Truckers Talk: Turnpike Tragedy, Immigration, CDL Issues

Episode Title: Truckers Talk: Turnpike Tragedy, Immigration, and CDL Issues

In this episode of Truckers Talk, we take a deep dive into the Florida Turnpike tragedy that shocked the trucking industry and the nation. A deadly crash involving an undocumented driver with a CDL raises tough questions about immigration policy, licensing loopholes, and highway safety.

We break down the facts of the case, examine how CDLs are being issued across state lines, and explore the political fallout between Florida, California, and federal agencies. Beyond the headlines, we look at what this means for truck drivers, their families, and the communities sharing America’s highways.

From safety enforcement and language barriers to weigh station crackdowns and ICE checkpoints, this episode confronts the hard truths about policy gaps and public safety risks. As always, we keep it real—straight talk from the road, for truckers by truckers. Florida Turnpike crash, CDL fraud, trucking podcast, immigrant truck driver crash, CDL scam America, truck driver mental health, Florida ICE checkpoints, DeSantis vs Newsom trucking, trucking industry safety, truckers talk podcast, highway safety, immigration CDL issues, trucking news, Sabren Group LLC, The Truckers Radio Podcast 

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I’ll keep checkin’ the inbox and giving you the truth — no fluff, just facts.

Until next time — stay safe, stay sharp, and keep it between the lines. 

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Transcript

Dolores 0:00

You’re tuned in to The Trucker’s Radio Podcast where real talk meets the open road. Powered by Sabren Group LLC, we bring you the raw, unfiltered truth about life behind the wheel the struggles, the success, and everything in between. Hosted by seasoned driver and industry coach Stacey Yearout a man who’s been there, done it, and still rolling strong. Today’s episode: Turnpike Tragedy Immigration CDL Issues So grab your self a cup of coffee buckle up, and let’s ride. Welcome to the Truckers Radio podcast. Today we're going to take a look at the American families that is grieving of the loss that they've took across America involving big rigs. But some of these tragedies have something in common truck drivers who were here in this country illegally and in some cases, commercial driver's license they should have never had. Tonight we're gonna take a hard look at the crashes and the loopholes and the failures that put every driver on the road at risk. Today we're gonna bring Daniel from Florida back as a guest. He lives down in Florida. Seems to be ground zero right now for a lot of things unfolding. Daniel. Yeah. Stacy, thanks for having me. How you doing tonight? I'm doing pretty good doing a review on all this here. It's a real tragedy. Everything that's been happening on that way there. We're still gathering information on the latest the big pile up, down on 95. They're not really releasing a whole lot of information. Some new sources saying that they are some immigration at risk, but I really can't say one way or the other on that yet. But it still that was a huge accident that happened and we're just kinda looking through over the last five years some of the different accidents. CDL or non CDL with immigration and immigrants that is here illegally. Yeah. Yeah, that's that was a good one down there on nine five. It was amazing that nobody was was killed in that. I believe the 13 people were seriously injured. Everybody involved, I believe, had to go to the hospital, but it's just incredible that no one was killed this time. Thank God. It says 18 vehicles injuring 29 people with 13 hospitalized driver has not been publicly named. No information of the immigration status as, or driver's license status has surfaced so far. We're not we're not gonna go pointing fingers and saying, Hey, this guy was illegal. But, some of the news sources has indicating that they are an immigration issue. So not sure yet how that's going to tally out. Back at the. Turnpike massacre. We had did an episode earlier on that that was just a real shame. I, something that really don't clearly understand is why we've got 3 million people trying to sign a petition to release this guy. I, what part of this says this was an accident? If I don't have a driver's license, I should never be in this country. I should never be behind the wheel of an 18 wheeler and I killed three people. There's no part of that. This is an accident. And if that was the other way around, these people would be trying to do that same 3 million signatures to have you locked up. But if it's because it's for them. Oh, no, we should be cutting slack, right? I was thinking about this the other day, and you're absolutely right, if it, the tables were turned, there'd be 3 million people calling for my head or yours, or and the big question is, and I try not to get my news sources from Facebook and TikTok and things, but sometimes that's what you're left with. And the comment sections are generally more informative than the actual news report because you don't know who's giving it, what agenda they have. And the big question that I keep seeing is of these 3 million people, how many of them are foreigners? How many of them are Muslim or Arab or Hindu or Asian? How many of them are here illegally? And I'm sure they're, the great many of'em are also, Americans and maybe liberals demo, Democrats or liberal Democrats. Either way it's the same agenda. Let's free this guy. Let's show amnesty. Meanwhile, again, there's nothing on the three people that were killed. And even I have to question every car we see that passes us, his cell phone in the hand, at least nine out of 10. I'm not excusing it or minimizing, but I'm amazed that nobody on the the other side has even brought that up to try to minimize this guy's actions. And that's the big question is who are these 3 million people and why? Why would anyone not wanna hold this guy accountable? I find it real interesting that amongst all of those 3 million people, if any one of those singled out, if that was their family, their name would not be on that list. I guarantee that there's no way they're gonna sit there and justify the actions of this. The guy plainly cannot read nor speak English. So negotiating signs on an interstate is detrimental to being able to operate in a safe manner, and you can clearly see no U-turns. He's, there's nothing there for him to be able to articulate. That's a no-no. He swings off on the right shoulder, swings that truck across, did it turn