President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a vehicle safety agency to rescind Obama-era guidance that kept highway inspectors from removing non-English speaking commercial truck drivers from the roads.
Wyoming’s Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives voiced strong approval.
“I proudly support President Trump taking action to make our roads safer for truckers and private citizens alike,” wrote Rep. Harriet Hageman in a Monday-evening statement. “I have heard from many in Wyoming, including our law enforcement, about the dangers posed by truckers who are unable to read our highway signs.”
It’s not unreasonable, Hageman continued, for people to want commercial drivers to be able to read English, “especially in Wyoming where we have changing weather conditions on one of the most traveled interstates in the U.S.”
More than two weeks before Trump’s order, Hageman had written a letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy urging this change and citing a rise in commercial truck related fatalities since the 2016 memorandum.
Order Says
Trump’s order establishes an administration policy “to support America’s truckers and safeguard our roadways” by allowing the enforcement of an English-proficiency requirement that’s already in the federal rules, but that has been hamstrung for nine years.
In 2016 the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a memorandum telling highway inspectors not to pull non-English speaking truckers from the roads, contrary to the federal rule that requires English proficiency in commercial truck drivers.
Trump’s order directs the secretary of transportation, through the FMCSA, to rescind that memorandum within 60 days and take “all necessary and appropriate actions, consistent with applicable law,” to ensure that non-English proficiency takes commercial truck drivers out of service.
The order tells Duffy and the FMCSA to review non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) issued by state agencies, and identify any unusual patterns, numbers or irregularities among them. Then the agency is to take action toward verifying the authenticity of both domestic and international commercial driving credentials.
Non-domiciled CDLs generally are commercial driver’s licenses issued to foreign nationals.
Lastly, the order tells the secretary of transportation to take action to improve the working conditions of America’s truck drivers.
Commercial truckers check in at the Cheyenne Port of Entry about 5 miles north of the Wyoming-Colorado border. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
Commercial truckers check in at the Cheyenne Port of Entry about 5 miles north of the Wyoming-Colorado border. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily) 
Commercial truckers check in at the Cheyenne Port of Entry about 5 miles north of the Wyoming-Colorado border. (Greg Johnson, Cowboy State Daily)
‘Eternally Grateful’
For Shannon Everett, co-founder of American-trucker advocacy group American Truckers United, the order is an answer to prayer and a lot of hard work.
“Just on behalf of all the truck drivers and their families and our organization, we extend heartfelt gratitude to President Trump and Secretary Sean Duffy for this executive order,” Everett told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday.
Everett said the order takes the nation “one step closer to restoring this industry to its greatness” and is “definitely an answer to prayer” to families of people who have died at the hands of non-English speaking truck drivers.
Everett’s group started last year after 64-year-old Colorado resident Scott Miller was hit and killed last June by a truck operator who’d already been deported to Mexico 16 times. The trucker was jailed for months then released, and has since been placed in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
The group had sent Duffy a letter April 11, urging the administration to make the changes addressed in Monday’s order, and also to ban foreign visitor visas from being used to gain work in the American trucking industry; and to implement criminal statutes specific to when a non-citizen trucker causes harm.
Though those last two requests aren’t addressed in the order, Everett added: “Don’t take this as us complaining. We are eternally grateful that they’ve not only admitted but they’ve taken action on the issues. We believe the president we have in office right now will continue addressing these things in time.”
Everett said he did not know what prompted Trump to publish this order, but he pointed to months of advocacy by his organization and others, Congress members mobilizing, and the media recently noticing and reporting on the issue.
Contact Clair McFarland at clair@cowboystatedaily.com
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
