From Scopelitis Transportation Consulting.
For years, FMCSA has relied on self-certification to regulate some of the most safety-critical functions in trucking. Electronic logging device manufacturers, CDL training schools, and medical examiners have been asked to promise they meet federal standards, submit paperwork, and land on an official registry—no inspection, no independent testing, no verification. It was designed for speed and scalability, and it delivered both. But in 2025 and 2026, the cracks became impossible to ignore.
The numbers are sobering. FMCSA revoked 37 ELD devices in 2025 and rejected another 200 before they reached the market. So far, in 2026, we have seen an additional 39 devices purged. The agency removed nearly 3,000 CDL training schools from the Training Provider Registry in a single sweep—with another 4,500 placed on notice—after deploying 330 investigators to audit 1,600 training locations. In total, more than 6,800 unqualified training providers were removed from the FMCSA registry in the past year. And, in April 2025, the agency voided over 15,225 medical certificates issued to drivers by two Houston-area chiropractors who had improperly certified them, triggering a joint investigation by the DOT Inspector General, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. Across all three programs, the pattern is the same: a system built on trust was exploited at scale.
What FMCSA Is Doing About It
FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs has declared that self-certification is going away. “We will do away with anything that has to do with self-certification at FMCSA,” he told an audience in December 2025. The agency has already overhauled its ELD vetting process, requiring verification of technical documentation, contact information, and cross-checks against revoked devices before any new ELD reaches the registry. On the training side, the agency is asking schools the most basic questions: Do you have a principal place of business? Do you have a curriculum? Do you actually own a truck? And on the medical examiner front, the 15,225 mass voiding of driver medical certificates sent an unmistakable signal that FMCSA is willing to take large-scale, disruptive action against bad actors. These are stopgap measures while the agency develops permanent regulatory solutions—but the direction is clear.
Lessons from Canada
Canada offers a working model for what comes next—at least for ELDs. When Canada’s ELD mandate took effect in June 2021, Transport Canada required all devices to be tested and certified by independent, third-party certification bodies accredited under ISO/IEC 17065. Only devices that pass receive a certification number and appear on Canada’s official ELD Registry. The result is a much smaller but significantly more reliable marketplace. The trade-off is real—fewer choices, higher costs, and a slower rollout that initially left carriers scrambling for compliant devices. While the Canadian system is not perfect, every device on Canada’s list has been independently verified, which is a level of certainty the U.S. system has never offered.
What Congress Is Doing
Congress is moving to codify reforms through the BUILD America 250 Act (H.R. 8870), the House’s proposed five-year highway reauthorization bill introduced on May 19, 2026. The bill requires FMCSA to certify ELDs against federal requirements. It allows non-compliant entry-level driver training providers to be removed from the registry within 90 days of a substantiated complaint. It directs the development of automated tools to detect “chameleon carriers” that shut down and reopen under new names. And it provides increasing FMCSA funding—including Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program grants growing from $435 million to $478 million over the authorization period. The bill passed the T&I Committee 62–2 and is expected on the House floor this summer.
What the Industry Should Expect
Should the shift from self-certification to verified certification become a reality, it will reshape the trucking ecosystem. The ELD marketplace will shrink—carriers using lesser-known or low-cost devices should evaluate their provider’s certification readiness now. The Training Provider Registry will continue to contract as CDL mills are eliminated, benefiting legitimate schools that have invested in qualified instructors and real behind-the-wheel training. Medical examiners should expect increased scrutiny of examination volumes, pass rates, and adherence to physical qualification standards.
The transition will not be painless. Rulemaking takes years, not months. The industry should expect a period of uncertainty as old systems wind down and new ones are built. But the trajectory is unmistakable: the honor system is ending. The carriers, vendors, training schools, and medical examiners who are already doing things the right way will be rewarded. Those who have been exploiting the system gaps will find those gaps closing—from both the agency and Congress—with increasing speed and determination.
Connon D.Wolf
Government funding and private sector investment are both playing a role in the trucking industry’s efforts to alleviate the truck parking shortage, a major source of lost productivity and driver frustration.
The American Transportation Research Institute ranked truck parking as the No. 2 concern among drivers in 2025. ATRI also found in an earlier report that drivers sacrificed 56 minutes every day on average to secure parking at a cost of $5,600 annually.
“This has been an issue for a long time, for decades really,” said Darrin Roth, vice president of highway policy for American Trucking Associations. “It’s getting worse and worse because the miles traveled by trucks keep growing, and the number of spaces nationwide isn’t growing fast enough to accommodate those drivers. So, in a nutshell, that’s the problem.”
