Operation Highway Shield hits Maryland and DC: 92 drivers and 191 vehicles out of service

FMCSA ran the Maryland sweep with the Maryland State Police, the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Comptroller of Maryland, FreightWaves reported. Of 941 commercial vehicles inspected, 191 vehicles and 92 drivers were ordered off the road for federal or state safety violations. FMCSA gave no breakdown by violation and no count of English proficiency cases.

In Washington, FMCSA inspectors and Metropolitan Police Department officers checked 125 trucks and buses. A Nov. 6 enforcement update listed 193 violations, 50 of them out-of-service violations, without saying how many drivers or vehicles were sidelined.

Earlier Highway Shield waves covered Florida, four Midwest states and Arkansas. In Arkansas, 1,724 inspections over 48 hours put 393 drivers and vehicles out of service and turned up 183 English proficiency violations and 44 criminal arrests, FMCSA said. DOT says 33,000 drivers have been put out of service for English proficiency since the April 2025 executive order, and 31,000 licenses it calls illegally issued have been revoked. State and local checks in Virginia, Oregon, New York and Arizona the same week were separate from Highway Shield.

The English standard is 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2): a driver must read and speak English well enough to talk with the public, understand road signs, answer official questions and fill out reports. FMCSA guidance tells inspectors to start in English. If the driver seems not to understand, the inspector holds an interview and then a road sign test. Out-of-service orders for failing it rest on inspection criteria in force since June 25, 2025. FMCSA proposed writing them into the regulations on Aug. 10, 2026. Comments closed Oct. 9, and the rule is still a proposal.