around? Causes the accident, and he's totally a bliss. He didn't read the sign at all. There's it's not even a matter of reading the sign. Stacy I saw a picture today and it's been pretty quiet down here now. With the two wrecks happening everywhere, now it's like a snowball going downhill. Every wreck across the country's getting attention. And just earlier today, I actually saw and it was on Facebook, a picture of the wreck and at the turnpike there, and it, I guess it was a picture from farther back and right there, the nose of his truck, right in front of it was the sign that said no U-turn. And you didn't have to read it. It had a picture. Of an arrow going in a U-turn. And a slash to it, no u-turn. So he should have been able to understand images. Yeah. There was a whole lot of, you can't read and then a whole lot of he just didn't care. And you can obviously see that on the guy's face. He really just looked like he was inconvenienced until you see him in handcuffs. You see the guy in handcuffs, oh man, he is got his head down. Poor pedal for me. Oh I'm locked up, I'm caught. Now what do I do? Too many of these cats, they come out here and they sing the blues. Oh my god. I got caught. Okay, you knew when you come here illegally, you obtained a work visa. Then you obtained a illegal CDL what you were doing? If I went down to the pawn shop and I bought a gun and I went down and bought a box of shelves, I loaded the magazine up, sitting there and cleaning the gun. And I, I don't know how to operate that gun. I can't read the side of it. I don't know. And it accidentally goes off and I shoot my wife. Is that an accident? No, because I had no reason to be dealing with that gun, not knowing what the hell I was doing. I needed to be trained. I needed to go through a course or at least learn how to safely operate that, that firearm before I put bullets in it. And it's the same way when you get in that truck, you're in a speeding bullet going down the road. And when you don't know how to operate that in a safe manner, you're just as dangerous as a guy holding a gun to your head. I agree with that. I was talking to another driver the other day, I guess about a week ago, and we got on the subject of this Florida Turnpike tragedy here and we were talking and it was like hypothetical. If I went to India or Afghanistan and drove a truck over there, I migrated there and drove a truck. Would I make U-turns even if they were legal to do so those signs posted that you couldn't, would I just swing off to the right and cut it back to the left? No, I think with my experience, and that's a big factor that. This guy was lacking I would've pulled over on the shoulder and waited and looked and made sure absolutely no one was coming either way. And what does it cost you a few more minutes to do that? It seems to be a common sense issue. And here we got a guy that can't read English, he can't understand the signs. He's probably poorly trained, probably just bought his CDL, which is the big thing going on now in the news. But where's the common sense? And it's not just foreign drivers. I see it in American drivers and the new rookie drivers. And it got us into a deeper conversation about, I started before there was a CDL chauffeur's license. I never even took a drive test. I basically took a 50 question general knowledge test and was handed the keys to a truck. And I had a guy teach me things and, he, I learned the way they learned and the CDL came into effect. Why? Because we had drivers out here sucking on toothpicks, driving for days, running two, three log books, because that's what they had to do. You couldn't keep up. You weren't needed. The companies wouldn't use you. The brokers took advantage. They didn't need you. But you had common sense. You knew not to do certain things even half asleep. But it did cause a lot of accidents. There was a lot of issues. And that's one of the factors that we had a CDL. And now with this rash of accidents across the country, I think it's gonna open the door for more reform, more restrictions. And with that coming, I see a lot of old school truck drivers, I guess you could say. Probably getting out of the business we're already restricted enough. There's already more regulations on us than just about anybody, and that's what this is all leading up to. And I think common sense could probably prevent about 60 to 70% of these accidents out here. It seems to me, you got a very good point talking about, this is most definitely gonna bring on, a hell fire of chain reaction regulations and upgrades and so forth. But it always seems like it goes the wrong direction. It's put toward the drivers that do what they're supposed to do and the outlaw. Guys that go out here and purchase their CDL and slips through the cracks always finds a loophole. And I think it's high time that we need to start punishing the right people, and just like you said, us old timers, getting pushed out of the industry, I think that's the worst thing they can do because we're probably the last of the good common sense, even though our bodies has probably ran down and broke down and from all the years of running up and down the road, I get it. But, we carry a certain amount of knowledge we pass on, we pass that torch on to other people hoping to keep some of that alive. And if you start just weeding out all the old guys with all the road experience that needs to teach the new guys how to run and how to use common sense. What are you going to do to the industry? You're going to wipe out any existence of good common sense. And then we're going to have a real shit show on our hands. States remember back in the day when we had these things in our trucks these CB radios that we could talk to one another? I remember many years ago and by the way, that probably, I wonder if that could have been a factor in the 9 95 crash. Maybe if the guy would've had a CD on, he could have heard somebody, if somebody else had one on to warn him. But, we would hear drivers, old school drivers, myself included. I'm not gonna say I'm not guilty of it. Making fun of driver. Ah, where'd you get your CDL? What truck driving school did you go to? Where let your train drive, and. Old school drivers didn't want to teach anymore. They don't want nothing to do. They just want'em, mock these new drivers and make fun of'em instead of sitting down with'em maybe at the counter and going, Hey buddy how long you been driving? Let me enlighten you on a few things and help out. But we also at the same time, have a new generation of drivers coming out that don't need to be told, I know what, I know, my