In a depressed freight market, with rates in the gutter, motor carriers are cutting all kinds of corners, sacrificing highway safety in the meantime. The situation is multi-faceted with a number of avenues being utilized to put cheap labor in the seats of trucks, oftentimes lacking compliance with the English-proficiency regulation.
What is the English-proficiency regulation?
For starters, here is the actual regulation, with emphasis added:
§ 391.11 General qualifications of drivers.
(a) A person shall not drive a commercial motor vehicle unless he/she is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle. Except as provided in § 391.63, a motor carrier shall not require or permit a person to drive a commercial motor vehicle unless that person is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle.
(b) Except as provided in subpart G of this part, a person is qualified to drive a motor vehicle if he/she—
(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records;
The regulation dates back to 1936 with only a few minor tweaks and additions over the years to read as it does today.
Starting in 2005 the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance considered non-compliance with the regulation an out-of-service violation. The problem was that there weren’t a lot of OOS orders handed out.
The regulation has been continually emphasized as necessary by entities such as the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General all the way to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Obviously, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has always advocated for the regulation in the name of safety.
In 2015, Doug Morris reported to the OOIDA Board of Directors that the English-proficiency regulation, which was then enforced on as part of CVSA’s out-of-service criteria, resulted in 101,280 violations in 2014. But 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 start issuing more OOS orders, CVSA voted in 2015 to drop the enforcement of English-proficiency regulation from the out-of-service criteria.
OOIDA aims to fix that.
The Association petitioned CVSA in early March to reinstate the OOS criteria.
How do non-compliant drivers get on the road?
Drivers who are unable to comply with 391.11 enter the trucking industry through a variety of means.
Most notably, they enter the industry via non-domiciled CDLs. Pushed by the American Trucking Associations in 2019, non-domiciled CDLs were touted as a way to get student drivers on the road quicker.
Starting in 2019, non-domiciled CDLs began being issued to individuals who pass the knowledge and skills test in a state other than their home state. What started as a way for drivers from other states to get a CDL and hit the road without having to travel back to their home state to test for a CDL, has opened the door to drivers from outside of the United States, Mexico and Canada to obtain CDLs and go to work in the U.S.
OOIDA is pushing FMCSA to close the loophole created by the non-domiciled CDLs. Stricter enforcement on fraudulent CDL issuers must go hand-in-hand with closing the loophole according to OOIDA.
“At a minimum, FMCSA must get a real number of these non-domiciled CDLs currently operating on our roads, how these drivers are being recruited, compensated and treated,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh said. “And, most importantly, we have to know the safety records of carriers using these CDL holders.”
Another road to operating in the United States outside compliance with the federal regulations is the abuse of B-1 Visas.
Currently, drivers from Mexico must possess a B-1 Visa to operate beyond the commercial border zone. These drivers are restricted to hauling loads to and from Mexico. They are prohibited from taking point-to-point deliveries within the United States.
Problem is, fleets using B-1 Visa drivers entice them into the U.S. and use them for domestic point-to-point loads – a practice known as cabotage. OOIDA points out that the lower wages amount to a fraction of what U.S. drivers would earn on the same loads and fleets use the cheaper wages as a way to beef up their bottom line.
“The solution is simple,” Pugh said. “U.S. Customs and Border Patrol should just enforce the law. State and local law enforcement should be trained to enforce cabotage laws and carriers found violating existing laws should be severely penalized. Period.”
It’s all about enforcement
English-proficiency enforcement boils down to safety. Non-domiciled CDLs and B-1 Visa abuses contribute to the influx of drivers unable to safely navigate the highways in compliance with the regulations. The situation has grown tremendously with fleets of all sizes looking to pad their bottom line with individuals who are willing to work for subpar wages, who may not be able to fully comply with the regulations.
“Instead of adding more regulations that do nothing to improve highway safety and continue to allow for the mistreatment of truck drivers, CVSA and FMCSA need to do their job,” Pugh said. “How many more people need to be hurt or killed in crashes with these drivers before enough is enough?” LL
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