These California trucking schools broke state laws. Regulators couldn’t do anything about it

When commercial truck drivers are speeding down California’s highways and interstates with thousands of pounds of cargo in tow, a single mistake can be catastrophic. 

Yet California fails to regulate most of the schools that train truck drivers, allowing nearly 200 unlicensed schools to operate with effectively no oversight, according to a CalMatters analysis of state and federal records. And when the state has tried to use its limited authority to discipline schools for shortchanging students or flouting the law, its regulators are often powerless, according to the analysis.   

Without regulatory oversight, industry experts say there is no way to know whether students coming out of those schools are prepared to operate a big rig safely.

All aspiring truckers are required to attend specialized driving schools, where they study a dense curriculum — learning what to do, for instance, in the event of a skid or when the trailer swings out uncontrollably from the cab. Only then can they take the necessary exams at the California Department of Motor Vehicles. 

Both the federal government and the state of California have systems for regulating trucking schools, making sure that they adhere to the curriculum, that the tuition costs are fair and that students are ultimately prepared to get behind the wheel of a truck. 

But in California there is a loophole: Private trucking schools that charge students $2,500 or less don’t need state licenses, effectively exempting them from oversight. 

When the state has tried to discipline schools, some reduced their tuition to $2,500 or less, at which point they no longer needed to heed the state’s orders. Other schools just disregarded the state’s orders altogether, the analysis shows. 

The state has “more limited” tools for pursuing disciplinary action against trucking schools once they claim an exemption, said Monica Vargas, a spokesperson for California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, which is in charge of monitoring most private trade schools. She said the bureau can fine schools for violations, but if they refuse to pay, the state has no additional leverage beyond sending the fine to a collections agency.

The bureau told the Legislature in a report last year that it gave licenses to 42 trucking schools. The total number of trucking schools could be roughly three times that, the bureau said, and Vargas later clarified that “exact numbers could not be known.”

To determine a more accurate estimate of schools, CalMatters used a federal database that lists all trucking schools, regardless of their tuition rate. But it’s not clear how accurate or comprehensive that list is. The federal government asks schools to self-register, and it doesn’t “approve or certify” the information that schools provide.

Using the federal list, CalMatters found at least 184 California trucking schools that are not regulated by the state, including at least nine schools the bureau has tried — and failed — to regulate or shut down.

Last year, Assemblymember Mike Fong, an Alhambra Democrat, proposed a bill to close the state’s tuition loophole for trucking schools. In his testimony for the bill, Fong said increased regulation of exempt trucking schools could make California’s highways safer for everyone. He cited federal data showing more than 400 people died on California’s roads in truck-related crashes in 2022 but in an interview, he acknowledged that there’s “no data to directly correlate” any of those crashes with the volume of unlicensed schools. 

The exemptions to licensing laws were intended for companies offering SAT or LSAT test prep courses, Fong said in an interview — those that “do not affect public safety,” he added. “This bill is really to close a loophole in current law.” 

Steve Gold, the founder and CEO of 160 Driving Academy, a chain of trucking schools, was a leader behind the development of the bill. “Because I’m (bureau) certified, my curriculum is on file. I have a surety bond in the state of California. I can’t rip you off as a student. I have insurance. The state of California has approved and walked my site,” he said in an interview with CalMatters, noting that approval took 18 months. Gold said his commercial trucking programs charge $6,000 and require about four weeks or 160 hours of training, a far cry from unlicensed programs that tell students they can finish in as little as 15 hours.

“Unsuspecting everyday drivers have no idea the 80,000 pound truck on the highway is operated by an individual who’s not properly trained,” said Gold during his testimony for the bill last year. The California Association of Highway Patrolmen, a labor union representing CHP officers, also spoke in support. 

The bill failed, though no one publicly opposed it. 

