The U.S. Postal Service quietly told some plants in recent weeks not to load trailers hauled by contractors using drivers with non‑domiciled commercial driver’s licenses — only to reverse course within days when service and cost impacts became unmanageable, according to reporting on the internal directive and its abrupt rollback. The episode underscores just how dependent USPS’s highway contract route network is on immigrant labor at a moment when that supply is tightening fast.
Why it matters for carriers: even a short‑lived “don’t load” order at USPS hubs can cascade into missed dispatches, detention at plant gates, deadhead miles to swap drivers, and contract penalty exposure. Postal freight is a precision business built on fixed windows; pulling a class of eligible drivers off the ramp — then putting them back — injects operational whiplash that smaller HCR fleets and brokers are least able to absorb. Shippers don’t see those decisions, but they feel them in late trips and higher bids.
The whiplash also collided with an accelerating federal squeeze on who can legally drive heavy trucks. On Sunday, October 26, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he is moving to claw back $160 million in federal funds from California over what DOT calls illegal licensing of noncitizens. At the same time, DOT’s emergency rule now limits noncitizen CDL eligibility largely to holders of H‑2A, H‑2B or E‑2 visas and caps license validity to visa duration or one year, with states directed to verify status through federal databases. That combination narrows the pipeline of drivers and raises the risk of near‑term attrition as licenses come up for renewal.
A legal challenge filed in the D.C. Circuit is adding uncertainty for fleets trying to plan. On October 26, unions represented by AFSCME and AFT, alongside Public Citizen, updated their petition seeking to block DOT’s non‑domiciled CDL rule, arguing it would sideline roughly 194,000 current CDL holders over two years. Whether the court grants relief — and when — will dictate how quickly carriers must adjust recruiting, training and route coverage.
What trucking leaders should do now: First, audit driver rosters against current eligibility triggers and renewal dates, and build contingency lists for lanes that could lose coverage on short notice. Second, communicate early with USPS contracting officers about any dispatch risk tied to licensing or plant‑gate loading practices; document plant delays to protect against liquidated damages. Third, tune pricing and capacity plans for fourth‑quarter mail peaks with the assumption that immigrant‑driver availability could tighten further if state licensing pauses expand or federal funding disputes escalate. Finally, maintain strict I‑9/anti‑discrimination compliance — the line between verifying work authorization and engaging in prohibited “document abuse” is thin, and this policy churn increases exposure.
Bottom line: USPS’s brief attempt to wall off immigrant drivers from its contracted network ran straight into reality — the mail moves on the backs of the very drivers federal policy is constraining. Unless Washington or the courts create a clearer glidepath, expect more one‑off disruptions at postal plants and a firmer bid tone from HCR carriers heading into winter.
Sources: FreightWaves, Postal Times, Overdrive, Associated Press
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