trainer taught me this. I got my CDLs. And it it's gotta go hand in hand. Being an older driver, that's been around a lot more. Yes, I'm impatient. My time is money. We're all out here to make money, but I no longer complain about the rookie drivers if I'm not willing to fail. And I see that as a big factor, and we can't fix it if we don't do something. We try and fix it. Maybe even with the foreign drivers, we see a lot of these Sikhs, they're good people. They fought against the Taliban and they're here. They got nowhere else to go. They're not safe in their own land and they come here and they just wanna work. And most of them, most of those guys are here legally. And what do we do since 2000? Nine 11, what do we do? We see a turban on a man's head and we automatically think terrorists, we're not giving them the credit. There's some sort of dismissive action, that we're always looking at and that's wrong. We shouldn't do that. I get it. But no, it shouldn't, back to the old school driver and the young. Kat, I feel like the industry and the schools and YouTube puts a lot of false sense into these. You trained as well as I did. I know you did. Yes. How many times have you heard this inexperienced, you've got tops, five hours of seat time. He'll come out of the school with a cocky attitude saying, oh, I have a class A CDL, I can go anywhere. And there was a mini time I wanted to just reach over and shake him a little bit. No you can't just go anywhere because you have absolutely zero experience. You haven't earned that seat time. And I feel like the, you got the younger generation getting pumped up and I think the part, the thing missed is. You've got a long road ahead of you and getting that CDL in your pocket's probably the easiest part to this entire adventure. That's the easiest thing you'll ever do in this industry is getting that CDL in your back pocket. You've got a hell of a crash course of learning ahead of you and that they get this false sense that they're God's gift the truck driving. And that's where you get that. I can't be told I have a class A CDL get outta my way. Let me show you. And you do have a lot of the cats that's, they don't wanna listen. They don't, and then you get some that are scared to death, that wants to absorb everything. You got to tell'em because they're scared to death and they wanna make sure they do everything right. And that's, yeah, I used to get inconvenienced at the truck stop middle of the day. You'd see a guy out there working with a student backing up, way in the back of the truck stop. But trying to stay outta everybody's way. And thinking back on those days, it was good. It was a good thing, man. Somebody's working with a guy.'cause most of our accidents, let's be honest, happened at the truck stop, right? Get your hood taken off, your mirrors wiped out. They're minor accidents. Nobody gets killed unless they get run over. We don't see that as much anymore today. Now it's, hey, you got your CDL in a week and a half now you're going with a trainer for three or four weeks. Chances are he's only been driving for a year or two. Maybe he doesn't have the winter driving that he needs. Maybe he's never, maybe he's from Florida. Never chained up a truck before. And now this cat's out here and he gets turned loose and, four to five weeks. And, whether he's, it is even worse if he's got a co-driver, a lot of these team trucks.'cause now you got two guys that been driving about four or five weeks and turning them loose. And I've noticed today, I remember when we used to use a map book, or you'd call and get directions and you read signs. And then the GPSs came in and I had to train guys how to use a GP s but now you see'em going by, they got three, four GPSs in the window. They got laptops opened up. Usually their tablet or a Qualcomm system's got a map on it, but they're going by their cell phone on Google Maps. And I check it regularly and I still have not seen a trucker's. Version of Google Maps. Maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't found it. Even myself, I still, I use a GPS sometimes now it's just a pretty picture on the window and I like to watch the timeing to see if I'm making good time, but, other than that, it's good for a bathroom finder, things of that. They're so sophisticated now. You can find parking and and another thing it can help you to do is find a place to turn around so you're not making a u-turn in the middle of the highway and killing three people. With all the technology, and I know we were getting away from your subject there with this massacre it's just, again there's so much technology, there's so much knowledge out there that's being wasted, not utilized. And it's given us all a bad name because one way or the other, whether you're an old school American truck driver, or a new middle Eastern truck driver, we're all behind the wheel of an 80,000 pound Christmas. It's not just the CDL driver. They poses probably the biggest threat. I was researching some of these topics today and I ran across some different incidences that's happened over the last several years. And I found a couple of interest, they was an SUV rollover fatality in Fort Pierce. That was what, September the second, that was today. Injured and it looked like they were an immigration issue with that also. That's not been clarified yet. But there again, when we come into immigration, the biggest problem I see is English. They can't read English and I can't imagine, I've been out here 30 years, I can't imagine not being able to read a street sign or an exit, the language of the exit saying, Hey, this is such and such a road, west or east or north or south. How does that happen? And that being said, you're going back to, these guys are just driving by the GPS and I'm quite sure the GPS has got different languages and so forth, and they just solely rely on that GPS. How many times have you gotten into a mess? Relying on that GPS, how many times have you had a student get you in a mess relying on that GPS? I had a guy drove me about two miles down a dirt road dead headed into a cow pasture one time.'cause I made the mistake of thinking, Hey, the guy's on his last week, maybe I can, let him kinda lead the horse a little bit. I woke up staring out the wind of the cow pasture, at the back mile and a half out this dirt road. Literally they, the trees were, the bushes was rubbing both sides of the truck. I think he learned a very valuable lesson, but I did too, just letting the cat go. But I know when the GPSs first come out, man, I fought that. I fought it for years. I refused to get one. It's