Was Your ELDT Provider
Removed From the Registry?
FMCSA removed more than 110 training providers on August 31 and proposed removing 160 more. Here’s how to check yours, what removal actually means, and what to do if you need to redo your theory training.
Search your provider at tpr.fmcsa.dot.gov. If they’re listed as Active, nothing has changed for you. If they’re gone, check whether your own completion record is still showing, then contact your state licensing agency before assuming anything. If you do need to redo the theory portion, it’s under 2 hours and $20 here — but check the registry first, because plenty of drivers worry about this unnecessarily.
The August 31 enforcement action
This was a coordinated action across the Department of Transportation, Homeland Security and the Justice Department — not a routine registry cleanup.
Figures from FMCSA’s August 31, 2026 announcement, as reported by Heavy Duty Trucking, September 1, 2026.
What the investigators actually found
FMCSA sent 175 investigators into 40 states in July. The problems they reported were specific:
- Instructors who did not hold the proper licences
- Inadequate facilities for the required vehicle manoeuvres
- Missing training and assessment records
- Questionable classroom facilities
A separate group of 110+ providers was flagged after FMCSA compared roadside inspection records for drivers cited for English-language proficiency violations against the Training Provider Registry.
One safety consultant who pulled the registry data described many of the removed providers as “theory mills” — operations selling the classroom half of the certificate cheaply and leaving the behind-the-wheel half to sort itself out. In some cases multiple registered providers shared the exact same street address.
That description is worth taking seriously if you trained online. Not every online theory provider is a mill — the rule explicitly permits theory to be delivered online, and plenty of legitimate providers do it. But the ones that got removed were failing on records, instructors and documentation, and those are things you can check.
How to check your provider
Find the exact registered name
Look at your certificate of completion, enrollment receipt, or confirmation email. Some schools trade under a different name than the one they registered — use the registered one.
Search the official registry
Go to tpr.fmcsa.dot.gov. This is the only authoritative source. Any third-party list — including anything on this page — is a copy that can be out of date within days.
Read the status
Active means currently registered. In-review means FMCSA is examining them. Not listed at all means they are not currently a registered provider.
Check your own record too
Use the driver check at the same site with your name, date of birth and licence number exactly as they appear on your licence. A missing record is often a spelling or date mismatch rather than a missing submission.
Ask your state if anything looks wrong
Your state driver licensing agency decides whether you can test. If your provider is gone or your record is missing, contact them before assuming either way.
“Is my certificate still valid?”
There is one thing the regulation says plainly, and one thing it doesn’t.
49 CFR Part 380, Subpart G:
“If FMCSA removes a provider from the TPR, any training conducted after the removal date will be considered invalid.”
So the removal date is the thing that matters. Training completed after your provider was removed is invalid — you would need to do it again with a listed provider. That isn’t a judgement call; it’s written into the rule.
Training completed before that date is a different question. The regulation doesn’t declare it invalid, and FMCSA’s August announcement addressed the providers rather than issuing a blanket ruling on every completion they had previously recorded. Whether a completion already in the registry is still accepted is a decision for your state driver licensing agency, and it may depend on why the provider was removed.
Which means the first thing to establish is when they were removed — then whether your completion sits before or after it.
Redoing theory training is the easy part
If your record is gone and you need the theory portion again, it’s the least painful step in the whole CDL process. There’s no waiting list, no classroom, no travel.
Under 2 hours for most courses, 30–45 minutes for School Bus. Self-paced, any device. Submitted to the FMCSA Training Provider Registry within 24 hours, or the same business day with the same-day option.
Check us the same way you’d check anyone
We’re asking you to verify a provider before enrolling, so it would be strange not to apply that to ourselves.
DLA Academy is listed on the FMCSA Training Provider Registry as an active provider for all five theory courses — Hazmat, CDL A, CDL B, Passenger and School Bus. Don’t take that from us. Search us at the link below and read it off the federal registry yourself.
While you’re there: a legitimate provider will show a real business name, a working phone number and an address that isn’t shared with a dozen other registrations.
Audit your driver qualification files
The safety consultant quoted in the coverage made the point plainly: the drivers those removed providers certified are holding CDLs today, and the carriers that hired them are running freight. None of that shows up on an authority-and-insurance check.
His advice to fleets was to match ELDT certificates in driver qualification files against the removed providers — “before your insurer does it for you.”
How to run the check
- Pull the training provider name from each driver’s qualification file
- Search each one at tpr.fmcsa.dot.gov
- Flag any that are missing or In-review
- For flagged drivers, confirm their completion record is still in the registry
- Talk to your state agency about anything that looks wrong
Fleet accounts start at $20 a seat with same-day registry submission included. We invoice companies, municipalities and school districts directly, and provide a W-9 or complete vendor registration.
Common questions
How do I check if my ELDT provider was removed?+
Is my certificate still valid if my school was removed?+
My ELDT record isn’t showing in the registry — what now?+
Why did FMCSA remove so many providers?+
How long does redoing theory take?+
How can a fleet check its drivers?+
Is DLA Academy on the registry?+
Theory training, $20, submitted to the registry
Every course $20. Under 2 hours. Active on the FMCSA Training Provider Registry for all five theory courses — verifiable before you spend a cent.