Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Postal Service will work with contractors to restrict the use of non-domiciled commercial driver license operators in its network, citing a federal policy that labels those drivers as potentially unsafe.
- Non-domiciled refers to a special designation on a CDL or commercial learner’s permit for certain foreign drivers, and the Trump administration has sought to increase the documentation needed to obtain those driving credentials. Regulators have suggested that states issuing these licenses could have incomplete driving records from individuals from another country.
- “In order to maintain the highest possible safety standards, we have decided to phase out any use of non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s License operators who have not been thoroughly vetted by the Postal Inspection Service,” Amber McReynolds, chairwoman of the Postal Service Board of Governors, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
The Postal Service previously improved how it tracks contractors’ crash records, but an Office of Inspector General report also cited numerous deficiencies that the USPS has disputed.
An OIG report last year suggested that as of March 31, 2025, the U.S. Postal Service was disputing most of its recommendations from a 2024 truck contracting audit. The original audit noted USPS’ approximately 4,600 trucking contracts.
The USPS previously said it properly screens contracted drivers. Some of the audit findings under dispute, based on the fall 2025 report, were the oversight of drivers under special circumstances and a recommendation for more oversight on verifying driving history records.
“In September 2023, the Postal Service expanded functionality regarding safety by creating a new HCR safety team,” a USPS official wrote in the highway contract route audit response. With contractors, fatal crashes also must be reported to multiple departments within 24 hours. The Postal Service also said fatal and crash tracking improvements began in October 2023.
But the USPS official also said that it primarily relies on screening criminal backgrounds and relies on suppliers and subcontractors to vet driving records and safety of drivers. According to the OIG, a Postal Service management directive “has requirements relating to a review of the driver’s driving record, which is also not being followed.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration raised the non-domiciled issue when it announced an interim rule in late September to increase documentation standards.
Legal challenges followed, and a U.S. appeals court temporarily stopped the regulation while a case unfolds. At the same time, the FMCSA is working to create a final rule to carry out the policy.
A U.S. Postal Service spokesperson reached by Trucking Dive declined to say how the agency would review the initiative or when the phase out would be completed and whether non-domiciled driver safety records were evaluated as part of the policy change.
