All truckers and bus drivers will be required to take commercial driver’s license tests in English
All truckers and bus drivers will have to take their commercial driver’s license exams in English as the Trump administration expands its aggressive campaign to improve safety in the industry and get unskilled drivers off the road.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the latest effort Friday to ensure drivers meet federal requirements. I understand English well enough reading road signs and communicating with law enforcement. Florida has already begun administering its tests in English.
Many states currently allow drivers to take their driver’s license exams in other languages, although they must demonstrate proficiency in English. California offered tests in 20 more languages. Duffy said some states contract with other companies to conduct commercial driver’s license tests, and those companies don’t enforce the standards drivers must meet to demonstrate their driving and English skills.
These latest enforcement efforts come just days after the Department of Transportation He said 557 driving schools should be closed Because they failed to meet basic safety standards. Since the fatal crash in August, the department has been going after states that distribute commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants who shouldn’t qualify for them.
A truck driver who Duffy said did not have permission to be in the US made an illegal U-turn, causing a crash in Florida killing three people. Other deadly crashes since then have further raised concerns, including one that killed four members of an Amish community in Indiana earlier this month.
Duffy says truckers need to be well-skilled
States are expected to ensure that drivers can speak English before issuing commercial licenses, and law enforcement is then required to check the driver’s language skills during any traffic stop or inspection. Drivers who cannot communicate effectively need to get off the road. A recent federal effort involving 8,215 inspections led to the disqualification of nearly 500 drivers because of their English skills. California initially resisted implementing British rules, but the state recently pulled more than 600 drivers from highways.
Duffy said every American wants drivers behind the wheel of a big truck to be qualified to operate them. But he said the trucking industry’s problems “were allowed to fester” for too long, and “nobody dealt with it for decades.”
“When you start paying attention, you see all these bad things happening. And Americans are hurting as a result,” Duffy said. “We should expect to be safe when we go out on the roads. And we should expect that the people driving those big 80,000-pound trucks are well-trained, well-qualified, and they’re going to be safe.”
More efforts against fraudulent companies
The campaign will now also be expanded to go after questionable schools while preventing fake trucking companies from getting into the business and ensuring states comply with all regulations for distributing business licenses.
Duffy said the registration system and requirements for trucking companies will be strengthened while Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration inspectors conduct more spot checks on trucks and commercial driver’s license schools.
Officials are also trying to make sure the electronic logging devices drivers use are accurate, and states are complying with all regulations to ensure drivers qualify for commercial licenses.
‘Chameleon carriers’ avoid sanctions
Currently, companies only need to pay $300 and show proof of insurance to register to operate; but they may not be inspected for a year or more. And even then, audits can be done virtually, reducing the likelihood of detecting fraudulent companies.
This has made it easy for fraudulent companies, known in the industry as “chameleon carriers,” to register multiple times under different names and then simply change names and registration numbers to avoid consequences after accidents or other violations.
Dan Horvath, chief operating officer of the trade group American Trucking Association, said this long-standing problem makes it too easy for companies ordered to close to simply change their names and registration numbers and continue operating the same way.
“What we think has happened at ATA over the years is that we have a lack of real enforcement and intervention against motor carriers in operation,” Horvath said. Only a small portion of trucking companies undergo full compliance review with in-person inspections, he said.
Past enforcement efforts
Following that crash in Indiana, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration decommissioned the company that employed the driver and withdrew DOT numbers assigned to two other companies affiliated with AJ Partners. While Tutash Express and Sam Express in the Chicago area were also disqualified, the Aydana driving school attended by the trucker involved in the accident also lost its certificate.
Immigration officials arrested the driver because they said the 30-year-old Kyrgyzstani had entered the country illegally. Authorities said he tried to pull out and go around a truck that was slowing down in front of him, and his truck crashed into an oncoming minivan.
In December, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration took action. Certificates of 7,500 out of 16,000 schools were revoked nationwide, but including many invalid operations.
Duffy said the companies involved in the crash in Indiana were all registered with the same agency. In other cases, hundreds of these chameleon companies may be registered at a single address.