‘Fly-by-night’ schools

Most of the unlicensed trucking schools consist of just a parking lot, a few trucks that students can practice on and a room or two for self-study. Some trucking school owners call these unlicensed programs “fly-by-night” schools — because they are small and unlicensed they can open anywhere or suddenly close and change owners or names with little notice.

That’s what happened with the Truck Nation School in Modesto. On Aug. 19, Ricardo Chavez, who was enrolled at the school, was headed there to prepare for his DMV exam, scheduled just two days later. He showed up to find the gates to the parking lot locked and a sign that simply said the school had shut down.   

The sudden closure derailed his career plans. A trucking job was a path forward, he said, a way to earn a better living than his current rotation of gig jobs, such as putting up blinds and detailing cars. He had quit working, paid about $2,000 in tuition and fees to attend the trucking school and was hiring a babysitter to take care of his two kids so he could attend class for a few hours each day. 

In the days after the school closed, he failed the DMV exam and failed it again on the second try. He finally passed on the third attempt, almost three weeks later and after paying about $300 to a different school, but he still doesn’t have a trucking job.

The state has a special program designed to refund students who lose their money when a school abruptly closes, but to qualify the student must attend a school licensed by the bureau. Since it charged $2,500 or less, the Truck Nation School was exempt. 

“It’s been horrible,” said Chavez, who was planning to work as an agricultural truck driver. Because it took him so long to get the license, he said he missed the window to work during the peak of harvest season. 

Repeated attempts to reach representatives of Truck Nation for comment were unsuccessful. 

Vargas, the state spokesperson, said the bureau investigates an exempt school if someone files a complaint about it or if there’s an “internal tip.” Citations are rare. In the 2024-25 academic year, Vargas said the bureau issued citations to 15 unlicensed trucking schools.

How trucking schools avoid discipline 

Even when schools are licensed, state enforcement is limited. A 2024 CalMatters investigation found that state employees and contractors were referring students to Dolphin Trucking School, which received tuition subsidies through a federal job training program. While the Los Angeles school was pocketing thousands of dollars in subsidies for many of its students, it was in the midst of a state investigation that included accusations of unqualified teachers and hazardous learning conditions.

The bureau stripped the school of its license in August 2024 following inquiries from CalMatters, but now the family that owned it is operating a new school, “DTS Technical, Inc.,” with the same office location. The logo even has a dolphin on it, a nod to its former name. On its website, DTS Technical, Inc. lists tuition at $2,500, plus a required $500 fee, for its comprehensive commercial driver’s license course and says that students can use public subsidies from the state’s Department of Rehabilitation to pay tuition. 

Carla Galvez, the owner of the now-closed Dolphin Trucking School, said she has no affiliation with DTS Technical, Inc. and refused to answer any questions on behalf of the family members who are listed as the owners of the new school. CalMatters called and emailed DTS, Technical Inc. but received no response.

In another instance, the state issued a letter to El Monte Truck Driving School in the San Gabriel Valley in April 2021, telling it to cease operations for failing to document tuition costs and keep appropriate records, among other violations. The school kept operating anyway. More than three years later, the state issued another order to close and fined the school $100,000 for disregarding the previous order. The only way it can stay open and continue operating, the state wrote, is if it qualifies for an exemption, such as charging $2,500 or less. 

The school is still operating as of this month and charges students $4,000, according to the school’s secretary, who spoke to CalMatters on the phone. She refused to answer other questions, such as whether the school qualifies for another exemption. Certain religious schools, nonprofit organizations and apprenticeship programs are exempt from state oversight.

Vargas, the state spokesperson, said El Monte Truck Driving School is making payments on a payment plan for the $100,000 fine. 

In some cases federal officials have gone after trucking schools for criminal activity. In a series of cases dating back to 2011, the U.S. Attorney General’s Office prosecuted 20 trucking school owners, California DMV employees, and intermediaries who conspired to give trucking licenses to unqualified drivers, many of whom never took a DMV exam. In an announcement in 2022, the attorney general stated the school owners bribed DMV employees to help “failing or unqualified students” get their licenses. “In total, hundreds of fraudulent commercial driver license permits and licenses were issued as a part of these schemes, jeopardizing public safety,” the office wrote in its statement.

