On February 5-6, 2026, the Driver Legitimacy Summit will be held in Atlanta — an industry summit dedicated to one of the most pressing issues in American freight transport: fraud with commercial driver's licenses (CDL) and insufficient verification of driver legitimacy.
The event will bring together carriers, brokers, insurance companies, regulatory representatives, and technology providers. The main goal is to develop practical and applicable standards for driver verification that will help reduce risks for the entire logistics chain. The summit and its agenda are detailed by FreightWaves.
According to the summit's founder, Philip Nenadov, "driver legitimacy is no longer an abstract concept — it is a matter of direct responsibility and potential legal vulnerability for carriers, brokers, and shippers." This statement was made ahead of the summit in January 2026.
Alongside industry initiatives, federal authorities have significantly increased oversight of the driver training and licensing system. At the end of 2025, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced a large-scale audit of educational institutions operating under the Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) program.
In an official statement, FMCSA emphasizes that thousands of training centers may be removed from the federal registry if they do not prove compliance with established training and reporting standards. The regulator explicitly states that the goal of these measures is to protect public safety and eliminate practices where CDLs are effectively issued without comprehensive training. These actions are detailed in FMCSA materials published on fmcsa.dot.gov.
The American Trucking Associations (ATA) publicly supported the tightening of control. Representatives of the association stated that weak oversight of driver training undermines trust in the profession and creates systemic risks for road safety.
In one of ATA's statements, it is emphasized that "quality and verifiable driver training is the foundation of safety, not a formality." The association also insists on the need for uniform standards for all states and transparent control over training programs. This position is reflected in ATA's official publications on trucking.org.
The issue of CDL fraud affects several levels of the industry:
- Safety: drivers without proper training increase the risk of serious accidents.
- Legal risks: carriers and brokers may be held liable for using drivers with illegitimate documents.
- Financial losses: insurance payouts, legal costs, and increased insurance rates.
- Industry reputation: trust from clients and regulators directly depends on market transparency and discipline.
The Driver Legitimacy Summit is expected to be a starting point for a more systematic approach to CDL driver verification. The outcome may include recommendations for mandatory verification procedures, enhanced data exchange between states and the private sector, as well as new requirements for brokers and carriers.
For market participants, this means the need to start revising hiring processes, driver file audits, and interactions with training centers now — before regulatory measures become even stricter.