man, I was so used to calling, getting good directions, you knew. How to get directions. You learn real fast what to ask for. You ask them and you call it a place nowadays to ask directions into a facility. And these people don't even know how they get to work. They have no clue. I'm not joking with you and I know any of the truck drivers out here, they have encountered this. At one time or another, you call and ask the lady at the front desk, Hey, how do I get into your facility? And they got the deer in the headlight look, you hear this big long silence at the end of the line. And they don't know. They really don't know how they get to work and how they get home. That's unreal. And that kinda leads me into the other part here that I started seeing is the problem's, not just in CDLs, we have a lot of issues with undocumented driver's license. Across the country, regardless whether it's a CDL or it's in a car. DUIs, they just do whatever they think. This is the wild West over here. I believe. If I was here illegally I think I would be trying to like, lay low, not get out, drink and drive, not be trying to drive illegally. I believe I'd be trying to keep my head down. No, not these cat, not these people. No. They're very entitled. No, that's a good point. Yeah. They I think with the thought process there is basically, yeah, I'm here illegally and they know I'm here. Nobody cares. Look at the last administration look at the Obama administration. They welcomed them, bring them in. They're voters. They're they're gonna help us gain seats, in these districts. I'll just be back over here in two or three weeks. That's the mentality. And it is that easy to cross into our borders and coming through Canada and to through Mexico, and I believe the guy in Florida, the driver that did the U-turn, he came in through the country in through Mexico. He did, yes. He entered in through Mexico, into California. That's actually been confirmed. I've been watching and I'm seeing numbers thrown around at 200,000 drivers have been taken out of service. Due to not being able to speak English or understand English. And I gotta wonder when are we gonna see changes out here? When are we gonna see rates go up? Where's this big driver shortage? And I see people saying that's what's gonna happen. We're gonna have less products in the grocery stores because there's not enough drivers to get'em. And honestly, from what I'm thinking, you're probably not gonna get your Amazon packages fast because most of these foreign drivers, these, I see'em pulling Amazon trailers and I'm not trying to target Amazon, but I'm pretty sure any of your listeners out here would agree. We see a lot of Amazon trailers in the ditch. And I run up and down a lot through Cincinnati, Ohio, up into Michigan and so forth. And I'll be honest with you, state of Ohio, DOT really love Amazon trucks. Most generally when you see one pulled over, they definitely got the guy on the other road because, we spoke on this a little before, they don't keep their truck up. They run for a super cheap rate. They don't understand. And, that in turn is a domino effect with the rates of people out there, with the real expenses and families and houses and cars and trying to make a living out here as an owner operator, they run the rates down. And I think that's played a huge toll, not just in accidents or illegal CDLs or any of the above. That's played a hell of a role in our rates. Anytime you push up an influx of people into an industry, you're going to offset and destabilize its rate capacity. When you have more loads and you have trucks, you destabilize that rate and now all of a sudden, you got brokers saying, Hey, I can get this done cheaper over here. And you can't blame the broker. He is an opportunist. Like I've said before, I've been a broker. I've owned two freight brokerages. I used to be an agent for Trinity Logistics. I had my own, it started from scratch. It's I get it. And then you're going to be an opportunist. It's like you out there in the truck of that, if that broker says, Hey man, this pays$4 a mile, are you gonna argue with that guy? No, you're not. You're gonna just say, Hey, give it to me. Send it on over. Let's gimme the rate confirmation. Just like he's not gonna argue with you if he says, Hey, I can do that for a dollar 20 a. Your expenses, that's up to you, or at least you're supposed to. That going back, staying, that's where a lot of these guys come over. I feel like they get a lot of subsidy. They don't have any bills. They live for free, especially when they're not paying any taxes. If I didn't have to pay taxes, man I ain't going to lie, I'd be living a whole lot better than I live now. That's a big issue. They come over, even if they got work visas, is that they don't pay taxes. They get a loophole there. They go out and buy a rat truck. They don't put tires on it. They just run it into the ground and they go get'em another one. They do a lot of that. They'll, they're almost guaranteed financing in a lot of ways. It is ridiculous. And they flutter market and they destabilize their economy. In the trucking industry. That's actually something we're going to, talk about on the next episode we're gonna do a whole episode next on rates and what created the destabilization of the rates to where we're at now. The trucking industry, there's been no surprise. It's a roller coaster. You see the feast or fathom always been that way. Rates go up, influx, you got people running, jump in. And so man, they're gonna make a bunch of money and then the rates go back down. And this unexperienced owner operators, they don't know how to survive. They don't know how to manage their money. They don't know what their operating costs on the truck. Anybody can make money when the times are good. But what happens when the times are bad? That's where you gotta be able to manage micro manage that truck that's your biggest issue. As you see a lot of gain and a lot of shed, you'll gain a lot of drivers and then you'll shed a bunch that don't know how to operate, in fluctuating rates. I see. I see a few companies out there. I believe if it's all to name one prime Inc. There I've talked to some drivers from there. Some of'em are pretty well trained and I know they started their independent contractor careers with them. And they tell me that they actually work with our drivers. They teach'em, about rates and lanes and they teach'em how to manage their money and they have tax services and things like that for'em. We all know at one point or another if you're a true truck driver, you've had some tax issues. That's one of