Trump order aims to take non-English-speaking truckers off the road

Darrel Wilson: A gap in the number of truckers is being filled by drivers from other countries.

Gregory Grimes: There has to be some level of common sense to enforcement of language provision.

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An April 28 executive order by President Donald Trump calls for English language proficiency testing for U.S. truck drivers. Some area industry executives are unsure of what enforcement might look like or what the impact will be on the trucking workforce.

Titled “Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers,” the order states federal law requiring English language proficiency exists, but, it adds, “This requirement has not been enforced in years, and America’s roadways have become less safe.”

Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy issued a statement following the order detailing two high-profile commercial vehicle crashes directly linked to a lack of English language proficiency that resulted in several deaths.

In its reaction to the order, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Association, a nonprofit organization that sets standards for commercial motor vehicle safety, advises that drivers who cannot read or speak English sufficiently to communicate with safety officials should be declared out of service, and enforcement may be applied by inspectors on the roadside.

Enforcement of the executive order is set to begin on June 25.

About 18% of the 3.5 million truck drivers employed in the United States are immigrants, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The percentage of drivers, immigrant or domestic, who lack English proficiency is not as easily tracked, but in a published data snapshot of violations from 2020-24, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported 38,285 violations related to lack of English proficiency, representing 0.19% of all violations recorded. A total of 26 of these violations resulted in the driver being taken out of service. 

Existing federal code deals with general qualifications to drive a commercial motor vehicle, with a provision that notes a person is qualified to drive commercially if they “can 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.” Exceptions to the speaking requirement are made for drivers with hearing impairment, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Not a problem
Darrel Wilson, founder and CEO of Wilson Logistics Inc. in Strafford, said he has never experienced a problem with non-English-speaking drivers, and he noted that in some states, the CDL exam is administered in multiple languages. A 2024 news release from the Illinois Secretary of State’s office reported it was the latest state to join 20 others that offer the CDL test in Spanish, though it notes English proficiency is still required.

Wilson said there is a shortage of good, safe drivers in the U.S., and the gap is being filled by drivers from Eastern Europe and India. A 2020 report by the American Trucking Association estimated the industry to be short 80,000 drivers – a number that could double by 2030 with retirements.

Wilson said people often drive in other countries where they don’t speak the language.

“If we’re just driving our cars and we’ve halfway got an idea of the country we’re in, we can probably get around,” he said.

That’s a bit more complex for commercial drivers, who have to clear inspection stations by communicating with people there. The problem is not insurmountable, according to Wilson; in fact, non-English-speaking drivers are accommodated daily on the southern border.

He added that, as of now, it is unclear how the order will be enforced.

Lt. Eric Brown from the Missouri Highway Patrol’s Public Information and Education Division said the patrol is figuring that out.

“We’re early into this, and we’re still working through the guidelines and legalities of it,” he said.

Brown said this executive order poses some new challenges.

“It’s different this time,” he said. “So often in years past, these things come out and you have time to work through them and figure them out. When they give you 60 days, it puts the hurry in you.”

Much of the problem will be resolved in the license testing process, according to Brown, who noted English proficiency, or its lack, should be apparent there.

The executive order rescinds guidance issued in 2016 that relaxes English language proficiency testing requirements and it directs the Secretary of Transportation to issue new guidance; however, it does not provide specific details on how enforcement will work, beyond requiring “necessary and appropriate actions” to revise criteria.

As the enforcement date approaches, the agency will gain clearer guidance, Brown said.

“We won’t know what that looks like until they complete it,” he said.

When asked how many crashes are caused in a year by a lack of English proficiency, Brown said it’s impossible to say, as language proficiency information is not collected in crash data.

Brown added that current law does require drivers to read and speak the English language in section 391.11 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

He provided data on citations for violations of 391.11 in Missouri, where there were 15 citations in 2023 and four in 2024. So far in 2025, there have been three citations statewide.

“We do enforce 391.11 right now, and we will continue to enforce it in the way that it is written right now until new guidance is issued,” he said.

Workforce impact
Gregory Grimes, a partner with West Central Motor Freight Inc., said the transportation industry is international, and that’s not just the drivers.

“Many people don’t know this, but a lot of the dispatchers, service workers and back-office people that deal with accounting pieces or work on specific requirements for drivers are near shore or overseas,” he said. “I work with people who live in Uzbekistan, Poland, Belarus, Bosnia, Ukraine – I work with them daily.”

Grimes said during the Obama administration, the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Administration within the U.S. Department of Transportation removed its requirement to place truckers out of service if they violate the English language proficiency rule.

“Different administrations have different outlooks and views,” Grimes said. “What one does, the next one undoes, and the next one puts it back into place.”

Grimes said an industry estimate shows that about a tenth of drivers lack English proficiency.

“This is going to affect a pretty significant portion of our driver population,” he said.

Grimes said drivers from other countries navigate U.S. roads safely.

“Red means stop, green means go,” he said. “There has to be some level of common sense.”

He said he understands the view that CDL drivers need to understand and demonstrate English proficiency.

“Having such strict and maybe rigid deadline – it’s got to happen by this time or we’re putting drivers out of service – I’m not necessarily in agreement with that,” he said.

Laura Gates, president of Transland Inc., said the executive order does not represent a marked change for her company or for the trucking industry.

“The ability to understand English has always been a core component of the CDL process,” she said, referring to the commercial driver’s licenses that truck driving requires. “For Transland, we have always been committed to following the required regulations, so nothing’s changed for us.”

She said that Transland is committed to an inclusive workforce, and not all the company’s drivers have English as their first language, but all are proficient in it.

Enforcement questions
At the Flying J truck stop in northwest Springfield, driver Harjeet “Harry” Singh, a native of India now based in Arizona, was waiting for a shower when he agreed to answer a few questions about the president’s directive. Singh, 52, said he came to the U.S. 30 years ago and did not speak any English at all.

“I don’t want to say it’s good; I don’t want to say it’s bad,” he said. “I don’t think the real problem is the language – it might be somewhere, but I don’t see it. It’s just a thing of common sense, I think.”

Singh said he has never heard of accidents caused by failure to understand English.

“The person who can get the CDL, he knows what are the basic signs,” Singh said. “The signs are the same for everybody. If somebody wants to enforce the law, it should be for all the vehicles – not only the CDL drivers.”

Paula Moore, assistant vice president for global education and engagement at Missouri State University, said it is commendable that the administration is focused on improving transportation safety, but she expressed some reservations.

“Since there is not much information available as yet related to how this would be implemented, we do not yet know the criteria for ‘sufficient’ English proficiency,” she said. “Because this can be subjective and vary widely, the implementation of such testing needs to be standardized to avoid inconsistencies.”

She added that if companies wish to prepare their English language learner employees to meet the requirements of the executive order, they can contact MSU’s English Language Institute, which works with local partners to offer English courses for specific purposes. The ELI also offers English proficiency assessments to aid in employee selection if needed.