The Trump administration has rolled out a new program aimed at putting more military veterans behind the wheel of the nation's big rigs. Under the initiative, branded Freedom Haulers, any American who has driven a heavy truck for the military will automatically be eligible for a commercial driver's license, a change officials framed as rewarding service members with steady, well-paying work.
The mechanics of the program are built around speed. Veterans with heavy vehicle experience from the military would be eligible to skip a redundant road test to obtain a commercial driver's license, generally within two years following their active duty service. For those who did not drive trucks in the military, officials said there would be a shortened path of about three or four weeks of training before they are licensed.
The administration says the effort is already spreading across the country. According to officials, 34 states have joined the initiative, including Indiana, Wyoming, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida and Maryland, with several signing on the same day as the announcement. Those seeking more information were directed to a government website, freedomhaulers.dot.gov.
Freedom Haulers is being paired with a broader push on language rules for the industry. President Trump said he made it official policy to enforce English language requirements for truck drivers, pointing to an executive order he signed over a year ago that he described as establishing common sense rules of the road.
Officials attached specific figures to that enforcement drive. They said the administration has already removed more than 24,000 non-English speakers from behind the wheel and forced states to cancel more than 28,000 commercial driver's licenses that officials said were unlawfully issued, casting the veterans program as a way to replace those drivers.
To make the case for prioritizing veterans, officials pointed to safety data. They said truck drivers who are veterans account for 42% fewer accidents, even as they drive roughly double the number of miles of non-veteran drivers, and noted that the jobs pay anywhere from $80,000 to more than $100,000 a year.
The plan also leans on existing veterans' benefits to lower the barriers to entry. Officials said the program would use the GI Bill, and that the Dole Act waives the roughly two-year wait for the commercial driver's license program for those with service-connected disabilities. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs were among those who spoke alongside the president, joined by a veteran truck driver.