ATA advocates for federal investment through the issuance of grants, though Roth stressed that it’s a multifaceted issue between safety concerns and economic costs that requires different solutions.
“The private sector has stepped up as well,” Roth said. “Traditionally, the private sector has only provided capacity through truck stops. But the last few years, we’ve seen a whole bunch of companies pop up.”
Roth noted that these businesses don’t always have facilities or amenities. Instead, they leverage technology such as apps to connect drivers to a guaranteed a spot. Still, they are seen as an important part of the overall parking ecosystem..
“It’s so new and so organic that I don’t know that anyone has really been able to get a handle on exactly how much new capacity it’s provided,” Roth said. “But from what I’ve seen, this is the fastest-growing source of new truck parking capacity over the last few years.”
Truck Parking Club connects drivers and fleet managers with properties that have parking. The app also contains information about the property, its features and what amenities are offered. The properties are inspected to confirm they are suitable for trucks, and the information is updated through multiple inspections.
“We believe for trucking and the supply chain to be most efficient, we think there’s over a million spaces needed across the U.S.,” Truck Parking Club CEO Evan Shelley said. “It’s costing the industry, from our commissioned research, over $100 billion a year, and that’s just because of the inefficiencies of drivers not having suitable parking close to them.”
Truck Parking Club has grown its network of providers to more than 6,000 locations. These include warehouses, terminals, repair shops, self-storage facilities and truck stops, with options for fleet manager, dispatcher or driver to reserve a spot.
“It’s all within the same account,” Shelley said. “We’ve really built all the tools needed to be successful with all things truck parking, not just providing the optionality.”
Shelley welcomes taxpayer-funded parking as a way to help address the issue, but he stressed the government alone can’t scale fast enough to fix the problem, so private-sector services are necessary.
“In 3½ years, we’ve built the largest aggregation of truck parking spaces in the U.S.,” Shelley said. “We do think we are a big part of the solution, and we don’t just think that, we have the drivers and carriers to prove it. We’ve parked hundreds of thousands of trucks.”
Trucker Path has provided crowdsourced parking availability updates since it launched in 2013. A few years later, predictive data features were added. This allowed users to rate parking in real time for other drivers. The company later leveraged the resulting large network by adding a reserved parking feature to the app in June 2026.
“A lot of time is wasted looking for spaces at the end of the day, and a lot of drivers end up having to park somewhere where it’s not the safest,” said Trucker Path Chief Marketing Officer Chris Oliver. “But 50-plus minutes a day is a massive chunk of the driver’s available hours on a daily basis. So having good parking is a big problem.”
Trucker Path has more than 100,000 reservable truck parking spots across the United States. The recent update integrated overnight and long-term paid booking options in addition to its traditional crowdsourced free parking availability maps. The approach allows the company to work with partners to overlay its own booking service over existing apps and storefronts.
“The private sector is not funded by tax dollars,” Oliver said. “There are costs involved in the private sector that have to get covered somehow. I think it has to be done. Otherwise, like I said, I don’t think the public sector can scratch that itch fully.”
Chad Krueger
A landmark, unanimous Supreme Court ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC has fundamentally altered the legal landscape for freight brokers, putting their carrier vetting workflows under a microscope.
The court ruled that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act does not protect freight brokers from state-level negligent-hiring lawsuits.
Going forward, if a broker hires a carrier with a questionable safety record and an accident occurs, the broker is no longer shielded from a personal injury lawsuit in state court.
While the FAAAA prevents states from interfering with a broker’s prices, routes and services, the justices clarified that it does not strip states of the right to oversee motor vehicle safety.
Moving beyond FMCSA authority
For a long time, many brokerages operated under the assumption that active Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration authority was enough to clear a carrier for a load. Those days are over.
This ruling amplifies the pressure on brokerages across three main pillars:
- Heightened litigation risk: Plaintiff attorneys are actively targeting the broker’s vetting process, looking for any overlooked safety flaws to establish negligence.
- Stricter insurance standards: Underwriters are shifting their focus toward a broker’s risk management practices, demanding auditable, continuous monitoring rather than static checks.
- The need for workflow consistency: Brokerages must establish a uniform, ironclad process for how carriers are analyzed, approved and maintained within their networks.
The operational challenge: vetting at scale
Did the broker actively review the carrier’s past safety performance? Were chronic roadside violations or failed inspections overlooked? Was the carrier allowed to operate with an at-risk or conditional safety standing? Were operational and safety warning signs properly documented and assessed? Is there a clear, auditable trail proving the broker’s compliance vetting process? Did the broker discover a safety issue while the carrier was actively moving one of their loads?
