C.H. Robinson Edge Report

Freight Market Update: February 2026
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Government & regulations

California faces federal cuts over non-domiciled CDL dispute

Published: Thursday, February 05, 2026 | 09:00 AM CDT C.H. Robinson government and regulations update

California non-domiciled CDL update

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the state of California remain in an active dispute over commercial driver’s licenses issued to people who don’t live in the state. On January 7, 2026, the U.S. Transportation Secretary announced the withholding of $160 million in federal funding after California declined to cancel approximately 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs under review.

Legal challenges filed on behalf of driver groups resulted in the denial of a temporary restraining order, and California has since paused the issuance of new non-domiciled CDLs. While the possibility of DOT rescinding California’s authority to issue CDLs is considered highly unlikely, the situation continues to draw scrutiny. Ongoing attention to non-domiciled CDL policies in California, and potentially other states, is expected to exert modest downward pressure on the pace of new drivers and owner-operators entering the industry.

For the latest on trade policy and tariffs, see the Trade Policy & Customs section of this report.

*This information is compiled from a number of sources—including market data from public sources and data from C.H. Robinson—that to the best of our knowledge are accurate and correct. It is always the intent of our company to present accurate information. C.H. Robinson accepts no liability or responsibility for the information published herein. 

To deliver our market updates to our global audiences in the timeliest manner possible, we rely on machine translations to translate these updates from English.

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