AUSTIN, Texas — Truck drivers will need to be proficient in English to stay on the road under a new guideline Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy signed Tuesday. The guidance cites safety concerns as the rationale for enforcement of a longstanding federal law that requires English proficiency for commercial truck drivers to remain in operation.
“America First means safety first,” Duffy said at an event in Austin, Texas, where he was joined by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. “Americans are a lot safer on roads alongside truckers who can understand and interpret our traffic signs.”
The new guidance stems from an executive order President Donald Trump signed in April to enforce “commonsense rules of the road for America’s truck drivers.” The order directed Duffy to rescind guidance developed during the Obama administration that allowed non-English-speaking commercial drivers to remain in service even if they violated a national regulation requiring English proficiency.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has required commercial vehicle drivers to be able to read and speak English well enough to converse with the general public, understand highway traffic signs and signals and to respond to official inquiries since the agency was established in 1937. While inspectors frequently cite drivers for violating the rule, the requirement that they be placed out of service has not been enforced since 2014.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says a truck driver can be placed out of service and not legally allowed to drive due to safety violations or regulatory compliance issues.
Following Trump’s executive order, the guideline Duffy signed Tuesday calls for commercial drivers who violate the English language proficiency rule to be placed out of service beginning June 25.
“The failure to adequately enforce driver qualification standards poses serious safety concerns and increases the likelihood of a crash,” according to a statement from the Department of Transportation.
In 2023, deadly crashes involving large trucks decreased 8.3% compared with a year earlier, mirroring overall declines in motor vehicle crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The American Trucking Associations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
