Bay Area trucking company talks about potential end of CDLs for undocumented people

By John Ramos

In September, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy demanded that California end its policy of issuing commercial driver’s licenses to undocumented individuals, but a Bay Area trucking company says it could have a serious impact on places like the Port of Oakland.  

Bill Aboudi owns the AB Trucking Company and says the majority of drivers in the area come from other countries.

“I would say, in the port business, 90 percent, comfortably,” he said. “90 percent are immigrants.”

Aboudi said most are here legally now, but, just like him, it took years, sometimes decades, for them to gain citizenship or permanent residency.

“Think of us as little ants,” he said. “We just work, and we don’t bother anybody. We just want to get our job done, and we want to go home. We want to have a good life.”

At issue is the Commercial Driver’s License, or CDL. Duffy pointed to three deadly accidents involving foreign drivers, including one in Florida where three people perished when a trucker from India made a U-turn on a highway right in front of a minivan. The man’s CDL had been issued in California, where it was legal for undocumented people to get a commercial license

Aboudi said if drivers are bad, it’s because of a lack of knowledge and training, not nationality or language. And he said the estimated 600,000 immigrants currently driving trucks in the US would not easily be replaced.

“We won’t be able to move anything, and everything is going to get very expensive very quickly. So, a typical trip that would cost $1,000 might cost $3,000 to do,” Aboudi said. “It’ll be like COVID. We had a lot of drivers during COVID, and we still had a hell of a time making the deliveries as the surges in cargo came in.”

And Aboudi said he thinks the focus on foreign drivers is more about immigration than it is about safety.

“Immigrants are a target, and it creates a divide,” he said. “We need to stop this.”

But the Secretary made it clear that he’s not accepting any excuses.

“My message, it’s very simple,” said Duffy. “Get into compliance now! Or, we’ll pull funding and we’ll force you into compliance.”

California was given 30 days to bring its licensing program into federal compliance. A note on the DMV website now says the state has “paused” issuing non-domiciled commercial licenses.