The Sikh Coalition has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to withdraw a proposed rule that would place truck drivers who do not meet English-proficiency requirements out of service, warning that unclear roadside tests could lead to discrimination against drivers — including many Punjabi and Sikh drivers who make up a large share of the US trucking workforce.
Source: FreightWaves
The comments came after the public comment period on the notice of proposed rulemaking closed last Friday, according to FreightWaves reporting on October 14, summarised by CDLWire on October 15. The proposal would update federal regulations so that noncompliance with existing English-proficiency requirements results in a driver being placed out of service, with an exception for truck traffic localised to the US-Mexico border that is not heading further inland.
Source: CDLWire
What the Sikh Coalition said
The Coalition said it agrees that drivers need a level of English already required by federal law, but asked FMCSA to withdraw the out-of-service proposal and instead invest in other safety measures. It raised the lack of clear criteria for when inspectors subject drivers to assessments, and the lack of information on what recourse a driver has after an out-of-service order.
The Coalition cited its analysis of FMCSA roadside inspection data from 2021 to 2025 showing that just 0.19% of inspections involved a driver's inability to communicate in or understand English. It also noted that FMCSA had previously removed the out-of-service requirement in 2016 after the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance could not substantiate its safety impact.
Trucking groups split on the fix, not the goal
The American Trucking Associations broadly backed the goal of English proficiency but said it remains concerned the assessment process leaves room for subjective interpretation, and called for a standardised assessment built into CDL issuance and renewal. The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association was more strongly in support, citing a fall from more than 100,000 English-proficiency violations in 2014 to 9,700 in 2024.
FreightWaves also noted that English-proficiency violations made up 9.1% of out-of-service orders in this year's Roadcheck and ranked among the top five reasons — a figure supporters point to as evidence the issue is growing, and critics point to as evidence of uneven enforcement.
A large share of Punjabi diaspora readers in the US work in trucking. An out-of-service order can mean a lost load, a lost day's pay and, in some cases, a lost job — so how inspectors decide who gets tested, and what appeal exists afterwards, is a livelihood question, not just a regulatory one.
The largest single source of comments was a supporter email campaign referencing Dalilah Coleman, a child injured in a 2024 California crash involving a driver in the US illegally. FreightWaves reported that passage of the related Dalilah's Law is unlikely this year and would need to be considered by the next Congress. FMCSA has not yet announced a final decision on the proposed rule.