After the Crash: Trucking’s Labor Day Wake-Up Call

Kameel Gaines
Aug 29
7 min read

American semi-truck driving on the open highway during golden hour with a faint American flag in the sky, symbolizing Labor Day and honoring truck drivers as essential U.S. labor.

Labor Day is the one weekend each year when America pauses to celebrate the workers who keep the country moving. We fire up grills, wave flags, and say “thank you” to the labor that built this nation and keeps it alive.

But this year, for trucking, Labor Day isn’t just a holiday; it’s a wake-up call.

On August 12th, a crash claimed lives and sent shockwaves through our industry. It wasn’t just another accident. It was a turning point. Reports revealed that the driver involved couldn’t read or respond in English. Within weeks, regulators cracked down, tightening enforcement of English-language testing and pausing work visas for truck drivers.

The Current Event Everyone’s Talking About

Following this tragic August 12th crash, regulators have moved quickly to enforce English proficiency rules and pause new work visas for truck drivers. The crackdown aims to boost safety by ensuring all drivers can read road signs and communicate effectively, but it’s also creating shockwaves in the driver labor pool. Fleets are now grappling with an even smaller pool of qualified drivers, an acute problem given that recent data shows the industry was already facing a shrinking driver supply and high turnover as of Q2 2025.

By effectively sidelining drivers who can’t pass language tests or who planned to enter on work visas, these measures intensify the recruitment challenge for carriers and make retaining experienced drivers more critical than ever. This all-in-one issue ties directly into safety (preventing accidents through stricter qualifications), recruitment (finding new drivers under tighter rules), and retention (keeping veteran drivers to avoid capacity shortfalls).

Recent trucking news confirms both the crackdown’s details and the broader driver shortage context. The Trucker reports that DOT is working to remove drivers who fail English assessments and to restrict CDLs for immigrant visa-holders after the Florida incident. Meanwhile, industry data highlights that even before these changes, driver availability was declining as job postings rose, with 80% of carriers struggling to find qualified applicants, underscoring how pressing the recruitment and retention challenge is in mid-2025.

Listen to The Rig on Wheels Show, titled "After the Crash: What Fleets Must Know About Driver Language & Visa Rules," as it discusses this topic in detail.

Labor Day and Trucking: A Complicated Relationship

Trucking has always been America’s backbone, but let’s be real, it’s also been an industry that pushes labor to the breaking point. Long hours. Time away from family. Pay that doesn’t always match the sacrifice. Turnover rates so high they’d make any other industry blush.

And yet, every Labor Day, millions of drivers keep rolling. While most Americans enjoy a three-day weekend, many truckers are out there hauling, keeping shelves stocked and supply chains intact. They don’t get to clock out at 5 p.m. and light the grill. They sacrifice so the country doesn’t stop.

That’s why this year hits differently. To truly honor labor in trucking, we have to admit that the system has cracks. Cracks that were exposed in the worst way on August 12th. Cracks that regulators are now trying to patch with stricter rules.

But here’s the truth: regulations alone won’t fix this. It’s going to take leadership.

Recruitment: When the Well Runs Dry

Even before the crash, 80% of carriers said they couldn’t find enough qualified applicants. We were already in a drought. Now, with English testing and visa suspensions, thousands of potential drivers are suddenly off the table.

If you’ve been leaning on immigrant drivers to fill seats, your pipeline may have just dried up. If you’ve been recycling the same job ads year after year, you’re now competing in a smaller pond against bigger fleets with bigger budgets.

Recruitment in 2025 is no longer about volume; it’s about strategy.

This is the moment to look beyond the usual suspects:

Veterans who bring discipline and safety-first mindsets.
Women, who remain underrepresented but are proven to outperform in safety records.
Second-career professionals, from teachers to retail managers, looking for stability in a volatile world.

But here’s the part fleets don’t want to admit: if your brand doesn’t speak to these people, they won’t come. Labor Day is about dignity. And dignity starts with how you present yourself to potential hires.

A driver doesn’t want to feel like a number scrolling past a copy-paste ad that says, “Looking for CDL drivers with clean MVR.” They want to know: Will you fight for detention pay? Will you honor home time? Will you pick up the phone at 2 a.m. when they’re stuck on the side of the road?

