The DMV shouldn’t sideline lawful commercial truck drivers | Opinion

California shouldn’t remove lawful truck drivers from the workforce while administrative and regulatory questions remain unresolved — especially when those drivers have already met every safety and licensing requirement.

I am an independent owner-operator based in Sacramento and a co-founder of Freedom Drivers, an alliance of immigrant truckers. I hold the same commercial driver’s license and carry the same insurance as any other driver on the road.

I came to the United States legally in 2012 on a B-1/B-2 visa. Before becoming a commercial driver, I spent five years driving for Uber and worked for a hospice company delivering emergency medical equipment in a box truck.

In 2021, I decided to obtain my commercial driver’s license. I passed the written exam in English and completed several months of formal classroom and behind-the-wheel training at a state-licensed trucking school listed in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s registry. After earning my license, I spent roughly six months driving as part of a team with experienced operators, learning long-haul routes, safety procedures and the daily discipline the job requires.

For the past five years, I have operated my own trucking business.

But now my license is facing cancellation. This is not happening because my license is expiring or because my work permit has lapsed: My documents are valid and I have no safety violations on my record.

The issue is a date mismatch between my work authorization and the way it was recorded on my license — and that discrepancy is now being used as grounds to cancel my license.

My situation is not unusual — it reflects what many immigrant commercial driver’s license holders across California are experiencing: valid documents, clean records and licenses tied to dates that were entered inconsistently. We followed the process, provided the paperwork and passed the required tests. Yet we are now facing removal from the workforce because of how those dates appear in a system.

The Department of Motor Vehicles has our documents. These dates have been reviewed and corrected before, and they can be corrected again. What is at stake is not whether we meet safety standards, it is whether compliant drivers will be sidelined over clerical inconsistencies, while broader regulatory questions are sorted out.

Nearly one in five commercial drivers nationwide is an immigrant. In California, we help move the state’s economy every day. We haul produce from the Central Valley, containers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and freight from distribution hubs supplying stores, manufacturers and hospitals up and down the coast.

“Safety” is not just a phrase to us; it is how we maintain our livelihoods. When I take a fully-loaded trailer down the Grapevine in winter fog, safety means checking the brakes twice, keeping my distance, watching wind and weather conditions, and knowing when to slow down — even if the schedule is tight. That judgment comes from formal training, real-world experience and respect for the responsibility of operating an 80,000-pound vehicle.

Drivers who complete formal training, pass English testing and maintain clean safety records strengthen safety on the road; they are not a safety risk.

From refrigerated trailers leaving farm country at daybreak to tankers pulling into hospitals at midnight, truck drivers carry time-sensitive loads with real consequences. When lawful, experienced drivers are removed all at once, the strain shows up quickly — not only in supply chains, but in the loss of operators who understand routes, equipment, and safety protocols.

For an independent trucker, cancellation is not abstract. After working as a company driver, I invested my savings and took out a loan to purchase my own truck. If my commercial driver’s license is canceled, my income stops immediately, but my truck payment, insurance and permits do not. My family depends on this business.

This is not about grievance, it is about stability and predictability under the rules we agreed to follow. Small-business truckers plan carefully and operate conservatively. We maintain our equipment, pass inspections and comply with federal standards because safety matters.

Drivers are not asking for special treatment; we are asking for consistent treatment. We passed the same exams and met the same federal standards as every other commercial driver’s license holder. Lawful, credentialed drivers who satisfied every requirement should not be removed from the workforce over date conflicts in documentation while those issues are being reviewed.

Safety should be measured by training, driving history, inspection records and real-world performance — not by clerical discrepancies. California can uphold public safety while also ensuring that compliant drivers are not pushed off the road unnecessarily.

We met every standard and followed every rule. We built our businesses in good faith under California’s system. We are asking for the opportunity to keep working under the standards we have already satisfied.

Amarjit Singh is an independent owner-operator from Sacramento and co-founder of Freedom Drivers, a California alliance of immigrant truckers.