STEPHENS CITY, Virginia — The federal truck-inspection campaign known as Operation Highway Shield has reached Virginia, and the U.S. Department of Transportation now says 33,000 commercial drivers nationwide have been placed out of service for failing English-language proficiency requirements. The new figures, announced by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Wednesday, November 4, are a major new development in the crackdown Awaaz Punjab reported from Arkansas last week, when a 48-hour blitz there inspected 1,724 trucks and placed 393 drivers and vehicles out of service.
Source: FreightWaves / U.S. Department of Transportation
Awaaz Punjab reported the Arkansas wave of Operation Highway Shield on October 30: 1,724 inspections in 48 hours, 393 drivers and vehicles out of service and 183 English-proficiency disqualifications. The November 4 announcement adds a new state — Virginia — and the first nationwide totals. Read the Arkansas report
In Stephens City, Virginia, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Virginia Division worked with the Virginia State Police and the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to inspect commercial vehicles, according to the Department of Transportation announcement reported by FreightWaves. The Virginia operation produced 86 Level I inspections — the most thorough level of roadside inspection — and uncovered 100 violations.
Source: FreightWaves
What the Virginia operation found
Of the trucks and drivers checked at Stephens City, 11 vehicles were placed out of service and two drivers were placed out of service, including one driver removed for an English-language proficiency violation, FreightWaves reported. The numbers are small next to Arkansas, but they show the campaign is no longer a single-state event: federal and state officers are now running the same playbook at weigh stations and inspection sites in the East as well as the South and Midwest.
Source: FreightWaves
The Arkansas wave, by the numbers
The Virginia results emerged as Secretary Duffy released fuller details of the Arkansas operation of October 27–29, in which Arkansas Highway Police and federal partners conducted 1,724 commercial vehicle inspections in 48 hours and placed 393 drivers and vehicles out of service, according to the Arkansas Department of Transportation figures reported by Land Line Media and Truckers News. Inspectors identified more than 1,000 motor carrier safety violations, issued 369 traffic citations or warnings, made 44 criminal arrests, recovered one stolen trailer, and referred 74 immigration violations for federal enforcement. Of those put out of service, 183 were disqualified for English-language proficiency violations, and officials said more than 330 unqualified or unauthorized drivers were identified in all.
Source: Land Line Media / Arkansas Department of Transportation
“Gone are the days of dangerous — and many times illegal and foreign — drivers putting American lives at risk on our roads,” Secretary Duffy said in a statement. “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.” Arkansas Highway Police Chief Jeff Holmes said the operation “simply shines a spotlight on what our officers do every single day,” adding that “every unsafe truck or driver taken out of service represents a potential collision prevented and lives saved.” FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs, who was in Arkansas for the operation, said the joint effort was “putting more boots on the ground, identifying unsafe drivers and vehicles, and taking decisive action to keep dangerous operators off our roadways.”
Source: FreightWaves / Land Line Media
A crackdown that goes beyond the roadside
The November 4 announcement shows the campaign now extends well past roadside checks. According to DOT, federal authorities have revoked 31,000 commercial driver's licences that the department described as improperly issued to unvetted foreign drivers, and have shut down nearly 10,000 commercial driving schools that officials characterized as operating improperly. In August, FMCSA removed 110 commercial driver training schools associated with more than 5,000 drivers who had failed English-proficiency tests, and placed another 160 schools on notice. FreightWaves noted that DOT did not provide a detailed accounting of how the nationwide totals were calculated — a gap drivers' groups and state officials are likely to keep pressing on as the numbers grow.
Source: FreightWaves / U.S. Department of Transportation
Why English proficiency is being enforced again
The legal basis for the roadside language checks is not new. Federal rules have long required commercial drivers to read and speak English well enough to understand highway signs, answer officials' questions and complete reports. In April 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order reinstating the roadside standard under which a driver who cannot demonstrate sufficient English is placed out of service on the spot. In August 2026, FMCSA proposed making that enforcement standard permanent in regulation, and the agency is now reviewing public comments before deciding how to proceed. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association filed comments supporting the proposal; its president, Todd Spencer, called English proficiency a “life-and-death safety standard,” writing that truckers drive 80,000-pound vehicles and “the only thing separating safe trips from deadly ones can be a simple road sign.”
Source: Land Line Media
Highway Shield itself has grown wave by wave through 2026. The first wave, in Florida in March, placed 176 drivers out of service, including 54 for language deficiencies, with 35 criminal-related arrests and 42 people detained for federal immigration violations. The second wave, from July 28–30 across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio, placed 766 drivers and vehicles out of service, recorded 36 English-proficiency violations and 51 immigration detentions, and recovered approximately $1 million in stolen cargo. A separate September effort, Operation Saturday Night Fever, placed 78 drivers and 25 vehicles out of service.
Source: FreightWaves / Land Line Media
Punjabi drivers make up a large share of America's long-haul trucking workforce, and these checks happen without warning at weigh stations and inspection sites. A driver who cannot show enough English to understand signs, answer an inspector's questions and handle paperwork can be placed out of service on the spot — the truck stops, the load stops, and the driver cannot legally continue until the violation is cleared. The campaign is also reaching back into licences and training schools, so drivers should keep their CDL, medical card and training records in order and know which school issued their training certificate.
What happens next
Two things will decide how much bigger this gets. First, FMCSA must finish reviewing public comments on its proposal to lock the English-proficiency out-of-service standard into permanent regulation; a final rule would make the current roadside practice much harder for any future administration to reverse. Second, Secretary Duffy's “we are not slowing down” warning, together with the appearance of the campaign in Virginia, points to further state waves — and drivers can expect the Arkansas and Virginia model, state police working alongside FMCSA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations and ICE, to be repeated on other freight corridors. Awaaz Punjab will keep tracking each announced wave and any change to the nationwide totals, which DOT has so far released without a state-by-state breakdown.