DOT said California, Washington and New Mexico are not enforcing English language proficiency rules for truck drivers and letting previously out-of-service drivers keep driving.
Those states have 30 days to come into compliance with federal regulations or lose millions in federal funding.
The DOT Secretary further hinted that the audit of non-domiciled CDLs should conclude soon and that DOT will also check if some CDL schools are "gaming the system."
DOT Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday announced California, Washington and New Mexico face losing federal funding over their lax enforcement of the English language proficiency (ELP) mandate for all commercial truck drivers.
Those states now have 30 days to comply with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration guidance on English language enforcement, first published on May 20 and then made effective on June 25 after the April executive order from President Donald Trump, or face losing millions in federal dollars.
DOT said it had been in touch with all states asking about their ELP enforcement, and that California, Washington and New Mexico did not seem to have a plan to start putting drivers who can't speak English out-of-service (OOS) per the new federal guidance.
"The three states have 30 days to come into compliance before the Department will withhold up to 100% of funding from the Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program (MCSAP)," a DOT press release said.
“States don’t get to pick and choose which federal safety rules to follow,” said Duffy. “As we saw with the horrific Florida crash that killed three, when states fail to enforce the law, they put the driving public in danger."
DOT previously announced that it found Washington and California improperly issued a CDL to Harjinder Singh, who the Department of Homeland Security described as an "illegal alien." DOT stated Singh should not have been able to acquire a CDL. DOT also found that New Mexico conducted a traffic stop on Singh on July 3, but did not place him out-of-service for lacking English.
[Related: DOT calls out 'despicable' state failures on ELP, CDL rules after deadly crash]
California denied to Overdrive doing anything improper. Washington told Overdrive it's investigating the CDL issuance. New Mexico said it doesn't yet have an ELP testing policy in place, but will in September.
But the treatment of Singh wasn't the only factor for DOT in targeting these three states.
DOT leaders dish details of FMCSA investigation findings
At a press conference announcing the "Phase One" plan to give states 30 days to come into compliance, FMCSA Chief Counsel Jesse Elison said an investigation found those three states giving drivers previously put OOS for ELP violations a pass. FMCSA "found significant failures by all three states to follow federal guidelines to properly place drivers out-of-service for ELP violations" from June 25 to August 21, DOT said in a release.
The release said in California, "of the roughly 34,000 inspections resulting in at least one reported violation, only one inspection involved an ELP violation resulting in a driver being placed out-of-service."
California has told Overdrive it isn't enforcing ELP as an OOS violation because it's not part of California law, but FMCSA found it also doesn't honor other states' OOS orders on the matter.
At "least 23 drivers with documented ELP out-of-service violations in other states were later inspected in California -- yet the state failed to honor those violations or enforce ELP, allowing unqualified drivers to continue operating on our roads," the release continued.
In Washington state, meanwhile, "of the more than 6,000 inspections resulting in at least one reported violation, only four inspections involved an ELP violation resulting in a driver" being placed OOS, according to DOT's release. The state also issued two ELP citations, but none were OOS. "In addition, at least 4 drivers with documented ELP out-of-service violations in other states were later inspected in Washington," leaving "dangerous gaps in enforcement."
In New Mexico, "the state reported placing zero drivers out-of-service for ELP violations and allowed at least seven unqualified drivers already found unable to meet ELP standards," the release said.
Elison offered the example of a brakes violation putting a truck OOS. If that truck gets inspected again, "no state officer is going to look at a previous citation of a brake violation a month before and just not inspect the brakes and let them go on their way." Yet "all three of these states are doing that, allowing people to be on the road that should be taken off the road."
"Law enforcement sees this is a flashing light," Duffy said of OOS violations on a driver's record. "What do they do? Nothing, they turn them loose," he said of the three states in question.
Duffy and Elison stressed repeatedly that they want compliance with federal ELP guidance, and not to take money from the states. Elison said California is set to receive $33 million this year, Washington $10.5 million, and New Mexico $7 million.
Overdrive previously reported on the process of how states can lose MCSAP funding for non-compliance, but this press conference represents a stepped-up, public-facing version of that process.
FMCSA's internal review of state enforcement actions on ELP hadn't turned up much in California, Washington or New Mexico, Duffy said. "This indicates to us there has not been a willingness to comply" with the federal rules.
Overdrive reporting has revealed that other states, not just the three who face losing funding, also don't enforce ELP as an OOS violation. For example, Pennsylvania said it waits 60 days before adopting all federal regulations in its standard process.
Interestingly Florida, the state where Singh's triple-fatal U-turn crash took place, has issued just one OOS violation for ELP as of August 15, according to data from FTR's Avery Vise. New Mexico similarly told Overdrive it does have a plan to implement ELP enforcement as an OOS violation, but that will roll out in September.
Responding to New Mexico, DOT said that guidance has been around in some form since May 20, and the state was simply making an "excuse."
[Related: DOT blasts New Mexico police as 'dishonest' in dispute over Harjinder Singh's English test]
Non-domiciled CDLs, training in spotlight
Duffy and Elison took questions at the press conference, which included questions about the ongoing non-domiciled CDL audit. Elison said ELP and non-domiciled CDLs were "separate issues," but also that FMCSA was "making progress" on the audit and would have news "very soon."
Duffy, who held a CDL for 30 years, hinted the department was also paying attention to CDL schools and credentialing generally, something training organizations, schools themselves and safety advocates have all been calling for.
[Related: Time to go after 'CDL mills' that cause deadly accidents: Truck Safety Coalition]
"This is something we’re looking at and working on -- when an individual comes in to take their test to become a commercial driver, the skills test ... at that point it would be clear that this driver doesn’t understand all the road signs and speak the language," said Duffy. "Miraculously they’re passing the skills test. Any common sense analysis would say that doesn’t make sense."
He added, "Just know for future reference, that's something we are going to be looking at as well -- how are these tests being administered? Are they following the rules and is there some gaming of the system that needs to be addressed?"
Download Overdrive review of all 50 states' non-domiciled CDL issuance practices, complete with actual data from a majority of states, via the form below.
