Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspectors on June 25 will begin issuing out-of-service violations for truckers unable to pass roadside tests for communicating in English and understanding road signs.

CVSA’s upcoming inclusion of English-language proficiency skills for truckers supports both a recent executive order from President Donald Trump and a subsequent mandate from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Full implementation of the law had been suspended for nearly a decade due to an Obama-era memo.

It noted Duffy “has determined that a person is qualified to drive a CMV in interstate commerce if they can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, respond to official inquiries and make entries on reports and records.”

All FMCSA staff were advised to conduct all roadside inspections in English and start a language-proficiency test on a driver if an inspector’s initial conversation indicated the driver failed to understand English.

Under new FMCSA guidance, an English-language proficiency test should be done by inspectors first in a driver interview and then a possible assessment of a driver’s ability to comprehend highway traffic signs.

Per FMCSA, inspectors conducting driver interviews testing English capabilities should refrain from using “I-Speak cards, cue cards, smartphone applications, and On-Call Telephone Interpretation Service … as those tools may mask a driver’s inability to communicate in English.”

An inspector who finds a driver unable to speak sufficient English can stop and issue an out-of-service violation without conducting a highway signs test. Should an inspector proceed to the second phase regarding signs, the inspector is to evaluate how well a driver can recognize U.S. highway traffic signs in English, including interchangeable, electronic “dynamic” message signs the driver may see while operating a commercial motor vehicle.

An inspector issuing an out-of-service violation to a driver for lacking English speaking and comprehension skills must document all supporting evidence, such as a driver’s responses or communication failures.

“Should the driver be placed out-of-service, the inspector should advise the driver that it is unlawful to operate a commercial motor vehicle while out-of-service and that the driver should not operate commercial motor vehicles in interstate commerce until the condition is remedied,” FMCSA stated. “However, when performing inspections of drivers operating commercial motor vehicles in the border commercial zones along the U.S.-Mexico border, FMCSA enforcement personnel should cite drivers for violations of 49 CFR § 391.11(b)(2) in accordance with this policy, but should not take follow-on actions of placing the driver out-of-service or initiating an action to disqualify the driver.”

Hearing-impaired drivers who have a hearing standard exemption shall not be deemed unqualified and placed out-of-service if unable to communicate orally in English.

FMCSA noted that when CVSA starts incorporating the English-language proficiency mandates June 25, there will be “uniform enforcement by federal and state inspectors.”

Source: ttnews.com and cvsa.org