A midwestern trucking VP says that the freight recession is at least partially caused by illegal immigrants drivers underbidding loads.
Mike Kucharski, co-owner and vice president of JKC Trucking out of Illinois, says that illegal immigrant truck drivers are “killing the trucking business.”
“We knew there was an issue right after COVID because the rates dropped down, and we just thought, ‘OK, look, it’s just inflation… the wars, et cetera, all these aspects causing the volumes to be down,” the midwestern trucking VP said to Fox News. “We’re thinking, ‘OK, in the long run, these volumes will go back up to what they were pre-COVID conditions or just go back to regular volumes, and we’ll be back in business.’ But what happened? The complete opposite happened. They went down and stayed down, and we never knew, as truckers, what was the problem.”
Kucharski went on to describe non-domiciled CDLs as a “loophole” that can be exploited by immigrant drivers.
“As a business owner, I was thinking, ‘Well, who is taking all these loads?’ Now I could figure it out that this is another shockwave that’s hitting the truck industry after COVID and violent volatility, these [non-domiciled] drivers are coming in and doing it for cheaper because they don’t care, and… they don’t have Social Security numbers, and I assume they’re probably not filing for taxes. So, if you’re not going to pay all your bills, of course, you can do it cheaper and keep on trucking.”
Kucharski says that Secretary Duffy and other industry leaders need to take action. Duffy announced recently that he will withhold as much $160M from California for issuing illegal CDLs, and may even eliminate their ability to issue CDLs entirely.
“All our truckers are fighting for the same load, and it goes to the lowest bidder,” he went on. “If you have these drivers coming in that are non-domiciled, they have no family here, they have no home, they live in their truck… They’re saying, ‘OK, look, all the market’s doing for $2,000, we’ll do it for $1,700.’ So, it’s putting small trucking businesses out of business every day.”
“We’re overregulated, honestly, in the trucking industry. And if you’re overregulated, you think, ‘Well, there’s no way that this could happen,’ and it is happening, right now as we speak,” he said. “It’s eye-opening, disturbing and jaw-dropping.”
“California continues to follow federal rules regarding CDLs,” a spokesperson for California Governor Newsom told Fox News.
“Lost in the immigrant-bashing is the fact that drivers holding a California-issued CDL are involved in fatal crashes at a rate far lower than the national average. If the focus were on safety, California should be a poster child, not a scapegoat.
“Consistent with federal law, California issued commercial driver’s licenses only to drivers if the federal government confirmed their legal presence,” the spokesperson went on, adding, “The Trump administration didn’t like these federal rules and just recently changed them to restrict refugees, DACA holders, and others from being able to apply for a CDL.”
“This is a very serious crisis issue,” the midwestern trucking VP continued. “The trucking industry depends on trust. That means ensuring every driver on the road is properly licensed, well-trained, and mentally and physically fit to operate heavy equipment.”
“All I can say is strategies like this remind us that reform isn’t just about policies, [it’s] about human lives. And it’s on all of us, from the regulators to the fleet owners, to the driver trainers, to ensure the system works the way it should.”