Executive Order Orders Out-of-Service Enforcement of English Rule for Truckers
An April 2025 executive order told FMCSA to rescind 2016 guidance and make English proficiency violations an out-of-service offence.
In April 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Transportation to enforce the English language proficiency (ELP) requirement for commercial drivers, and to treat a violation as grounds for placing a driver out of service. Executive Order 14286, titled "Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America's Truck Drivers," was signed on April 28, 2025, and published in the Federal Register on May 2.
The rule that was already on the books
Federal regulations at 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2) already said a driver must be able to read and speak English well enough to converse with the public, understand highway traffic signs and signals, respond to official inquiries and make entries on reports and records. The order said this requirement had not been enforced in years.
According to the FMCSA announcement issued the same day, the Obama administration had directed inspectors in 2016 not to place drivers out of service for ELP violations.
The order called English proficiency something that "should be a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers." It tied this to Executive Order 14224 of March 1, 2025, which designated English as the official language of the United States.
What the order required
Section 3 told the Secretary of Transportation, acting through the FMCSA Administrator, to do two things:
- within 60 days, rescind the guidance titled "English Language Proficiency Testing and Enforcement Policy MC-ECE-2016-006," issued June 15, 2016, and issue new guidance setting out revised inspection procedures for the ELP rule;
- take the actions needed to make sure the out-of-service criteria were revised so that an ELP violation results in the driver being placed out of service, including by working with the bodies that set those criteria.
Non-domiciled CDLs and credentials
Section 4 directed FMCSA to review non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses issued by state agencies to look for unusual patterns or numbers, or other irregularities. It also told the agency to evaluate and improve the protocols for verifying the authenticity and validity of both domestic and international commercial driving credentials.
Working conditions
Section 5 gave the Secretary 60 days to identify and begin carrying out additional administrative, regulatory or enforcement actions to improve truck drivers' working conditions.
DOT's first steps
In its April 28 announcement, the Department said Secretary Sean P. Duffy had directed FMCSA to rescind the 2016 policy and to issue new guidance enforcing the regulation. It also called on the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA), which publishes the North American out-of-service criteria, to add ELP violations to them. FMCSA said that once the change was incorporated, its policy would provide uniform enforcement by federal and state inspectors.
The announcement pointed to crashes it said might have involved drivers' inability to read signs or speak English. These included a January 2025 fatal collision in West Virginia in which the driver needed an interpreter for the post-crash investigation.
As of the end of April, the new guidance had not yet been issued and the out-of-service criteria had not yet been changed.
Archive: this article describes rules and events as of April 2025. Regulations may have changed since, so check the current rule before relying on it.