Dept. of Transportation Shuts Down Trucking Schools Over Drivers’ Lack of English Proficiency

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently announced that his department will shut down 270 driving schools that were committing fraud by granting commercial driver’s licenses (CDL) to unqualified applicants.

Of the 270 institutions shut down, 100 were found to have graduated at least 10 drivers who were subsequently cited as lacking English language proficiency. This means that there were potentially a significant number of truck drivers on our roads who could not understand basic English, posing a major safety risk to other drivers.

At ProEnglish, we’ve been longtime advocates for more stringent enforcement of English proficiency requirements in the trucking industry. Over the past year, the number of commercial truck drivers who lack proficiency in English has come into focus at the national level due to several high-profile, fatal accidents.

We’re happy to see the Trump administration make this important move, but now it’s time for Congress to take the next step by passing Dalilah’s Law. This critical bill would prohibit non-citizens from obtaining CDLs and require all CDL holders to be proficient in English.

Ensuring that every driver can understand road signs and communicate effectively in English is a commonsense step toward keeping America’s roads safe. We will continue to keep you updated as new developments occur on this issue.