CVSA takes first steps toward English-proficiency enforcement

The ink on President Donald Trump’s executive order had barely dried before the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance tackled shoring up enforcement of the English-proficiency regulations.

Responding to a petition from the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association calling for non-compliance with the English-proficiency regulation 391.11(b)(2), CVSA’s Driver and Traffic Committee took up the issue on Tuesday, April 29.

The committee made not one, but three moves toward shoring up enforcement of the English-proficiency standard. All three recommendations moved out of committee and are slated to be considered by the executive committee later in the week.

The first committee recommendation is to place a driver out of service who cannot react and speak the English language sufficiently to communicate with the safety officer while responding to official inquiries.

The committee also recommended petitioning the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to change 391.11(b)(2) to specifically state lack of English proficiency is an out-of-service violation, similar to how 392.5 is structured.

Going a step further, the committee also recommended that FMCSA require harmonization of CDL testing in the English language. One example of how states vary in the area of CDL testing is that currently, states are permitted to give the knowledge, or written, portion of CDL exams in languages other than English. It is up to each state what language it uses for the test.

Trump’s executive order

Trump signed an executive order late on Monday, April 28 calling for enforcement of the English-proficiency regulations.

Following a March 1 executive order declaring English the official language of the United States, this week’s executive order calls for upholding English-proficiency requirements as outlined in 391.11(b)(2). In order to accomplish this, the order also directs FMCSA to work with “the relevant entities responsible for establishing the out-of-service criteria,” meaning CVSA.

The order also calls for a review of non-domiciled CDLs by state agencies to “identify unusual patterns or numbers or other irregularities.” Non-domiciled CDLs are licenses issued by a state other than where the truck driver’s primary residence is located. Both U.S. citizens from other states and truck drivers on work visas from other countries are eligible for licenses under this program.

The executive order called for action to start within 60 days of its signing. Specifically, the order states the “Secretary of Transportation shall identify and begin carrying out additional administrative, regulatory or enforcement actions to improve the working conditions of America’s truck drivers.”

The move was immediately recognized by OOIDA.

“We’re happy to see CVSA revisiting this issue,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. “Language proficiency has been a safety issue for a long time. It’s past time to pull this from the back burner and to come up with a real, appropriate fix.”

CVSA’s role

Clearly, it didn’t take CVSA 60 days to get the ball rolling; it took less than 24 hours.

While FMCSA establishes regulations, some with out-of-service orders defined in them – like 392.5, the out-of-service criteria – is generally defined and adopted by CVSA. Commercial vehicle inspectors are expected to follow the criteria adopted by the alliance.

CVSA is a nonprofit organization comprised of local, state, provincial, territorial and federal commercial motor vehicle safety officials and industry representatives. It is not an agency of the federal government.

The group’s spring workshop is being held in New Orleans and is scheduled to conclude Thursday, May 1.

While the Department of Transportation and FMCSA would not have to wait on official CVSA action to start tweaking regulations, the two petitions awaiting CVSA Executive Committee approval show what the law enforcement community believes would help with non-compliance with the English-proficiency regulation.

How we got here

Starting in 2005, CVSA considered non-compliance with the regulation an out-of-service violation. The problem was that there weren’t a lot of OOS orders handed out.

The regulation has been continually emphasized as necessary by entities such as the DOT Office of Inspector General and FMCSA.

Obviously, OOIDA has always advocated for the regulation in the name of safety.

In 2015, OOIDA’s Doug Morris reported to the OOIDA Board of Directors that the English-proficiency regulation, which was then enforced as part of CVSA’s out-of-service criteria, resulted in 101,280 violations in 2014. But only 4,036 of those drivers were placed out of service.

Morris said having commercial vehicle drivers who don’t understand English poses a safety hazard.

Rather than start issuing more out-of-service orders, CVSA voted in 2015 to drop the enforcement of the English-proficiency regulation from the out-of-service criteria.

OOIDA petitioned CVSA in early March to reinstate English proficiency as part of the criteria. LL