Most California trucking schools that train commercial drivers operate outside state licensing oversight because they can claim an exemption tied to tuition costs, according to a CalMatters analysis reviewed by the Associated Press. The analysis said California regulators are left with “more limited” tools once such schools take the exemption route, limiting the state’s leverage to compel compliance and discipline violations.
The result, the analysis and industry experts say, is that there is little public assurance about whether students leaving those programs receive training sufficient for safe big-rig operation.
California law generally requires prospective truck drivers to attend specialized driving schools before taking exams through the California Department of Motor Vehicles, where students are expected to master safety-focused driving content such as how to respond to skids or trailer swings. The state and the federal government both have systems intended to regulate trucking schools, including oversight of curriculum, tuition practices, and whether students are prepared to get behind the wheel.
But the CalMatters analysis points to a state loophole that turns on private schools’ tuition pricing. It found that private trucking schools that charge students $2,500 or less do not need state licenses, effectively exempting them from state oversight. CalMatters said some schools reduced tuition to meet that threshold, while others ignored state orders altogether.
Monica Vargas, a spokesperson for California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, said in the report that the bureau’s disciplinary tools are “more limited” after a school claims the exemption. She said the bureau can fine schools for violations, but if schools do not pay, the state has “no additional leverage” beyond referring the fines to a collections agency. The bureau also told lawmakers in a prior report that it had issued licenses to 42 trucking schools, and Vargas later clarified that “exact numbers could not be known.”
CalMatters used a federal database listing trucking schools without needing the schools to be approved or certified by the federal government. In the analysis, CalMatters found at least 184 California trucking schools not regulated by the state, including at least nine schools the bureau had tried to regulate or shut down. The analysis acknowledged uncertainty in how accurate or comprehensive the federal list is, because the federal government asks schools to self-register and does not approve or certify the information schools provide.
The analysis also described how many of the unlicensed programs appear to be “fly-by-night” operations—small in scale, with limited equipment and space, and able to open with little notice or close abruptly. CalMatters recounted one example in Modesto involving Truck Nation School, where Ricardo Chavez enrolled and planned to take his DMV exam two days later. He arrived to find the parking lot gates locked and a sign saying the school had shut down, a sudden closure that disrupted his plans and left him still without a trucking job after multiple DMV exam attempts and after paying about $300 to a different school.
Chavez’s experience also highlighted the state’s student refund framework, which CalMatters said requires enrollment in a school licensed by the bureau. Because Truck Nation School charged $2,500 or less, it qualified for the exemption, and Chavez did not receive the refund support under that program. Chavez called the closure “horrible,” saying the delay caused him to miss a peak harvest season window for work as an agricultural truck driver. CalMatters reported that repeated attempts to reach Truck Nation representatives for comment were unsuccessful.
Vargas said the bureau investigates an exempt school if someone files a complaint or if there is an “internal tip,” and that citations are rare. She said the bureau issued citations to 15 unlicensed trucking schools in the 2024-25 academic year.
Even where trucking schools are licensed, the analysis said enforcement can remain limited and compliance can be difficult to sustain. CalMatters described a 2024 investigation involving Dolphin Trucking School in Los Angeles, where state employees and contractors referred students to the program and the school received tuition subsidies through a federal job training initiative. In that account, the school faced an ongoing state investigation that included accusations of unqualified teachers and hazardous learning conditions. The bureau stripped the school of its license in August 2024, but CalMatters reported that the family that owned it began operating a new school, “DTS Technical, Inc.,” using the same office location and a name and logo that included a dolphin motif. CalMatters said DTS Technical lists tuition at $2,500 plus a required $500 fee and indicates students can use public subsidies from the state’s Department of Rehabilitation to pay tuition, and that CalMatters received no response from DTS Technical when contacted.