Are schools properly training tomorrow’s truck drivers? 

The state exemptions and the lack of federal vetting mean there are few records on whether schools are adequately preparing drivers. Along with DMV exams, California state law says that trucking students need to spend at least 15 hours behind the wheel of a truck before they can receive a license. Since 2022, federal law also requires trucking schools to teach a specific curriculum that involves learning the parts of a truck and ways to operate it safely. 

Students at some exempt schools interviewed by CalMatters said they struggled to get time behind the wheel and that they often had to teach themselves. 

Aramis Andrews told CalMatters he paid more than $3,000 to attend Premier Trucking School in Red Bluff, which is unlicensed. Andrews said the instructor expected him to teach himself online before attending class, after which he was promised 20 hours of behind-the-wheel practice. But when he showed up to the school, the instructor was upset that Andrews wasn’t more prepared and kicked him out of the program on the second day. “He (the instructor) wanted me to go to the school and already know everything and just drive around some and make sure I was good at it,” Andrews said. “I feel like it was just a scam to be honest.” 

Joe German, the school’s owner, said he kicked Andrews out because he “didn’t take the course seriously.” German said he gave Andrews a refund for the remainder of the program, which Andrews disputes. 

In December, the bureau fined Premier Trucking School $12,500 for operating without a license or a valid exemption. German said he paid the fine, though he denied any intentional wrongdoing. He said he was unaware of the bureau’s rules and that the full licensing process “would bankrupt us.” The bureau “is set up for universities or big, big schools,” he said, “not a school that’s one or two trucks.” 

For Gold, the CEO of 160 Driving Academy, the lack of regulation is the main reason for the poor training some students receive. “These schools do not have a comprehensive approved training curriculum and there’s no way they are compliant with the federal rules. Who knows the level of training they are conducting?” he said during his testimony for Fong’s bill last year. “The unsuspecting consumer has no idea.” 

Fong said he would not comment on why his bill did not pass, but he noted the state had a “tough budget last year.” The bill died in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, where fiscal matters are addressed. One estimate by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education 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 the schools could recoup roughly half of those costs. The Legislature is considering the bill again this year.

The trucking school ‘mill’ 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, appointed by President Donald Trump, has made cracking down on trucking schools a central piece of his agenda. He argues — with only anecdotal evidence — that many schools, especially those in California, are graduating immigrants who don’t speak English and who drive more dangerously than other truckers. 

In December, Duffy said the department had removed nearly 3,000 trucking schools from its national registry for falsifying data, neglecting the federally required curriculum or refusing to provide certain records. The department also notified an additional 4,500 schools about “potential noncompliance,” though it did not respond to CalMatters questions about the specifics of those violations. Duffy has said repeatedly that some trucking schools are “mills,” helping students receive driver’s licenses even when they lack the qualifications.

Despite Duffy’s efforts, institutions with repeated violations still appear on the national registry. The Fresno Truck Driving School Inc. was inspected six times in the last two years, with the U.S. Transportation Department repeatedly finding that the emergency brakes on its trucks weren’t properly operating. It also reported that the school had a driver who could not “read or speak the English language sufficiently to respond to official inquiries.”

“If you’re getting an inspection (from the federal government), that means something has gone terribly wrong,” said Zach Cahalan, the executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, which advocates for truck safety and the victims of truck-related crashes. Still, he said trucks often are cited for multiple violations before the federal government tries to shut down the carrier.

The transportation department proposed removing Premier Trucking School from its registry, and the school is now closed. DTS Technical, Inc. is still on the federal list. So is the Truck Nation School in Modesto, even though it’s been closed for months.  

A different school, the Truck Master School, took over the lease of Truck Nation, where Chavez used to practice. Truck Master charges just under $2,500, and like its predecessor, it’s exempt from state oversight.