On April 28, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers,” which directs federal agencies to strictly enforce the existing federal law requiring commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers to be proficient in English. This law was weakened by Barack Obama, and since then has been increasingly ignored, both by truckers and by enforcers.
Key Points of the Executive Order:
- English Proficiency as a Safety Requirement: The order emphasizes that proficiency in English is a non-negotiable safety requirement for professional truck drivers. Drivers must be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety officers, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit personnel, and provide and receive directions and feedback in English.
- Enforcement of Existing Law: For nearly ninety years commercial drivers were expected to “read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, understand highway traffic signs and signals, respond to official inquiries, and make entries on reports and records.” Trump’s order rescinds Obama’s 2016 guidance to relax those standards and reinstates strict enforcement, including placing drivers out of service if they do not meet the English proficiency standard.
- Department of Transportation Role: The Secretary of Transportation, through the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), is tasked to issue new guidance and revise inspection procedures to ensure compliance. They will also revise out-of-service criteria so that violations of the English proficiency requirement result in drivers being taken off the road.
- Safety Rationale: The administration cites safety concerns, including fatal accidents linked to drivers’ inability to read signs or communicate in English.
- Broader Policy Context: This order follows an earlier executive order by President Trump that designates English as the official language of the United States.
Saluda’s Ben Ward Gives a Firsthand Observation
When I first heard about this Executive Order, I thought about my friend, Ben Ward. Ben was Chairman of the Saluda County Republican Party four years ago, but resigned when he began a new job in trucking. He found time this past March to come out for ReOrg and is the current president of Sardis Precinct.
Ben sometimes logs up to eighty hours a week on the road, so I thought I would ask him if he had encountered any problems as a result of the language barrier among truckers. I texted him to ask about it and he was happy to share his own experiences.
Non-English speaking truck drivers have gotten to be an increasingly noticeable issue over the last ten years. It has been worse in the last four to five years.
Many Hispanic Russian, Slavic, non-English comprehending drivers cause big problems for shippers, receivers, and, worse, at truck stops. They cause traffic jams at fuel stops, delays at shippers, traffic jams and back ups due to wrong turns, improper lane usage, public safety issues near schools, and a whole myriad of issues that citizens get hammered for.
Trucking companies take advantage of the non-English speakers because they can’t read the regulations well. I’m not sure whether the Department of Transportation cops enforce the rules with them or just let them slide, but that is conjecture on my part
In other parts of the world, like Africa, Latin America, India, Russia, and various Muslim countries, drivers operate their trucks like the Wild West….if it rolls it goes! Mechanical safety is not a big issue in those places; so, drivers from those countries have that mentality in this country as well.
There are some cultural clashes as well. Many Middle Eastern and Indian drivers will wash their feet in sinks, leave human waste almost anywhere, and park almost anywhere. This, of course is a super huge problem for ALL DRIVERS who are so often just looking for a safe and legal place to PARK and SLEEP.
Before electronic logs, you could find a parking place at most truck stops 24 hours a day. Now, east of the Mississippi River, if you are not in a parking spot at a truck stop by 3:30 pm local time ….you are out of luck.
Two Takeaways:
- This Executive Order is one more example of Trump recognizing the challenges hard-working Americans face every day.
- Trump understands all the aspects of how one national language is both unifying and practical.
