New English Language Rules for Truckers Threaten to Deepen Staffing Crisis
The U.S. trucking industry has been struggling with a labor shortage for years, and with the Trump administration issuing a directive in May to pull drivers who aren't proficient in English off the road, thousands of truckers could soon find themselves sidelined at a time when they're needed most.
"Introducing language barriers to an already stressed workforce may end up causing more problems than it is intended to solve," says Allan Hou, sales director for logistics company TSL Australia.
English language proficiency (ELP) requirements for truckers in the U.S. have been on the books since the 1970s, until the Obama administration softened those rules in 2016 to make it so drivers couldn't be taken off the road for any ELP violations, and instead were allowed to use interpreters, translation apps on smartphones, cue cards and other language aids. Comparatively, Canada — which does not have a national language — is similarly accommodating, with more of a focus on encouraging a basic understanding of road signs and instructions from law enforcement. In Europe, language requirements vary by country, with some enforcing basic English proficiency for cross-border travel, and others mandating basic proficiency for their national language.
Under President Trump's updated policy that took effect on June 25, safety inspectors and law enforcement agencies are now being instructed to initiate roadside inspections for routine traffic stops in English, and then issue an ELP assessment if they believe a driver has not fully understood their instructions. If a driver fails that assessment, their employer is required to take them out of service until the language violation can be corrected. Drivers are also no longer allowed to use language aids to communicate during inspections or traffic stops.
According to data provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2023, nearly 4% of the CDL license-holder workforce has limited English proficiency. That means that out of the roughly 3.5 million truck drivers on the road in the U.S. today, 140,000 could be removed from service under the Trump administration's ELP requirements. That could also further be complicated by the Trump administration's aggressive deportation policies, with immigrants making up nearly 16% of CDL license-holders.
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"Many of the drivers keeping freight moving today are multilingual professionals who often face systemic barriers to certification, even when they have the experience and skill to operate safely," says Sam Agyemang, the co-founder of digital fleet management platform HaulerHub.
This is while the trucking industry already faces a shortage of more than 82,000 drivers, with the American Trucking Association (ATA) projecting that number to exceed 160,000 by 2030 if current hiring and retention trends hold. Ultimately, creating more hiring obstacles for companies in desperate need of drivers — and potentially pulling thousands of existing drivers off the job to boot — could deepen a staffing crisis that at least a quarter of freight firms identified as the biggest issue impacting their businesses in a May survey.
TSL Australia's Hou notes that while the ability to speak English is a necessary skill for those working in the logistics sector, ELP requirements also "only cover a fraction of road safety issues," including driver fatigue, vehicle maintenance, infrastructure constraints and the fallout from a years-long trucking freight recession. In the ATA's annual survey of trucking industry professionals in 2024, the top issue flagged by motor carriers was the economy, followed by lawsuit abuse reform, and driver shortages, while English language proficiency wasn't listed in the top 10 at all. However, the ATA itself was still supportive of the new ELP policy after it was announced, with the group praising the Trump administration for "responding to our concerns on the uneven application of this existing regulation."
Although Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has framed the new requirements as part of a push for greater road safety, some are skeptical that the policy will actually achieve that goal.
"There's no data to support that it's going to create safer roads," says Hispanic Construction Council CEO George Carillo, pointing out how the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) removed the language requirement from its out-of-service criteria in 2015 due to a lack of supporting data. At the time, the CVSA concluded that lacking command of a language didn't create an "imminent hazard," or put a driver at risk of a crash. The CVSA reimplemented the requirement in June 2025 to align with federal guidelines, but did not cite any new information that might suggest a link between road safety and English proficiency.
In an April release, the Sikh Coalition also expressed concerns that roadside ELP assessments could open the door for racial profiling of drivers who speak with an accent or use a vocabulary an inspector might not be accustomed to. The group estimates that there are currently 135,000 Sikhs working as truck drivers in the U.S., including more than 30,000 that joined the industry between 2016 and 2018.
As motor carriers and drivers navigate the new policy in the months to come, Carillo says that it will be crucial to have testing be "fair and consistent."
"Most important, policy should focus on evidence-based strategies like fatigue prevention and hands-on training," he adds. "Safety is not about making headlines; it is about protecting lives — that requires facts, not politics, to guide the way forward."