DOT says 33,000 drivers are now out of service for English proficiency as Operation Highway Shield adds Arkansas and Virginia results

Federal trucking regulators are expanding Operation Highway Shield across the country, and the U.S. Department of Transportation now says 33,000 commercial drivers have been placed out of service nationwide for failing English-language proficiency requirements, according to FreightWaves on Nov. 5. The new total came Wednesday, Nov. 4, as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced additional details of the operation's latest crackdown in Arkansas and as new inspection results from Virginia showed the enforcement model spreading to another state.

The Virginia work was smaller and more routine than the Arkansas wave, and that is part of the point. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Virginia Division partnered with Virginia State Police and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to conduct commercial vehicle inspections in Stephens City, Virginia. The operation produced 86 Level I inspections and 100 violations. Inspectors placed 11 vehicles out of service and two drivers out of service, including one driver for an English-language proficiency violation. A Level I inspection is the full roadside examination of the driver and the vehicle, and a showing like this one — more violations than inspections, with roughly one vehicle in eight parked — is what a targeted enforcement day looks like when it is working through a single location rather than a statewide sweep.

The Arkansas numbers, by contrast, describe a blitz. Federal and state authorities conducted 1,724 commercial vehicle inspections over 48 hours in an operation run Oct. 27–29. The result was 393 drivers and commercial vehicles placed out of service, 183 English-language proficiency violations, 44 criminal arrests and 74 immigration violations referred for federal enforcement. Inspectors also identified more than 1,000 motor carrier safety violations and recovered one stolen trailer. In a separate announcement Wednesday, Duffy characterized the Arkansas operation as another major step in the administration's efforts to remove unqualified commercial drivers from U.S. highways. “Gone are the days of dangerous — and many times illegal and foreign — drivers putting American lives at risk on our roads,” Duffy said. “This latest wave of Operation Highway Shield has pulled over 300 dangerous drivers off the road including 183 foreign drivers that couldn't read road signs. We are not slowing down when it comes to keeping Americans safe on our roads.”

Alongside the state results, DOT published the nationwide totals it says the wider campaign has now produced. Federal authorities have placed 33,000 drivers out of service for failing English-language proficiency requirements, revoked 31,000 commercial driver's licenses that the department described as improperly issued to unvetted foreign drivers, and shut down nearly 10,000 commercial driving schools that federal officials characterized as operating improperly. DOT also said that in August, FMCSA removed 110 commercial driver training schools associated with more than 5,000 drivers who failed English-language proficiency tests and placed another 160 schools on notice. FreightWaves noted that the department did not provide a detailed accounting of how the nationwide totals were calculated, and drivers and carriers should treat the 33,000 figure as DOT's reported total rather than an independently audited count.

Operation Highway Shield has expanded through several enforcement waves during 2026, and the history matters because it shows where the next wave is likely to land. The first wave, conducted in Florida in March, resulted in 176 drivers being placed out of service, including 54 for English-language proficiency deficiencies; authorities also made 35 criminal-related arrests and detained 42 individuals for federal immigration violations. A second wave, conducted July 28–30 in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, resulted in 766 drivers and vehicles being placed out of service, 36 English-language proficiency violations and 51 immigration detentions, and federal authorities recovered approximately $1 million in stolen cargo during that Midwest operation. The Arkansas operation marked the third major wave announced by DOT, while the newly disclosed Virginia inspections demonstrate additional state-level enforcement activity running alongside the named waves.

For a driver, the practical picture has not changed since the summer, but the odds have. English-language proficiency is no longer a paperwork item checked at a licensing office; it is an out-of-service violation being enforced at the roadside in wave operations and in ordinary targeted inspections alike, and a driver who cannot demonstrate it can be parked on the spot. Carriers should expect the same combination everywhere these operations run: a Level I inspection, a language check, a credentials check and an immigration referral path for drivers whose licenses do not hold up. The school shutdown and license-revocation totals also mean a driver's training history and the state that issued the license are now part of what an inspector's questions can reach. Keep the license, medical card and supporting documents clean and current, make sure any driver on the roster can complete an inspection interview in English, and do not assume a state that has not yet hosted a named wave is outside the program — Virginia was not a wave state until its results were announced alongside one.