the hardest things to do is pay that income tax when you're trying to, do an end frame on your truck or get a new set of tires. It's who do I do, pay the IRS or people on the road? But they, and that's a good service for,'cause we see a lot of these guys they get their CDL, they drive for a month or so, and then they think, okay, I'm gonna go get a truck. I'm gonna go to Penske or Rider at lease a truck, and I'm gonna go over here to Ideal and get a trailer and get my own authority. And I'm, the streets are paid with gold and then they're broke. They're they can't go home. And, then their wives are upset and it destroys the families and they end up broke and bankrupt because they didn't know what to do. They didn't know that a dollar 20 a mile might sound good to a guy that's been making 35 cents a mile, but how much does it cost to run that truck? Are you going to drive 80 miles an hour because now you're ungoverned and you can get the freight there faster? Are you gonna watch your fuel mileage and try to make as much money off of that dollar 20 a mile as you can? And again, why are we at a dollar 20 a mile for freight that we used to get three$54 a mile for? And I believe a lot of that is due to the foreign drivers that have come in and or over there in their country, an American dollar might be worth 20 or$30 to them, so they see cheap freight is good paying. They run three, four guys deep in these trucks and they can figure it out. They can make it, they fly. I just saw an article the other day where they, these guys there was a truck pulled over. It was comment by a DOT officer. He said three guys were in a truck running on one logbook. They didn't understand that each driver had to have their own logbook. So these things factor in you can, I know this show was about accidents and I believe it's all in one big bundle. Oh, it's you got these guys I'm watching these Amazon drivers. I'm headed down nine five South right now through South Georgia, and it's just Amazon after Amazon truck going by and they're blowing everybody's doors off. Are they doing it because it's like the old days, if you can't get it there within a certain amount of time, you're gonna lose the contract. Are we dealing with something like that, that could factor into these accidents out here? You know what could be more of a cause than just not being able to read or write English? Is it always going to be a foreign driver? I don't think so. No. It could be a rookie driver, it could be a seasoned driver. It happens to anyone at any time, and they are a lot, that's not the foreign driver. And we don't come on here to dis dog different foreign drivers. We've had to point that out in some of the language barriers and the CDLs that were bought and stuff. And and that's just part of it, when we do a show, I try to look at everything, the good, the bad, the ugly. And if there's a foreign driver out there that does a great job, hey, I'd point him out in a heartbeat. If he wants to call in, hey, we'll bring him on the show. Let him tell his story. I have no reason to be one way or the other, whether they're a foreign driver, American driver or not, but they are a lot of American drivers that do stupid shit. I'm just gonna be real about it, just like one of the episodes I was talking about, very well known company one that's very hard to get a job with. They're very sought after company guys going down the road, 12 o'clock at night watching a movie. You can't make this stuff up. And it happens from all walks of life. People that just think they don't have to follow by the rules and that presents a problem. But right now they have been a big spotlight on the drivers and the bogus CDLs because that's been a problem for a long time. And it presents a bigger problem in safety. But it also, like we were just discussing, it causes a huge problem across the board for everything. When you flood a market with more drivers than it needs to sustain, what happens to your rates? Not to get into politics or try to stay away from politics as much as possible, but there's a reason that the last couple of administrations has kicked the gate off the hinges when it comes to the border. If you allow millions of people to flood into our country. It destabilizes their supply and demand. And when you destabilize supply and demand there's a food shortage. Now there's a housing shortage. Now there's all different sorts of shortages and what happens to the inflation? Inflation, skyrockets through the roof and everyone wants to set in, Hey, how are we gonna fix the inflation? De inflation's killing me. It's, it costs$4,$5 for a loaf of bread. Okay when we've got 3 million illegals in our country using up the same facilities and supplies that we use, it puts a strain on the system. And supply and demand controls your pricing market. That's where a lot of, I think your administration has allowed. The people to flood the thing because common it don't take a rocket scientist to figure out if you are paying$2 for a loaf of bread today and you flood the market with illegals and cause the inflation to go through the roof and now it's$5 for a loaf of bread, there's a substantial hike in taxes that the government gets. And when you spread out over billions and billions of products across that is purchased across their country, you start understanding why they don't want to border. And it doesn't matter how it affects you or me or anyone else. And it affects the trucking industry. When you allow people to come in here and flood our market with illegal CDLs, everything else there is a problem. People, that causes our rates to plummet. That's part of it. There's a bigger picture there, but that is part of it. And then you got insurance. That's another big thing. How many accidents? Like this right here happens before everyone starts paying a bigger premium on insurance, primary liability. It just, it affects everyone across the board. I wouldn't when it comes to the insurance, I gotta wonder, like this family down here in Florida, I know they're gonna sue, we all know they're gonna sue and they deserve to sue, but who are they suing? Are they suing the trucking company that's now out of business, their insurance company? What are they gonna get? How much coverage did this guy have? And is it gonna be enough? And again, I think, like I've said before, when we had a discussion on this, I think they should be able to go after these states. That allow this, that sell these CDLs that give'em away in some instances. I think they should be allowed to sue the states as well. And, you brought up that I live in Florida. I'm