The analysis also described enforcement steps that the state said did not stop continued operations, citing El Monte Truck Driving School. CalMatters reported that the bureau sent a cease-operations letter in April 2021 for failing to document tuition costs and keep records, among other violations, and that the school continued operating. It said that more than three years later the state issued an order to close and fined the school $100,000 for disregarding the previous order, and that the only way to remain open, the state wrote, was to qualify for an exemption such as charging $2,500 or less. Vargas said the school was making payments on a payment plan for the $100,000 fine, while CalMatters reported the school was still operating as of the time of the account and charging $4,000.
At the federal level, CalMatters said criminal cases have targeted fraud and bribery related to trucking licenses. It also described a separate federal effort, tied to a national registry and federal scrutiny, in which Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, appointed by President Donald Trump, said the department removed nearly 3,000 trucking schools from the national registry in December for falsifying data, neglecting the federally required curriculum, or refusing to provide records, and notified an additional 4,500 schools about “potential noncompliance.” CalMatters reported that Duffy’s claims focused on the idea that some trucking schools function as “mills,” including concerns about students graduating without speaking English, but that the department did not respond to CalMatters questions about the specifics of the potential violations when asked.
The CalMatters analysis also said that oversight gaps leave few clear records about whether exempt schools adequately prepare drivers. It noted that California law requires at least 15 hours behind the wheel before licensing, and that federal law since 2022 requires trucking schools to teach a specific curriculum covering parts of the truck and safe operation. Still, it said some students at exempt schools told CalMatters they struggled to get enough time behind the wheel and often had to teach themselves.
CalMatters included an account from Aramis Andrews, who told the outlet he paid more than $3,000 to attend Premier Trucking School in Red Bluff, an unlicensed program. Andrews said he was told to teach himself online before attending class, and that he was promised 20 hours of behind-the-wheel practice, but that the instructor kicked him out on the second day. Andrews said the instructor wanted him to arrive already prepared, and Andrews said, “I feel like it was just a scam to be honest.” The school’s owner, Joe German, said Andrews was removed because he “didn’t take the course seriously,” and German told CalMatters he provided a refund for the remainder of the program, which Andrews disputed.
In another part of the account, the bureau fined Premier Trucking School $12,500 in December for operating without a license or a valid exemption, and CalMatters reported that German said he paid the fine while denying intentional wrongdoing. German also said he was unaware of the bureau’s rules and said the licensing process “would bankrupt us,” adding that the bureau “is set up for universities or big, big schools,” not a smaller operation with “one or two trucks.”
CalMatters also quoted Steve Gold, founder and CEO of 160 Driving Academy, describing regulation as a driver of training quality. During testimony for the bill introduced by Fong, Gold said, “These schools do not have a comprehensive approved training curriculum and there’s no way they are compliant with the federal rules,” and argued, “Who knows the level of training they are conducting?” Gold said during testimony that “The unsuspecting consumer has no idea.”
Fong, an Alhambra Democrat, proposed a bill last year aimed at closing the tuition-based exemption for trucking schools. In testimony, CalMatters said he argued that increased regulation of exempt schools could make highways safer, pointing to federal data showing more than 400 people died on California roads in truck-related crashes in 2022. In an interview, CalMatters reported that Fong acknowledged there was “no data to directly correlate” those deaths with the volume of unlicensed schools. Fong told CalMatters the tuition loophole was originally intended for test-prep companies and that his bill was meant “to close a loophole in current law.”
The bill failed, CalMatters said, though no one publicly opposed it. CalMatters reported that one estimate from the bureau said it would cost more than $800,000 a year to hire five new staff members to regulate all trucking schools, though registration fees paid by schools could recoup roughly half of those costs. The Legislature is considering the bill again this year.
The account also tied the issue to national attention on trucking-school oversight. CalMatters said Duffy has made cracking down on trucking schools a central part of his agenda and has argued, using anecdotal evidence, that some schools graduate immigrants who do not speak English and who drive more dangerously than other truckers. CalMatters reported, however, that federal efforts have not always prevented repeat violators from appearing on the national registry, and that some schools remain listed even after being shut down under certain circumstances.
This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.