The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) announced major action on English language proficiency (ELP) for truck drivers in compliance with direction from the White House.

The CVSA announced that starting on June 25, 2025, non-compliance with existing federal regulations requiring commercial vehicle operators to be proficient in English is an out-of-service violation.

This move by the CVSA comes just days after President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) targeting several trucking industry issues, including a call for tightened English-language proficiency requirements for commercial vehicle drivers. The EO called for a reversal on a 2016 memo that directed law enforcement not to place truck drivers out-of-service for ELP violations.

The CVSA Board of Directors voted to add a “English Proficiency (U.S. Only)” heading to the “Part I – Driver” section of the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria with the following language: 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.

In the coming weeks, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will issue guidance for commercial motor vehicle inspectors to ensure enforcement of the English language proficiency standard is applied consistently, according to the CVSA.

“In addition, CVSA will petition FMCSA to update 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2) to identify non-compliance with English language proficiency as an out-of-service condition. CVSA will also send a petition FMCSA requesting that the agency harmonize the commercial driver’s license English language requirements in 49 CFR Part 383 “Commercial Driver’s License Standards” with those in 49 CFR Part 391 “Qualifications of Drivers and Longer Combination Vehicle (LCV) Driver Instructors” so that the standards are consistent,” officials said.

CFR 391.11(b)(2), “General qualifications of drivers,” states that a driver must be able to read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records.

The CVSA Board of Directors used an emergency bylaw provision to amend the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria quickly enough to meet the 60 day deadline put forth by the Trump Administration.