just outside of Jacksonville and saw on the news the other day that they've arrested a bunch of people at our local DMVs that are showing how they do it. The foreigners are coming in, they have a hole cut in their shirt, underneath that shirt is a vest of some sort, almost like a flat jacket. And they have their phones in that and the cameras are on, and basically the cameras aimed outside of that little hole. And they have an earpiece in and somebody's sitting outside in the parking lot with a laptop. Giving them the answers in their own language. And that's how they've caught a bunch of'em passing these tests. And the DMV's not the wiser. I know that when I have to go and renew my hazmat, I'm watched like a hawk and I do have to do a refresher in Florida, we keep our hazmats for four years. I can tell you right now, if I gotta take it next week, I'm gonna be spending the next four or five nights brushing up.'cause I forget a lot of stuff. I don't pull hazmat as much anymore. But, it's a good thing to do that. These guys, like I said, the DOT officer that pulled over these guys three in a truck running one log book, they actually had no idea they were doing something wrong. They thought one truck, one logbook, if I remember correctly that when I took my CDL, it tells you every driver has their own individual logbook. This is a factor right here of not understanding the English language, not understanding, our laws and our regulations out here, why we have them. And because these things do lead to accidents. And how do you know which driver to blame, who was on duty? Do they all point the finger at each other throw each other under the bus or, scatter and you gotta be able to hold accountability. And again, these guys that can't speak English didn't know any better. They thought they were doing the right thing. Yeah. That all goes back to actually going through the paces and doing the school and understanding and speaking English. You just can't have a wild west out here when it comes to federal commercial driver's license. If we went to a foreign country like we talked about earlier and obtained a CDL, you'd have to go completely through their course. You'd have to speak fluent whatever language that I actually researched this. What if I went to say South Korea, I'd have to be fluent. And they even say, you really have to know the language inside and out to pass that test because it's so detailed in language base, in the test. And if you're not fluent in Korea, you're not going to pass that test and you have to obtain a legal CDL. There's no permit, there's no just work permit visa or whatnot that's just gonna allow you to jump behind the wheel of a truck. I think that goes to save with any country, regardless of the fact we're kinda like the wild west over here. We're probably one of the only countries in the world that just comes in and say, Hey, sure. We just let we, we turn you loose and let you do whatever the hell you want to do. And just rock and roll. Go kill as many people as you feel like doing. And then, and just do your thing. I don't understand why we just kick the door off the hinges and give people commercial driver's license. How many people out here work really hard to pass that test, train, go through all the training, through all the steps to honorably. Receive a CDL and take pride in what they're doing. They go through all the training they do all the steps that they have to do to, obtain the CDL. And then we got guys that come in and say here's an extra 500 bucks or a thousand dollars or whatnot, and here you go. Guy rides off and, goes out and ends up into an accident. Yeah, we're the most regulated industry in this country, and yet my dad, my father who's passed away a couple years ago, his profession was a hairstylist. And he was amazed, that he had more training, more hours of training. And required training to become a hairstylist than I did to get a CDL. And I was like that's the way it is, dad. It's amazing. It just blew his mind that, unless he stabbed somebody to death with his scissors, or cut them and they got an infection and died. It was pretty safe industry. But yet he had more required training and actually had to take a harder test than I did. To get a license to cut hair. And here we are today with that where's the, we got all these regulations, but yet we're handed out CDLs left and right. It's it doesn't make sense. It's not right. It's really only hurting the drivers like us that did everything the right way, that have come out here and, have chewed up enough, enough asphalt that, I, you cut me, I bleed black. And I've done my time. I've worked out here. I've missed birthdays and anniversaries and holidays. I've lived out here on this road. I sleep better in a truck than I do at home. I know my way around Chicago and LA and New Jersey better than I know my way around Jacksonville, Florida.'Cause I'm out here more. Oh, exactly. And when we have this whole new era, and it's not again just the foreign drivers, but the new rookie driver, the new era of drivers as well, that have not had the training. A lot of'em, cheated their way through the CDLs and, they're learning. Some of'em are learning. I don't see a lot of the foreign drivers very interested in learning. I do see a lot of'em very timid to talk to American drivers because, maybe they're intimidated, maybe they sense that we don't like'em or trust'em. They do keep a lot to theirselves. I, I've seen some very good foreign drivers. I've seen a lot of guys with turbines on their head, put it in a hole in the parking lot or at the truck stop that, that, 20 other drivers couldn't do. Yeah, they have their quirks, they have their ways, they wash their feet in the sinks and things like that. And but that doesn't, that's not gonna get me or my family killed. And no. I think this whole thing now, we're having a rash of accidents and we can sit here and talk about each and every accident. You can have a show on each and every accident. But the bottom line is where is it starting from? And it's coming from basically getting free CDLs or even if you have to buy them. And where is that happening at? I know pretty much in, in blue states or sanctuary states or cities. California, Oregon, Washington, Mexico. It's even gotten so bad. It's happened in Kentucky. And I just said, even in my own state of Florida, in my own city, Jacksonville, we got guys that are cheating. And how is it the DMVs aren't watching for this, right? You got like right here. Perfect example. Louisiana Bribery scam. This was called in August 20, 25. Six individuals including a