Operation Highway Shield Removes Nearly 400 Truckers, Vehicles From US Roads

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Nearly 400 truck drivers and vehicles have been removed from service in a crackdown on hazardous vehicles, unsafe drivers, and fraudulent practices along Arkansas highways.

The removal came under the third phase of Operation Highway Shield, which targets unqualified truckers and related criminal activity on U.S. roads. In addition to putting 393 drivers and vehicles out of service, the operation identified 183 English Language Proficiency violations, referred 74 immigration violations to federal enforcement, made 44 criminal arrests, and recovered one stolen trailer, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said in a Nov. 4 statement.

“Gone are the days of dangerous – and many times illegal and foreign – drivers putting American lives at risk on our roads,” Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in the statement. “Under the Trump Administration, we are restoring law and order.”

RESULTS ARE IN: Operation Highway Shield put nearly 400 drivers and trucks OUT OF SERVICE during the 48-hour operation in Arkansas – including nearly 200 truckers that COULDN’T READ ROAD SIGNS

Gone are the days of dangerous, and many times illegal and foreign drivers putting… pic.twitter.com/Bytv8sTZS7

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) November 4, 2026

A total of 1,724 inspections were carried out in 48 hours along highways in Arkansas and other major freight corridors during the operation.

The first wave of Operation Highway Shield was conducted in Florida in March and led to 176 drivers being removed from service.

The second phase, conducted in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio in July, resulted in 766 unsafe drivers and vehicles being placed out of service.

“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,” Duffy said. “We are not slowing down when it comes to keeping Americans safe on our roads.”

The DOT cited the launch of an interagency effort in August to crack down on fraud in the U.S. trucking sector. The effort involved emergency removal of 110 commercial driver’s license schools that were associated with more than 5,000 drivers who failed English tests and putting 160 more schools on notice.

The Trump administration took action to codify English language requirements for truckers in August, with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) proposing a rule under which commercial motor vehicle drivers who do not know how to speak or read English sufficiently or those who fail to understand highway traffic signs and signals would be placed out of service.

“When a driver can’t read a ‘Steep Grade,’ ‘Runaway Truck Ramp,’ or ‘Do Not Enter’ sign, people die,” FMCSA Administrator Derek D. Barrs said in a statement at the time. “This rulemaking codifies commonsense safety into law.”

American Trucking Associations (ATA) welcomed the move, but raised concerns that the English language proficiency (ELP) assessment of truckers may end up being subjective, depending on individual enforcement officials.

“Without standardized scoring metrics or clearly defined evaluation criteria, ELP determinations may vary considerably from one roadside inspection to another. For example, a driver’s level of English proficiency may be deemed sufficient by one officer yet insufficient by another based on differing interpretations of the same interaction,” the ATA said.

The long-term success of the proposed rule will depend on ensuring that ELP determinations are made in a “predictable, objective, and uniform manner” irrespective of the officers who carry out such assessments, the ATA said.

Around 33,000 drivers have been knocked out of service since April 2025 for not being able to speak basic English or read road signs, the DOT said in its recent statement, adding that a total of roughly 31,000 illegally issued licenses given to unvetted foreigners have been revoked and almost 10,000 “shady driving schools” have also been shut down.