Almost exactly one year after President Donald Trump's executive order mandating English language proficiency as an out-of-service condition, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has advanced an update to the rule.
On June 24, DOT posted to the White House's Office of Management and Budget a proposed rule called "English Language Proficiency, Out of Service Criteria."
There's no description of the rule so far, and there won't be until the Unified Agenda, or the proposed rule itself, gets published, but it's already been a big year for ELP enforcement.
FMCSA recently included some border zone drivers, previously exempt, into the fold.
And while OOS violations don't always lead to drivers taken off the road, it's safe to say trucking has felt the impact since June 25, 2025, when ELP enforcement officially rejoined the OOS criteria.
In the charts below, examine just how the more than 20,000 ELP OOS orders played out, in which states, and when.
Texas, with the biggest border and an extra tough "zero tolerance" ELP enforcement regime, was no doubt the top player in OOS violations.
Now take a look at the timeline. Note that California played hardball, resisting ELP enforcement until January, when it finally caved under federal pressure. Federal inspectors recorded just 9 OOS ELP violations in California in the July-December time frame before California Highway Patrol switched enforcement on in 2026, vaulting the state to No. 3 in the ranking shown above.
Find more enforcement data in Overdrive's CSA's Data Trail collection at this link, charting trends in states around the nation with our RigDig sister data company, creator of the Truck History Report lookup for prospective buyers.
