By Joe Guinn of LBC Fleet
For as long as I’ve been around transportation, this has always been true: if you can’t read or communicate in English, you’re not legally allowed to operate a CDL vehicle. That requirement has existed for decades. What changed recently is not the rule itself, but how it’s being enforced.
LBC Fleet Co-Founder Joe Guinn
Over the years, some states tried to work around a federally regulated system by allowing CDL knowledge tests to be administered in languages other than English. Whether those decisions were made for access, politics, or practicality, they created a disconnect. Drivers could pass a test without demonstrating the very skill federal law requires them to use on the road.
That gap closed in 2025.
On April 28, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Transportation to enforce the existing English-language proficiency requirement for commercial drivers. The order did not create a new rule; it reinforced one that was already on the books and largely under-enforced.
Then the consequences changed.
Effective June 25, 2025, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance added English language proficiency violations back into the North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria. That means a driver who cannot demonstrate the ability to read and communicate in English can now be placed immediately out of service during a roadside inspection.
This year, Congress went a step further. On February 4, 2026, enforcement language was signed into law as part of federal legislation, reinforcing the requirement and backing it with statutory authority. At that point, this stopped being policy guidance and became hard law with clear enforcement expectations. In other words, this went from “should” to “shall.”
Here’s the part that matters for owners and managers: This is no longer a ticket issue; it is an out-of-service issue.
If a CDL driver is stopped and cannot demonstrate English proficiency, the vehicle does not move. It does not finish the route. It does not make the delivery or pick up passengers. It gets parked where it sits.
This is not an hours-of-service concern, where a driver sits for a reset and continues. Once a driver is placed out of service for language proficiency, they are done. If that driver operates a vehicle again, whether it is the same truck or another one, they are now operating after being placed out of service. That is a much bigger problem for you, the company.
This shifts the liability directly onto the company.
In areas with large immigrant populations, border regions, or major metro markets like San Francisco or Minneapolis, this matters even more. A driver may function day to day but still struggle to clearly demonstrate English proficiency under stress, on the side of the road, or during an inspection.
And anyone who has ever been pulled over understands this. People get nervous. Communication degrades under pressure. Even drivers who “get by” conversationally can struggle when adrenaline is involved.
From an operational standpoint, this is not about whether a driver might get a ticket. It is about your equipment sitting on the side of the road and you being responsible for recovering it. Tow or no tow, the outcome is the same. You lose the load, the schedule, the customer confidence, and likely the driver.
The law itself did not change much. The consequences did.
And if you do not adjust to this, it will not be the driver who absorbs the damage—it will be your operation.
Joe Guinn is the co-founder of LBC Fleet, a firm that coaches operators on all aspects of fleet ownership, including DOT compliance. He can be reached at