restaurant owner and a DMV training exam staff, has been indicted for orchestrating a scam. On bypass, bypassing the CDL requirement acknowledgement test there again. Next one down. Massachusetts, same thing. They've been busted at multiple times. Over from 20 to 24 to 20 to 25 multiple people busted for even a state. Two state troopers was even indicted in all this mess right here, Washington State Cash envelope scam, 520 to$530 in cash marked with student's, birth dates and names. And voila, you, you walk away with a CDL, New York DMV fraud. Here's another one. Queens based driving school and inclusion with the DMV employees facility. Untested applicants. These were a little bit more expensive. These guys may have been able to drive a little better. Hell, they were paying 1600 to$2,000 for their CDL. Them guys may be okay. I don't know. They paying a little more money for'em. California Trucking School bribery in 2024, probably the same guy. This guy I got his from, numbered over a hundred people that had been involved in this between 2011 and 2015. And then from there they reunited up into 2024 into even a bigger facility. It's like they get caught and they just come back bigger, better, your border tendencies and inside, somatic weaknesses across the state is a huge starting point. It has to start somewhere. And like you said, there's a lot of foreign drivers out there. Hey, they can drive. They can because they probably went through the school like everybody else. Learn how to drive got through CDL the right way. I have no problem with that whatsoever. None. Pay your dues. That's all I'm asking. And I think everybody else out here on the road, I know accidents happen and if you've done everything you could do, you went through their proper channels, you went through everything. You were here legally not illegally, legally. You obtained the CDL the correct manner. You went through all the steps, you did everything, and then you had an accident. There's not a lot I can say about that because accidents happen just like you or me or anybody else. Something is prone to happen at any given time. We spend many million miles over the terms of air driving career on the road. Some of us get lucky and we kept a really good record and that's great. But we spend a lot of time on the road and a lot of different case scenarios. It's not always our fault in a lot of ways, but we get blamed for it regardless. But I have no problem with the guys doing all the schooling and all that. No, that's the way it should be. And I've talked to I mentioned like earlier I've talked to several of'em and the key word there was talk. They spoke very good English. Never thought years ago that we would be in this situation that we're in now. Never would've thought that one day a driver might have to read Cat in the Hat or something at the weigh station to prove he could read. But these guys, and maybe that's something we should do. Maybe there should be a tip. Hotline or something just like ICE has a tip hotline, maybe there should be one set up where you know what drivers, if you're out at the TA and you're getting the country pride, or if you see a guy with a turbine on it, go talk to him. And if he says, hi, how are you? I'm out far, how you doing? And you say, good, guy speaks English, but if he can't understand a word you're saying, maybe there should be a hotline, a number to call to say, Hey you might wanna check this guy out. He's driving in a truck, here's his MC number. Maybe they can catch him down the road. He'll go through a away station, they'll ping him and bring him in and it'll maybe save some more lives. These guys, if they're here legally and they can't read, they lose their CDL for a while, they can take some English courses and, I don't think they're asking for very much. You don't have to be as fluent. I know some American boys down there, some good old country boys, I can't understand the word they say. But they know how to read signs so well. I think that's why they reduced it down to cat hat. Not everybody out here, back in the day, the old school, that was the thing. Half them guys probably couldn't read or write, but they could understand and they could talk and they understood what things meant. There was a lot of successful drivers back in the day that just really struggled. And you realize a lot of people goes into this industry and they don't have the greatest education, the gears have predominantly been a very easy industry to get into with minimal education. I feel like the industry itself is a huge educator. You learn a lot, very street smart, you definitely get street smarter, you're gonna live a pretty hard life out here. So it's, definitely an industry that'll teach you a lot about life, a lot about, just everything. Yeah. It's like the old song says, I'm looking at the world through a windshield, and you do become detached and things that I, it's like outside the box and looking at, and things that are, other people are missing. Joe Public watches the news. They go home and they say, ah, look man, these foreign drivers are being targeted. That's just so wrong. People have been here, I've heard it said they've been here 20 years and now they're losing their livelihood. If you've been here 20 years and you haven't learned the language yet you need to lose your livelihood. You need to go back to your country. Make your own country better. Let us be if you wanna be here, learn to be here. Learn the language, learn the rules, do things the right way. Like you, you've said many times that I pay your dues. Sometimes paying your dues or getting the education, the training, not just spending the time out here. You gotta learn, you gotta read to and there again, that's why they say the tr the cat in the hat, that's a really basic book. The three or 4-year-old child could break this book down. And that's saying a lot. And if you cannot read that, I don't want you out there riding alongside my family. And that's just the bottom line. And you gotta ask yourself, do you want this person? And I used to do this a lot when I trained. This was my deciding factor, especially when near the end of the training is if I asked myself, do I want this student? Do I feel comfortable with this guy riding alongside my family? And if that answer was yes. He passed. And if that answer was no, even if I liked the person, I had to fail. And it was up to the company at that point to listen. Which most of the time they didn't. But it is frustrating. Yeah. We can do several episodes on the training and the training industry over the years. I think I trained a