President Donald Trump's executive order on Monday calling English language proficiency "a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers" has already gotten the backing of commercial motor vehicle safety enforcers across North America.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), a nonprofit comprised of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal commercial motor vehicle safety officials and industry reps from across North America, voted on Tuesday to go ahead with Trump's order.
[Related: CVSA's out-of-service criteria: New for 2025]
Through CVSA, the U.S. agrees to acknowledge as valid Canadian and Mexican CDLs as well as a framework for enforcement and safety standards with a goal of consistency across jurisdictions. As an international group, it's not under the direct authority of the U.S., but nonetheless took cues from the executive order. The agency had also been petitioned in March by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association along with an enforcement representative to do the same.
"Pursuant to the executive order, the CVSA Driver-Traffic Enforcement Committee voted today to add non-compliance with 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2) to the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria," said Adrienne Gildea, deputy executive director of CVSA.
The committee, made up of 70 member jurisdictions from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, as well associate members from industry, voted ten years ago to remove English language proficiency from the out-of-service criteria. As previously reported, the following year, 2016, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued guidance to law enforcement that said drivers can use translation aides to communicate, but that drivers "should be cited" for a violation of 391.11(b)(2) if the driver "acknowledges that he/she does not speak English."
Overdrive reporting has found that, sometimes, even drivers who admit to not speaking English don't get cited.
What can CDL drivers, including Canadian and Mexican operators, expect going forward? More or at least continued enforcement.
"The regulation requires drivers operating in the U.S. to be proficient in the English language, per the standards," said Gildea. "All drivers operating in the U.S. should be prepared to meet that standard."
[Related: Arkansas to fine drivers $500 if they can't speak English proficiently]
Now, CVSA said it will seek to update the federal regulation itself to reflect the status of the violation. "In addition, the committee voted to petition FMCSA to update the language in 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2) to reflect that the condition is an out-of-service condition," Gildea continued.
CVSA notes its out-of-service criteria "are used by certified commercial vehicle safety enforcement personnel to determine if a commercial motor vehicle or driver is considered an imminent hazard and should be placed out of service."
After a decade of considering a lack of English proficiency to not pose an imminent hazard, the Driver-Traffic Enforcement Committee has officially changed its mind. The committee also voted "to petition FMCSA to harmonize the CDL English language requirements in 49 CFR Part 383," which covers Commercial Driver's License Standards, "with those in 49 CFR Part 391," which covers Qualifications of Drivers and Longer Combination Vehicle (LCV) Driver Instructors, "so that the standards are consistent."
Currently, Part 383 prohibits the use of interpreters during the administration of the CDL skills tests and demands applicants "be able to understand and respond to verbal commands and instructions in English by a skills test examiner. ... Neither the applicant nor the examiner may communicate in a language other than English during the skills test."
CVSA would ask FMCSA to make that part match with Part 391, which requires drivers to "read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records."
Gildea added "these action items will be presented to the CVSA Board of Directors at our board meeting on Thursday afternoon."
Another action item in Trump's executive order directs FMCSA to "review non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses" issued by states "to identify any unusual patterns or numbers or other irregularities with respect to non-domiciled CDL issuance." CVSA has told Overdrive it, as with many national groups and government agencies, doesn't know how many non-domiciled CDLs are out there.
[Related: 'Labor dumping' and trucking: Are foreign CDL drivers bring down rates?]