These are all questions that will now need answers when a broker goes to book a load.
For most brokerages, the obstacle isn’t the “want” to vet carriers; it’s the sheer volume of transactions.
Manually cross-referencing safety records, inspection trends and operational data across thousands of carriers is a slow, error-prone process that invites costly oversight.
Streamlining compliance
To withstand legal scrutiny, brokers need a repeatable, fully documented system that provides centralized, real-time visibility into carrier safety over time. To build a defensible vetting workflow, many of the country’s leading shippers and freight brokers rely on the Motor Carrier Brokerage, or MC Brokerage, solution by CAB, a division of CCJ parent company Fusable.
Instead of relying on scattered research or outdated snapshots, MC Brokerage provides a comprehensive, dynamic view of a carrier’s operational history. The platform aggregates and continuously monitors critical risk factors, including:
- FMCSA authority status and insurance tracking.
- Detailed safety histories and real-time inspection trends.
- Behavior Analysis and Safety Improvement Categories, or BASICs, and ISS score evaluations.
- Operational patterns, automated alerts and carrier status updates.
As the legal landscape shifts from “buyer beware” to “broker beware,” success requires a vetting process that is highly visible, automated and legally defensible. Implementing robust monitoring tools ensures brokerages can protect their businesses, maintain compliance and prove due diligence long before a claim ever reaches a courtroom.
Tyson Fisher
New academic research reveals how vulnerable ELDs are to cyberattacks made by hacking into a truck’s system in seconds while driving alongside it.
Jeremy Daily, associate professor of systems engineering at Colorado State University, is no stranger to truck cybersecurity. He co-founded the CyberTruck Challenge in 2017 and has published numerous research papers related to the topic. However, his latest research exposes an alarming truth: Some electronic logging devices are easy to hack.
Along with research assistants Rik Chatterjee and Jake Jepson, Daily wanted to know how the ELD mandate affects cybersecurity for trucks. The researchers found they not only could access a truck’s accelerator pedal by simply driving by it but also could infect a fleet of trucks with malicious malware by hacking into just one ELD.
For this experiment, Jepson was able to take apart an ELD and do some reverse engineering. He found the default Wi-Fi password right away and from there spent several months developing a malicious version of the ELD’s firmware. Jepson told Land Line Now that this was his first time reverse-engineering a device and admitted a more experienced hacker likely could exploit vulnerabilities much faster.
The researchers’ next task was to infect a truck – which proved remarkably simple.
Equipped only with a laptop and Wi-Fi range extender, they drove alongside a moving 2014 Kenworth T270. In just 30 seconds, they were able to access and infect the truck’s ELD with malicious firmware that allowed them to slow the truck down. Chatterjee, who was driving the Kenworth, said it would not speed up no matter how hard he pressed down on the pedal.
In this scenario, the researchers decided to slow down the truck for safety reasons. However, they just as easily could have forced the truck to speed up. And with access to the truck’s operating system, a hacker could access other functions, as well.
As if hacking one ELD were not bad enough, Daily and his team were able to infect several trucks by initially infecting just one.
The malicious firmware included what the researchers called a truck-to-truck worm. An ELD infected with this firmware can scan for nearby ELDs. Once a vulnerable one is identified, the truck-to-truck worm can spread the virus. The newly infected ELD then can repeat the scanning process, increasing the range of viral spread. This process can allow a hacker to infect an entire fleet of trucks that are close together, making truck stops, rest areas and yards prime targets.
ELD technology and regulations
Although only one brand of ELD was used, the researchers pointed out that manufacturers are using similar technology.
There are hundreds of certified ELDs available, but the research paper reported that there are relatively few distinct models. Essentially, companies are rebranding ELDs, rendering devices “clones of each other with minimal variations,” according to the study. Consequently, vulnerabilities present in one brand of ELD may be present in many others as well.
Another point of concern is the lack of regulation regarding ELD cybersecurity. Devices must meet technical specifications before registering with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, but manufacturers need only to self-certify.
The National Motor Freight Traffic Association has issued a list of recommended security requirements for ELDs. However, those recommendations appear to be largely ignored.
“I can say very confidently that if that guidance had been followed from the industry, then we wouldn’t have been able to demonstrate these exploits that Rik and Jake developed,” Daily told Land Line Now.