total on and off of probably 13, 14 years. I put a lot of good students out. I've got a lot out here to be proud about and, not everyone takes the pride in doing their job. There's a lot of people that just, there's a power trip to'em. It's a title to hang around their. Makes sure they're more, is more important of making theirself feel bigger, badder. They don't think about the real job of being able to teach somebody. That's a lot of people, like I mentioned, Joe Public, they look at this as you're just driving. How hard can it be? They don't see what we see. We've said for years and years that, before somebody even gets a driver's license, they ought to have to come out here and ride a truck for a week or two and see what we see and why we do the things we do. A professional driver. That is why we move over for disabled vehicles. I remember the Smith system, I don't know if any of you guys remember that all good kids love milk I still today and I, when I taught my kids to drive a car, I taught'em the Smith system and hopefully they'll use it. And but you don't see these things anymore. The training, I believe, maybe these guys come here, they get work visas if they're here legally. And they say, Hey, I want to be a truck driver. Even if they can't speak English, maybe there should be some training for that as well. Get'em trained properly, same way we are. Cut'em some slack. They've gotta learn a whole new culture. Maybe interstate instead of interstate commerce let'em spend some time here, get some miles under their belt, but they a certified trainer. Have'em go through a DOT exam and and do it the right way. And maybe we can minimize some of these accidents out here.'cause ah, these are some good people. They're here for a reason. A lot of'em are here for political reasons, for, persecution in their own homelands. A lot of'em just want to, come here. The, our streets are paved with gold. It's the land of opportunity, and I get it. They they're trying to support their families. And as long as that's the reason they're here, and not to tear down buildings, or take over our government or push a religion on us, then I'm all for'em. Hey man, welcome. But pay your dues, pay your taxes, do the same thing I have to do. Otherwise it's not right. It's not fair. And honestly I sit here behind the wheel. And I look over at every truck that passes and oftentimes I see the tassels hanging from the window there before I see the turbine on the head or, the long beard. And I think, like you just said, what I feel comfortable with that guy driving next to my family and when I'm headed south on 95 like I am right now, and I see him going towards Jacksonville. I wonder, where are my kids at tonight? Are they out on the road or are they gonna somehow meet up with this guy somewhere? It gives you an uneasy feeling. Yeah, most definitely. And if, I think if we could restore the confidence in the average man or woman out here on the road when they went by an 18 wheeler, if you could restore the confidence that. And that guy was fully trained. And I remember back when I was a kid, they was no better driver on the road in my mind than that guy driving that big rig. You always kinda give him the old fist pump, hear the big horn. That guy was the king of the road. What we look like now, it's a motley crew. Yeah, it's a little different than what we look like now. And what's good for one, what's good for one is mirrors off into everyone else. It makes us all look bad.'cause you can't tell the guy that you walked past in the rest area that you're not one of the other guys that, they look at you the same. And, as an industry, I think we've developed. A bad reputation, and we've brought a lot of slack on ourself when people find out you drive a truck. Over the years, I've seen a lot of different things out here and the truck stops and the trash and we could do better. I'm gonna keep monitoring and again, I appreciate you having me on here tonight and discussing this, I keep watching what happens. I think I said it during the last time I called in that I foresee a lot more of this coming, and sure enough, we're starting to see more accidents. I don't know, maybe the news and the media is starting to pay more attention and everything that's going on is getting some attention. But it's definitely changing and, it's not just my state. I know it's happening everywhere, but right now Florida's really hot on this. Every news channel I see from Miami to Jacksonville to Pensacola is reporting on every truck accident that happens. I'll check back in with you at another time. If I see anything I'll call in and it's been an enjoyable show. I know you've got other things to talk about and, yeah, I hope you come back and we revisit this and we got better news next time. Yeah, me too. I noticed that they definitely picked up the pace and started putting, ICE and immigration DOT and a lot of stuff and all the way stations and so forth in Georgia, Florida, and hopefully in a lot of other states rounding up some of this and get some of these unlicensed drivers. I think I read an article about they went into the feds, went into California DMV, and I think they were finding a whole lot of, CDLs with no test scores attached there, no social security numbers. Hopefully they'll start rounding these guys up, and get some of these off the road before we get somebody else killed. That's the biggest problem, like I said, many times. If you just train, do the right thing, nobody has a problem with foreign drivers on the road. At least I don't. It just learn what you're doing, it makes us all look bad as an industry. I think I'm gonna wrap it up here. Daniel, I do appreciate you calling in and I appreciate you having me. We will be moving on here. Next few days. We're gonna do a deep dive on rates and we're gonna touch base on some of the things that we talked about a little here. How we got to this point where the rates and everything, where they're at. Some of the many factors played into that we're gonna break down some of the different costs is influxed on truckers. Just gonna go over a bunch of different things, y'all are gonna be looking forward to that on the next episode. We'll get done with this one. Yeah, that sounds like a good show right there. I'd like to listen to that. All right. If I can, I'll call in and take part of it. All right, buddy. Be glad to hear from you. All righty. All right, thank you. All right. Y'all keep it safe. That’s gonna do it for this episode of The Trucker’s Radio Podcast, powered by Sabren Group LLC. 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