President Trump signed an Executive Order reinstating the active enforcement of the English proficiency requirement for truck drivers (https://www.prepassalliance.org/trump-signs-executive-order-on-english-proficiency/). Now the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has added English proficiency to its out-of-service (OOS) criteria.
Effective June 25, 2025, commercial vehicle law enforcement is the U.S. will place a truck driver out of service if the
“driver cannot read and speak the English language sufficiently to communicate with the safety official to respond to official inquiries and directions in accordance with FMCSA enforcement guidance (391.11(b)(2)) Declare driver out of service.”
The heading “English Proficiency (U.S. Only” will be added to the Part 1 – Driver section of the CVSA OOS standards (Out-of-Service Criteria).
CVSA also announced that it plans to petition the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to update 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2) (eCFR :: 49 CFR 391.11 — General qualifications of drivers) to specify that lack of English proficiency is an out-of-service condition under federal regulations and to similarly include the English language requirement in federal commercial driver’s license (CDL) standards and in the directions given driver instructors.