The researchers reached out to the ELD manufacturer before publishing the research. Daily said the manufacturer worked with him and his team to develop a firmware patch addressing the vulnerabilities.
What can truckers do to secure their truck?
There are measures truckers and fleet owners can take to mitigate any cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
First and foremost, truckers need to keep their ELDs updated. Like smartphones, ELDs may require periodic security updates that could include patches for newly discovered vulnerabilities. And if truckers have access to the device’s Wi-Fi password, they should change it to a stronger one.
Daily also believes in the power of the free market. If those in the industry – especially large fleets that buy in bulk – purchase only highly secured ELDs, it will force makers of less-secure ELDs to sink or swim.
The good news is that the industry has responded well to cybersecurity concerns in recent years. The truck used in this experiment was a 2014 Kenworth, a 10-year-old truck. In the past decade, truck manufacturers have improved security measures within their systems. Click on link below to see video.
https://youtu.be/SwtTzk9ys20
With the White House’s release of an updated Unified Agenda of projected timelines for a bevy of new and in-progress regulations across the entire federal government, the trucking industry gained some insight about when to potentially expect numerous regulatory updates.
As reported earlier this week, some of the most-anticipated regulations coming from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration — broker transparency, automatic emergency braking, English language proficiency — are slated to be released this month.
Others are a little farther out on the calendar, projected to release as late as November.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s also working on a number of rules that could impact trucking by greasing the skids for autonomous trucks.
Yet, outside of those more notable regs, there’s 19 others expected to see publication at some point this year, though missed deadlines are not uncommon with regulatory agendas as the dates provided are just projections.
Below, find a brief summary of rules on the docket, sorted by where they are in the regulatory process — final rule stage, supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) stage, or NPRM stage.
Final rule stage
- Independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act: The latest in the regulatory whiplash over what constitutes an independent contractor or employee classification, the Department of Labor is planning to publish a final rule by the end of October that potentially reverts the classification standard back to the rules established during the first Trump administration.
- Accident reporting — Modification to the definition of the term “Medical Treatment”: Among the rules FMCSA deemed to be “burdensome” in the Trump administration’s deregulatory efforts is this one to amend the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations regarding medical treatment away from an accident scene. The final rule is expected to be published this month.
- Hazmat and passenger commercial vehicles and railroad crossings: Also expected this month is a final rule to amend the FMCSRs related to driving a CMV at a highway-rail grade crossing. The rule would eliminate the mandatory stop at grade crossings currently required for drivers of certain CMVs and prohibit drivers of all CMVs from driving onto a grade crossing without exercising due caution (including slowing down, as necessary) upon approaching the crossing to ascertain safe clearance.
- Retroreflective sheeting on trailers: The final rule expected this month would rescind the requirements for retroreflective sheeting on semitrailers and trailers manufactured prior to Dec. 1, 1993, which is the compliance date for NHTSA’s conspicuity rules applicable to trailer manufacturers. The agency said it believes “the vast majority of trailers currently in use on the Nation’s highways were manufactured after 1993 so the retrofitting rule is no longer necessary.”
- Transportation of fuel for agricultural aircraft operations: This rule would amend the FMCSRs in response to the National Agricultural Aviation Association’s (NAAA) petition for rulemaking to allow states to waive the hazardous materials endorsement requirement for CDL holders who transport Jet A fuel in support of seasonal agricultural operations. NAAA requested that states be allowed to waive the hazardous materials endorsement requirement for CDL holders who support agricultural aircraft operations and transport no more than 1,000 gallons of aviation grade kerosene (Jet A), under certain limited conditions. The final rule is expected this month.
- CDL requirements — Increased flexibility for testing and for drivers after passing the skills test: This final rule, expected by the end of November, would finalize CDL testing changes proposed in 2024, allowing State Driver Licensing Agencies (SDLAs) to administer the CDL knowledge test prior to issuing a commercial learner’s permit (CLP), and to administer the CDL skills test to CLP holders who are domiciled in other states.
- Hours-of-service — transport of agricultural commodities: FMCSA plans to issue a final rule by the end of November that clarifies the definition of the terms “any agricultural commodity,” “livestock,” and “non-processed food,” as the terms are used in the definition of “agricultural commodity” for the purposes of hours-of-service regulations. This final rule would fully finalize the “interim final rule” published in 2020.
Supplemental NPRM stage
- Incorporation of 2025 and 2026 North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria for hazmat safety permits: This rule would incorporate by reference the April 2025 and April 2026 updates to the out-of-service criteria for commercial motor vehicles, published by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), related to transporting transuranics and highway route controlled quantities of radioactive materials. This update is expected in July.
