The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced Friday that all commercial driver’s license exams will now be administered exclusively in English, a move federal officials say is aimed at tightening enforcement standards and improving highway safety nationwide.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the directive reinforces existing federal requirements that commercial drivers demonstrate English proficiency before operating large trucks and buses.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Derek Barrs, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Duffy said the department is clarifying how that requirement will be enforced across all states.
“What we’re doing is implementing a rule that will say there’s one language in which you can take your test—it’s English only,” Duffy said. “You take the test in English. You can’t speak English; you can’t read English—you’re not going to do well on the test.”
Officials noted that road signs and electronic emergency messaging systems nationwide are written in English.
Barrs outlined additional compliance steps, including upgrades to registration systems to strengthen identity verification and prevent fraud.
He said the agency is targeting noncompliant CDL training centers and carriers that attempt to skirt oversight.
“We’ve got to unmask chameleon carriers,” Barrs said, describing companies that repeatedly change names and U.S. DOT numbers to evade enforcement.
He referenced a recent fatal crash in Indiana that investigators tied to a coordinated network attempting to avoid scrutiny.
Federal officials said enforcement efforts were already underway before several high-profile crashes intensified scrutiny.
Earlier this month, four members of an Amish community in Indiana were killed in a collision involving a big rig driven by a man not legally in the United States who had been issued a nondomiciled CDL, according to Just the News.
Last August, Resist the Mainstream reported on a triple-fatal crash on the Florida Turnpike involved a driver who, according to a preliminary federal investigation, failed an English proficiency exam, answering only two of 12 questions correctly and identifying just one of four traffic signs.
Another triple-fatal crash occurred weeks later in California amid ongoing regulatory litigation.
The department has also moved against training programs that fail to meet federal safety benchmarks.
Last week, officials indicated that 557 driving schools could face closure for deficiencies.
More than 7,000 CDL schools have reportedly been shuttered during the current enforcement effort.
“When we get on the road,” Duffy said, “we should expect that we should be safe. And that those who drive those 80,000-pound big rigs, that they are well-trained, they’re well-qualified, and they’re going to be safe.”
The policy arrives as several states debate language requirements for driver testing.
According to The Associated Press, California has offered CDL exams in multiple languages, while Florida recently transitioned to English-only testing, per Fox 13.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) praised the shift, stating that drivers must be able to read road signs.
In Alabama, legislation that would require state driver’s license exams to be administered exclusively in English stalled in committee amid bipartisan concerns about limiting access to employment.
Census data indicate roughly 6 percent of Alabama residents speak a language other than English at home, according to AL.com.
Industry leaders welcomed the enforcement push.
Todd Spencer, president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said, “For years, chameleon carriers, CDL mills, and weak English language proficiency enforcement have allowed unqualified drivers to slip through the cracks, compromising safety as well as facilitating fraud.”
He added that strengthening training and qualification protocols is “a win for public safety and for the professional truckers who take pride in this industry.”
At driving schools in Tennessee, administrators said English testing has long been standard practice.
“And being able to speak English and read English is not anything new,” said Melvin Lewis of Class A Driving Academy in Memphis. “It’s just being enforced more.”
Federal officials emphasized that the directive reinforces existing law rather than establishing a new mandate.
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