If President Donald Trump’s administration has its way, English will be spoken and understood behind the wheels of America’s 18-wheelers.
At last count, Trump has successfully ordered two departments of his administration—the State Department and Transportation Departments—to tighten the screws on non-English-speaking truck drivers and employees.
The State Department announced a pause in the issuance of new H-2B visas for commercial truck drivers. The decision follows a fatal crash in Florida in which a foreign driver attempted an illegal U-turn in a tractor-trailer, colliding with a minivan and killing three family members. The Homeland Security Department later confirmed that the driver of the truck was in the United States illegally.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s announcement on new actions being taken to enforce English proficiency requirements for commercial truck operators were met by applause by American trucking interests.
“Secretary Duffy’s announcement is a necessary and welcome step toward ensuring safety and accountability on our nation’s highways,” American Trucking Associations President & CEO Chris Spear said. “Federal English language proficiency requirements exist for a reason: every commercial driver operating in the United States must be able to read road signs, communicate with law enforcement and understand safety instructions. When states fail to enforce these standards, they put lives at risk.”
The vast majority of professional drivers meet these requirements and take pride in their responsibility to keep America moving safely, Spear said before adding: “But allowing bad actors to bypass the law undermines that commitment and threatens the credibility of the entire system.”
ATA has long supported strict enforcement of English proficiency standards, along with the broader regulatory framework that keeps roads safe and fair. “We commend the Trump Administration for holding states accountable, and we urge swift, consistent action to close these dangerous loopholes. Safety must never be optional.” Spear added.
It’s debatable what effect this latest English-only push by the federal government will have on overall truck capacity heading into the so-called peak season.
That’s because President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again, moving-target scheme of international tariffs has already caused an early-year bump in demand by shippers seeking to “beat the tariffs” by stockpiling goods earlier this year.
One analysis shows that despite a recent surge in out of service orders, there were 2.1 million active, for-hire, interstate Commercial Drivers License (CDL) drivers who do not haul passengers and have carrier operations.
If drivers placed out of service (OOS) for lacking English proficiency do not return within the year, the estimated annual impact would be about 0.78% of the targeted for-hire driver population taken offline.
This number is even smaller if the definition of the driver pool is expanded to a broader classification. Currently, drivers should not be able to operate a commercial motor vehicle until the condition of their removal is remedied, so it is difficult to estimate the timeline they will be OOS.
Daniel Moore, trucking research analyst for Baird, wrote in a note to investors that Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a pause in the issuance of new H-2B visas for commercial truck drivers.
Rubio stressed that the increasing number of foreign drivers operating heavy trucks on U.S. highways poses a threat both to public safety and to the livelihoods of American truckers.
The pause builds on earlier steps by the administration to strengthen safety standards. On April 28, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to enforce English proficiency requirements for holders of U.S. commercial driver’s licenses, reinforcing efforts to ensure driver competency and protect domestic jobs.
A Baird analysis of data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), together with its analysis, suggest that foreign-born drivers now account for more than 15% of the trucking workforce in the United States.
If fully implemented, the pause on visas would reduce the inflow of new drivers, tightening labor supply at the margin, Baird concluded. While framed as a public safety measure, the consequence for industry dynamics may be constructive, as it constrains driver availability and reinforces the supply-demand balance that underpins freight economics.
Looking at the behavior of dry van spot rates from analytic firm DAT, they continue to move along the bottom of a trough that they have been in since Q1 2023. The slight increase in June and July evaporated in August.
With high tariff rates kicking in, that will place downward pressure on containerized import volumes. Even with seasonal tightening in November and December, the TL market is nowhere near flipping in carriers’ favor.
Predictions have proven inaccurate that more stringent ELP enforcement would result in such a capacity decline that pricing dynamics would change.
Simply put, bull markets in trucking rates are demand driven—not supply driven. The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) revised its guidelines to allow drivers to be placed out-of-service (OOS) for ELP violations, which deviates from the current policy. The CVSA has also petitioned that all CDL exams be administered exclusively in English and all drivers who previously took the CDL exam in another language be removed from service.
Since the CVSA began enforcing these new rules in late June, the industry has seen a sharp increase in both the number of violations and the rate at which drivers are placed OOS. The overall national impact on available capacity is projected to remain minimal for now, based on analysis conducted by the Breakthrough Research & Economics team. However, the geographic concentration of violations, particularly along the Texas and Mexico border, has created localized disruptions. These developments may have implications for shippers, especially those operating cross-border lanes through high-enforcement regions.
The short-term impact of English language proficiency on transportation in general is expected to be minimal.
Data from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) shows a clear change in enforcement regarding English Language Proficiency, both in the number of violations and, more importantly, in drivers being placed OOS. Average number of weekly inspections conducted in 2024 by CVSA was 27,986. This increased to 31,246 per week from January through July 2025, an uptick of about 11.6%.
The biggest change is the increase in drivers placed OOS for ELP violations. This figure jumped from a weekly average of 0.1% to 25.7% since heavy enforcement began in late June. Previously, only one driver out of every thousand flagged with an ELP violation was placed OOS, and now, about one in every four drivers is impacted.
Assuming the 2025 weekly average of 31,246 inspections holds, with 4.05% resulting in ELP violations and 25.68% of those drivers placed OOS, an average of 325 drivers would be taken out of service each week. Annualized, this means about 16,901 drivers would be placed OOS in the coming year.
According to FMCSA data, as of June 20256, there were 2,174,120 active, for-hire, interstated CDL drivers who do not haul passengers and have carrier operations. If drivers placed OOS do not return within the year, the estimated annual impact would be about 0.78% of the targeted for-hire driver population taken offline. This number is even smaller if the definition of the driver pool is expanded to a broader classificiation. Currently, drivers should not be able to operate a commercial motor vehicle until the condition of their removal is remedied, so it is difficult to estimate the timeline they will be OOS.
It’s probably a little early to predict long term impact of updated ELP enforcement. There are so many carriers out there that likely won’t change hiring behavior until they are directly impacted by their drivers being placed OOS. It takes time for that to trickle down in a way that is meaningful enough to impact market data, analysts say.