NPRM stage
- MAP-21 enhancements and updates to the Unified Registration System: This proposal, expected this month, would implement several provisions of the 2012 highway bill that relate to the FMCSA’s Unified Registration System (URS), as well as update and codify the agency’s procedures for granting, suspending, and revoking registration. These procedures would apply to all entities required to register under the agency’s jurisdiction. Many of the proposed provisions codify existing agency practices, while others improve on existing processes and procedures.
- Clarification to the applicability of emergency exemptions: In response to several petitions for reconsideration, FMCSA this month plans to propose amending the time limit for the automatic emergency relief exception for regional declarations of emergency, revert back to the 30-day limit which existed prior to the issuance of the October 2023 final rule.
- CDL standards — Incorporation by reference of a new State Procedures Manual: This NPRM planned for publication this month would incorporate by reference the updates to manuals published by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). FMCSA would amend its rules to update the current incorporation by reference, including the State Procedures Manual (SPM) for the CDL Information System (CDLIS) as referenced in 49 CFR 384.107.
- Fees for use of the CDLIS: This proposal would modify the fee system requirements to specify that the DOT or an authorized operator can collect user fees for accessing the CDLIS; and to use the collected fees to operate, maintain, develop, modernize, or enhance the CDLIS, including for related personnel and administration costs. The proposal is slated to publish this month.
- Fees for the UCR Plan and Agreement: The agency’s adjustment of annual registration fees for the Unified Carrier Registration system is expected to be proposed this month. The adjusted fees would be in effect for registration years beginning with 2027, until a new fee is established by a later rulemaking.
- ELD revisions: Since the implementation of the electronic logging device mandate, FMCSA noted that it has learned “many lessons” that “can be used to streamline and improve the clarity of the regulatory text and ELD specifications and answer recurring questions.” This NPRM, expected by the end of November, would propose technical modifications to the ELD rules.
- Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse revisions — controlled substances and alcohol use: By the end of November, FMCSA plans to propose changes to its drug and alcohol use and testing rules by increasing the availability of driver violation information in the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse to keep unsafe drivers off the road. FMCSA will also propose changes to improve the efficiency of certain Clearinghouse processes to provide increased flexibility for drivers and employers, and further align Clearinghouse rules with underlying drug and alcohol use and testing regulations to improve compliance with, and enforcement of, these requirements.
- National registry of medical examiners — administrative removal of medical examiners: This proposal will provide an administrative removal process for medical examiners who are not in compliance with certain administrative requirements for continued listing on the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners. It’s expected to publish by the end of November.
- Driver qualifications — seizure standard: FMCSA plans to propose an update to the physical qualification standards for individuals with an established medical history or clinical diagnosis of epilepsy or any other condition that could cause seizures. FMCSA plans by the end of November to propose to reduce the burden on individuals who have experienced a seizure, or who have been prescribed anti-seizure medication provided certain criteria are satisfied. The criteria would mirror those used for the agency’s Seizure Exemption Program, including a requirement for the drivers to obtain documentation from the treating neurologist that the individual has been seizure-free for a period of several years.
- Methods to demonstrate qualifications and knowledge of federal regs for household goods (HHG) motor carriers: This proposal would change the registration requirements for HHG carriers to only allow registration for a carrier that “demonstrates, before being registered, through successful completion of a proficiency examination established by the Secretary, knowledge and intent to comply with applicable Federal laws relating to consumer protection, estimating, consumers’ rights and responsibilities, and options for limitations of liability for loss and damage.” The NPRM is expected by the end of November.
- Preservation of records: This rulemaking, scheduled to publish by the end of November, would propose changes to the record retention requirements contained in appendix A to part 379 to remove overlapping and burdensome requirements, FMCSA said.
Jeremy Wolfe
Key takeaways
- The latest federal government regulatory agenda is live, outlining regulators’ vague plans for upcoming rulemakings.
- Several rulemakings, including changes to CDL standards and roadside inspection reporting, are in the final rule phase and could be implemented soon.
- In this article are the rulemakings that could impact fleets.
ID 32055688 © Charnsitr | Dreamstime.com
The latest federal regulatory agenda is now public, vaguely outlining the Department of Transportation’s regulatory plans.
The agenda gives fleets a solid idea of the final rules and proposals for the industry’s future, but it is far from a firm timeline for the industry’s next regulatory shifts.