This is exactly why I created the Driver Magnet Kit™, a plug-and-play system that gives fleets ready-to-use job ads, captions, and branding strategies to attract drivers in a crowded, competitive market. Because if your job posts look like everyone else’s, drivers will keep scrolling.

Recruitment isn’t about filling seats anymore. It’s about proving you’re worth joining.

Retention: When Labor Becomes Legacy

Labor Day celebrates workers. But in trucking, honoring labor means keeping the drivers you already have. And right now, retention is no longer a best practice; it’s survival.

Turnover at large fleets has hovered around 80–90% for years. Mid-sized fleets aren’t far behind. For smaller carriers, losing even one or two drivers can mean losing a quarter of your capacity.

Now factor in the crackdown. If you lose a driver today, you may not be able to replace them for months, if at all. That means every driver on your roster is more valuable than ever.

Retention isn’t about pizza parties or slogans. It’s about the basics done consistently:

Communication. Don’t let your drivers read about rule changes on Facebook before they hear it from you.
Respecting time. Every unpaid hour at a dock erodes trust.
Career pathways. Can your drivers become trainers, dispatchers, or even owner-operators?
Wellness support. Because trucking doesn’t just test the body, it tests the mind.

I once had a driver tell me, “I don’t need another gift card. I need you to respect my hours.” That’s retention in one sentence.

At Rig on Wheels Recruiting, we’ve built our entire model around this truth. We don’t just place drivers; we help fleets keep them. Because recruiting without retention is like pouring water into a bucket full of holes.

On Labor Day, when the whole nation pauses to honor workers, fleets should be asking: What are we doing to honor the labor that keeps our trucks rolling not just today, but every day?

Safety: More Than Compliance

The August 12th crash was a tragedy. It was also a mirror. It forced us to ask hard questions:

Are we verifying drivers’ language skills, or just hoping for the best?
Are we investing in training, or cutting corners to fill seats?
Are we rewarding safety, or just speed?

Labor Day is about honoring the dignity of work. In trucking, that dignity is tied to safety. Because when safety slips, labor isn’t just undervalued, it’s endangered.

We’ve seen this cycle before:

Hazmat crashes in the 1990s led to stricter training.
Fatigue-related accidents drove new Hours of Service rules.
ELDs became mandatory after too many compliance failures.

Every time tragedy strikes, new regulations follow. But leadership means not waiting for tragedy. Leadership means acting before the rulebook changes.

I wrote Competing with Giants for moments like this, when smaller fleets need to prove they can lead on safety and culture just as much as big carriers. Safety isn’t just compliance. It’s culture. Its reputation. And it’s what separates survivors from casualties in this industry.

Safety isn’t a box to check; it’s a competitive advantage.

A Labor Day Challenge to Trucking Leaders

This Labor Day, while most of America rests, I’m challenging every fleet leader, recruiter, and dispatcher:

Respect your drivers’ labor. Don’t waste their time with unpaid detention.
Protect your drivers’ safety. Maintenance and compliance aren’t expenses; they’re investments.
Build for the future. The driver pool will only get smaller. Waiting is not a strategy.

My grandmother used to tell me, “Do right because it’s right, not because someone’s watching.”

Right now, regulators are watching. The public is watching. But the truth is, doing right by drivers has always been the right move, even when nobody’s looking.

Labor Day isn’t just about honoring the past. It’s about shaping the future of work. And in trucking, the future depends on how we handle recruitment, retention, and safety today, tomorrow, and every mile forward.

Driving Change: Resources for Fleets

This Labor Day weekend, let’s honor drivers not just with words, but with action. Let’s make sure the sacrifices they make translate into respect, safety, and real opportunity.

The August 12th crash reminded us that trucking isn’t just about moving freight, it’s about moving people safely, with dignity, and with purpose. Fleets that embrace this lesson will not only survive the crackdown, but they’ll lead the next chapter of this industry.

So yes, fire up the grill this weekend. Celebrate the workers who keep America alive. But when Tuesday comes, ask yourself: Are we leading in a way that truly honors the labor behind the wheel?

Because in trucking, honoring labor isn’t seasonal. It’s mile by mile, every single day.