker point to the usual late-summer lull and high fuel squeezing July and August margins. Fuel is the number to watch: the national on-highway diesel average was $5.454 a gallon in the week to 17 August, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration, up 3.7% on the prior survey and 46.9% higher than a year ago. That is a retail pump average including taxes, so contract buyers pay less -- read it as direction, not as what lands on your fuel card.

One rate line firmed. USDA's produce reefer average rose 1.8% on the week to $4.21 a mile. That figure is refrigerated produce only and an unweighted mean across whichever lanes ran, so treat it as a segment holding up rather than a number to quote a broker.

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Figure 1

On-highway diesel price, National average

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration National average. A retail pump average including taxes, surveyed every Monday. Fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less than this, and the gap widens when prices move fast -- so read it as direction, not as what you will pay.
Figure 2

Refrigerated produce truck rate, national average

Dollars per mile Source: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Reefer rate per mile. Refrigerated produce only, and an unweighted mean across whichever lanes were active that week -- so the mix shifts with the growing season. Treat week-to-week moves in the lane table as more meaningful than in this average.