U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy signed an order in Austin, Texas, this morning, announcing new guidelines that will place truck drivers out of service if they can’t demonstrate proficiency in English.

This follows an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump in April, replacing an Obama-era rule that ended the ability for roadside enforcement officers to place drivers who aren’t proficient in English out of service.

“America first means safety first,” Duffy said at the event, attended by state legislators and trucking industry representatives. “Americans are a lot safer on roads alongside truckers who can understand and interpret our traffic signs. This common-sense change ensures the penalty for failure to comply is more than a slap on the wrist.”

The new out-of-service criteria take effect June 25. FMCSA has been directed to come up with guidance on what will qualify for an out-of-service penalty.

Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), attended the ceremony and expressed his members’ support for the changes.

“This is a good day for truckers. It’s a good day for families. And it’s a good day for common sense,” Spencer said. “Out on the road, there’s no margin for error. Truckers drive 80,000-pound vehicles through all kinds of terrain — steep mountain passes, narrow turns, busy city streets. The only thing separating safe trips from deadly ones can be a simple road sign. These signs aren’t suggestions. They’re warnings. They save lives — but only if they’re understood. That’s why English proficiency behind the wheel isn’t some bureaucratic requirement — it’s a life-and-death safety standard. Truckers must be able to read road signs, communicate with law enforcement, and respond in emergencies. When that doesn’t happen, people get hurt — or worse.”

As for enforcement, Spencer said: “Complying with the language proficiency standards doesn’t mean you can recite an encyclopedia but it should mean you comprehend routine safety messages. Those can and should be taught in training schools and tested for. English proficiency isn’t optional. It’s essential.”

U.S. law already requires professional drivers to be proficient in English, but OOIDA contends inadequate training and loopholes in state testing protocols allow many drivers lacking English proficiency to gain employment in the industry.

“These insufficient standards are failing new drivers when they encounter unfamiliar conditions, scenarios, and other challenges that weren’t included in initial testing and training environments,” said Spencer.

Duffy, taking questions from the media, expanded on the meaning of the executive order.

“In regard to someone who is pulled over and can’t speak the language, they’ll be put out of service, where before, they’d be given a slap on the wrist and allowed to continue on their way,” Duffy said.

“So the consequence of taking one of these vehicles out of service and having the company come back and find another driver, it becomes very costly… and so I think the incentive will be to make sure that your drivers actually can speak English and communicate with law enforcement and read our road signs.”

Duffy said lives have been lost in crashes involving commercial truck drivers who could not speak English.

“We have had a number of examples where, whether it was just negligence or the driver was not able to read the road signs, we’ve had examples of accidents where lives were lost,” he said.  

“And so again, we have, we have a language that our law enforcement is using, and we have a law in place that hasn’t changed — just the enforcement portion of it was changed by the Obama administration. We’re going to go back to the common sense of making sure you speak English. It makes everyone on the road, I think, safer.”