Lawmaker wants feds to crack down on lack of English proficiency
Pressure continues to mount on regulators to return to enforcement on truck drivers who fail to comply with the existing English-proficiency regulations. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., recently cranked up the heat at the federal level.
On Thursday, April 10, Hageman sent a letter to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to repeal the 2016 guidance issued by the DOT. The guidance calls for enforcement officials who encounter individuals with limited English proficiency to determine what services are required to facilitate communication.
The 2016 guidance, which was in response to a 2005 notice of guidance issued by the Office of the Secretary and the DOT, used a specific example of a hazardous materials cleanup.
“A motor vehicle department or an emergency hazardous material cleanup team in a largely Hispanic neighborhood may need immediate oral interpreters available and decide to hire full-time bilingual staff,” the guidance states.
The guidance does not address roadside enforcement of truck drivers for the English-proficiency standards laid out in 391.11(b)2.
CVSA scraps out-of-service criteria
The 2016 guidance followed a move in 2015 by the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance that eliminated 391.11(b)2 from the out-of-service criteria. That removal meant truckers found to violate the English-proficiency requirements were just issued a violation during the inspection.
The reality is that the 2015 elimination of the out-of-service enforcement didn’t change much.
In May 2015, Doug Morris reported to the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association 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. However, 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 issuing more out-of-service orders, CVSA voted in June 2015 to drop the enforcement of the English-proficiency regulation from the out-of-service criteria.
OOIDA aims to fix that.
The Association petitioned CVSA in early March to add English proficiency back to the out-of-service criteria.
OOIDA calls for a national fix
Hageman’s letter also addressed the impact of the lack of enforcement on highway safety.
“According to reported data, the number of fatal truck crashes has consistently increased since 2016, with approximately 5,837 fatal accidents in 2022,” Hageman wrote to Duffy. “This same data also reveals that my home state of Wyoming had the second-highest percentage of large trucks involved in fatal crashes in 2022 at 21%, falling only behind North Dakota at 23%.”
Other states have struggled to address the English-proficiency regulation and its impact on highway safety.
As recently as Monday, April 14, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill into law that not only tackles the English proficiency of truck drivers but also targets forged or false work papers and CDLs on foreign drivers.
OOIDA leadership understands why state lawmakers may feel compelled to implement laws but believes these will create their own set of problems.
“We have a long history of battling the patchwork of state regulations in trucking,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh said. “English proficiency and its toll on highway safety is a national problem and should be addressed at the federal level. Not only should CVSA immediately put English proficiency back into the out-of-service criteria, but FMCSA should compel law enforcement to abide by those criteria.
“We can’t afford to continue ignoring the situation. It’s not going away.” LL