The Trump administration’s push for stricter enforcement of the English language proficiency (ELP) requirement is already having an impact on the freight market between the U.S. and Mexico.
Many B-1 visa truck drivers from Mexico are scrambling to meet the English language requirements, which is leading to an increase in rates on northbound trucking lanes, Cargado co-founder and CEO Matt Silver, said.
Cargado is a first-of-its-kind, invite-only load board for freight moving into and out of Mexico.
“There’s a lot of carriers that are not willing to risk their drivers going out right now, because they don’t want their trucks and the loads getting stuck somewhere with the driver, so there are definitely less B-1 drivers on the road right now,” Silver told FreightWaves in an interview.
President Trump’s executive order, signed April 28, aims to strengthen enforcement of existing federal regulations that drivers must “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 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) began stricter enforcement of ELP standards on Wednesday, signaling major operational changes for the trucking industry.
Truck drivers who fail to meet the ELP requirements could face an immediate out-of-service order under the stricter guidelines.
Dry van spot load rates jumped by almost $1 after Wednesday, reaching just under $4 per mile for northbound freight, according to data from Cargado.
“We are definitely seeing a rate increase happening right now on bidding on northbound freight,” Silver said. “That was an immediate spike [on Wednesday] and we’ll continue to measure it this week to see if it keeps increasing or how that changes. But that was like a surprising jump.”
SONAR’s Outbound Tender Rejection Index has also moved up sharply over the past week, another potential sign of tightening capacity because of the stricter ELP enforcement.
As of Monday, the Outbound Tender Rejection Index in SONAR has increased more than 29% since June 22 and sits at 7.3%. To learn more about SONAR, click here.
Cargado, which launched in 2024, has more than 200 logistics customers and over 900 carriers. Clients such as brokers, 3PLs and freight forwarders post their cross-border freight to get bids on Cargado’s load board.
“The carriers have to adapt to it, either they have to get rid of their trucks or they have to get rid of the drivers or train the drivers,” Silver said.
Jerry Maldonado, chairman of the Laredo Motor Carriers Association, the ELP requirement has been a law for years, but had never really been strictly enforced until recently.
“It is something that has been in the FMCSA website for over 50 years, so it’s not something that was invented three months ago,” Maldonado told FreightWaves. “The punishment or the consequence is what changed, and that’s what unfortunately made a lot of people nervous.”
The Laredo Motor Carriers Association is a trade association that represents 200 trucking companies.
“It also shows that a lot of people had drivers out on the road that were not able to communicate with an officer. So that is concerning, of course,” Maldonado said. “Our stance as an association at both local, state, and federal level is for every one of our members to abide by every regulation, whether it be parking in the wrong place or not being able to communicate in English.”
In Laredo, cross-border trucking between Mexico and the United States is the heart of the local economy and many drivers arrive in the U.S. on B-1 visas.
Laredo processes between 15,000 to 18,000 commercial trucks daily at its World Trade and Colombia-Solidarity international bridges. The trucking volume represents almost 40% of all U.S.-Mexico land trade through a single border crossing.
Maldonado said some members of the association have expressed concern about losing drivers to the ELP enforcement.
“They have expressed concern, and there are, unfortunately … Just like when you have new guidance or regulations, there were drivers that said, “hey, I’m going to go home for a couple of weeks while this gets settled in, and I’ll be back later,” Maldonado said.
To help truckers brush up on their English speaking, the Laredo Motor Carriers Association has been offering free English classes on weekends to help drivers communicate more confidently.
“We reached out to our local Texas Department of Public and Department of Transportation officers and asked, “what are the questions that you would ask a driver on a Level 1 inspection? They shared with us, “hey, these are the things that the driver is going to need to know,” Maldonado said.
“Our goal is not to teach anyone how to speak English. Our goal is to polish your English skills. Our intention is to ensure that the drivers are ready and prepared for these inspections out on the road.”
