In a recent move by the Department of Transportation, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced an initiative to overturn a policy from the Obama administration that eased English language proficiency (ELP) requirements for commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers. The decision aligns with President Trump's commitment to roadway safety, as outlined in his newly signed Executive Order. According to the Department of Transportation, the initiative underscores the importance of ELP in commercial driving. Secretary Duffy stated, “Federal law is clear, a driver who cannot sufficiently read or speak English—our national language—and understand road signs is unqualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle in America.”
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), following the Secretary's guidance, will scrutinize non-domiciled CDLs and regain a firm hold on enforcing English language requirements; this move comes framed by not only a desire to reclaim a standard that some deemed common sense but also a response to tragic incidents where a driver's lack of English comprehension led accidents most recently in West Virginia where a driver embroiled in a fatal collision necessitated an interpreter to unravel the events, and the Obama-era guidance had inspectors not placing CMV drivers out-of-service ELP violations. Secretary Duffy underscores this position adding that the Department "will always put America’s truck drivers first."
The background fueling this policy change includes documented instances where the inability to comprehend English language traffic signs and signals possibly contributed to deadly accidents, the most notable involving a semi-truck in 2019 hurtling down a highway to meet with a fatal end after missing several warning signs due to insufficient ELP. This has prompted the new directive to be laid on the table; as the Department of Transportation's briefing room conveyed, "The failure to adequately enforce driver qualification standards poses serious safety concerns and increases the likelihood of a crash."
Rescinding the 2016 policy, which dimmed the enforcement of ELP standards is the goal just as the forthcoming FMCSA guidance is to ensure ELP criteria are upheld more stringently than in recent years, and the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is being consulted to update their criteria to reflect these changes, which when integrated by the FMCSA, will enact uniform enforcement across Federal and State inspectors, the Department's commitment to safety is clear in its intent to prevent future tragedies akin to that of the 2019 disaster involving a semi-truck; reaffirmed by Duffy's stance that "This commonsense standard should have never been abandoned,"