Below are the agenda’s rulemakings that fleets will want to watch. These could appear in the near future as proposed rulemakings or final rules in the Federal Register.
The rulemakings in the proposed rule stage are waiting for a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM): they have limited information and probably a long path before taking effect.
Rulemakings in the final rule stage have an NPRM available online and are awaiting the rule’s final draft; these could take effect within a month of the final rule’s publication.
JJ Gouin | 2165453061 | Getty Images
High-impact rulemakings
First, here are the regulatory agenda items that could have the highest impact for fleets, if FMCSA publishes them:
Automated driving systems
An incoming NPRM would outline new regulations for the testing and deployment of automated driving systems. The Trump administration remains very interested in autonomous tech, and autonomous truck developers are already embedded in commercial operations, but federal rulemaking has so far been slow to arrive.
Training provider certification
An incoming NPRM would propose ways to strengthen the standards of FMCSA Entry Level Driver Training (ELDT) training providers. The rulemaking may even require training providers to maintain some form of ongoing compliance to remain listed, rather than simple self-certification.
AEB testing procedures
FMCSA and NHTSA are planning a supplemental NPRM to comply with 2022’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This NPRM would propose test procedures for truck manufacturers’ automatic emergency braking (AEB). The first NPRM was published in 2023 under the Biden FMCSA.
New ELD specifications
An NPRM on the agenda could update electronic logging device (ELD) regulations. The rulemaking would “streamline and improve the clarity of regulatory text and ELD specifications.” FMCSA first issued an anticipatory NPRM (ANPRM) for these ELD revisions in 2022. It’s a Biden-era rulemaking with little progress, but because of FMCSA’s recent interest in driver regulatory enforcement, the rulemaking could see an update in the next few months.
Emergency exemption extensions
This rulemaking would extend the time limit for the automatic emergency relief exemption under a regional declaration of emergency, reverting from 14 days to 30 days. Not mentioned in the agenda posting, FMCSA had issued the NPRM in January.
Rulemakings to watch
These agenda items are less impactful but still worth monitoring. Some are designed specifically to make carriers’ lives easier by reducing regulatory burdens; others could be highly impactful but are just too early in the rulemaking process.
Carrier safety fitness determinations
This NPRM vaguely gestures toward “potential updates” to how FMCSA determines when a motor carrier is not fit to operate. The agency first asked for feedback on its safety fitness determination process in 2023, so there is a chance this rule is just a vestige of the Biden-era FMCSA.
Agricultural commodity hours of service
FMCSA’s yearslong rulemaking to codify HOS exemptions for drivers moving agricultural commodities is in its final rule phase. The rulemaking’s last update was in 2020, when the agency published an interim final rule.
No more self-reporting violations
FMCSA is proposing to remove the requirement that CDL holders self-report violations to their home state. The NPRM was published in 2025, and this change is now in the final rule phase.
English language out-of-service criteria
This NPRM could propose more formally codifying English Language Proficiency requirements as an out-of-service violation.
Submitting roadside inspection forms
This rulemaking, now in the final rule stage, would remove the requirement that motor carriers always submit completed Driver Vehicle Examination Reports (also known as Driver Vehicle Inspection Reports) to their issuing states. Instead, carriers would need to submit the form only if the state agency requests it.
Ending the required stop at railroad crossings
FMCSA’s rulemaking to eliminate the mandatory stop at highway-rail grade crossings is in the final rule phase. The agency issued an NPRM in May 2025 to propose less strict requirements: affected commercial vehicle drivers (e.g., bus drivers) would be able to pass a highway-rail crossing without stopping—if the crossing has an active warning device.
CDL standards
FMCSA is working to publish an NPRM to “enhance the security standards” of state-issued CDLs, including changes to record retention and document verification.
State CDL fees
This rulemaking would update FMCSA’s fee system for the Commercial Driver’s License Information System, adopting a user-fee-based approach. Not included in the regulatory agenda, this rulemaking already saw an NPRM in May.
Non-domiciled CDL limits
FMCSA has already issued the interim final rule on non-domiciled CDL limits but still has the final rule on its agenda. This rulemaking limits states’ authority to issue or renew non-domiciled CDLs.
More Clearinghouse information
One pending NPRM would propose “increasing the availability of driver information” from the Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse, among other unnamed process changes.
Fewer motor vehicle requirements
FMCSA has three rulemakings in the final rule phase that, if published, would remove several CMV equipment regulations. The requirements to be removed are rear impact guard labels, spare fuses, some tractor license plate lamps, portable conveyor brakes, and ELD manuals.
