Four commercial driving schools in Miami-Dade were urgently removed from the federal training provider registry, as part of a nationwide action affecting more than a hundred schools.
One of them is Soler & Soler Truck School. Its owner, Eli Soler, who has operated the school since 2020, says he learned on Wednesday that his business had been removed from the federal registry.
Soler showed a letter dated Aug. 12, sent after a federal audit of his school. He said he initially interpreted it to mean the business was complying with regulations.
However, on Wednesday he received another notification via UPS stating that the school had been removed on an emergency basis from the federal training provider registry and that it could not continue enrolling or training students.
South Florida trucking schools are reportedly among those shut down as federal officials crack down on fraud in the industry involving licenses for drivers without English proficiency. NBC6’s Julia Bagg reports.
The removal letter cites 13 drivers who graduated from Soler & Soler between 2022 and 2025 and who, according to the document, later failed to meet the federal English proficiency requirement during subsequent roadside inspections.
Soler said his school graduates about 500 students a year and questioned using inspections conducted on drivers after graduation to evaluate the school’s work.
“That’s destruction. That’s someone calling us guilty before we can defend ourselves,” said Soler, noting that the school does not issue the commercial learner’s permit or the CDL license, and that drivers must complete other steps in the process with the state.
The other three schools removed from the registry in Miami-Dade are American Trucking, in Opa-locka; CDL Technical & Motorcycle Driving School, in Hialeah Gardens; and Metropolitan Trucking & Technical Institute, in Miami.
Soler & Soler is located in the Cutler Bay area. The owner said the decision could have an immediate impact on his business, his employees, and his students. He said more than six families depend on the school and that there are currently more than 200 active students who have already invested money and time in their training.
Soler says he has already started the process to request an administrative review of the decision and also asked to be allowed to continue training while that review is resolved.
Telemundo 51 asked the U.S. Department of Transportation how it determines whether a driver lacks English proficiency.
The department said drivers undergo a two-part assessment: basic questions to determine whether they can communicate with authorities and a traffic sign recognition test.
Separately, the Department of Homeland Security told Telemundo 51 it is also conducting inspections of commercial driving schools, in a process separate from the actions announced by the Department of Transportation.
This story was translated from Spanish with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool. An NBC 6 editor reviewed the translation.