It’s been almost six months since President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring English language proficiency rules to be enforced for commercial vehicle drivers took effect, but the impact of that enforcement on the trucking industry has been tough to determine.
According to Logan Cooper, senior manager of regional traffic for logistics provider and trucking broker OEC Group, the impacts have been and will likely continue to be localized. The areas where the fresh produce industry intersects with the trucking industry, however, will likely see less effect.
“Where you’re going to see most of the impact is just the drive-in, warehouse-to-warehouse business; stuff that’s simple ‘pickup and deliver,’ where the drivers aren’t really too involved in it,” he says, adding that most of that business is dry van compared to the more specialized refrigerated trailers that fresh produce depends on.
“When you start talking about reefers or flatbeds or just any kind of specialized equipment, a lot of times those are going to be your more qualified drivers,” he adds. “I don’t think you’re going to see as many of the issues with that segment of the industry.”
Localized Impacts of Enforcement
The April 28 executive order specifically directed the Department of Transportation and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to enforce existing English language proficiency requirements. It took effect in late June.
In a Dec. 11 post on the social platform X, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote that DOT had “already removed nearly 10,000 unqualified drivers” since enforcement was stepped up.
Cooper explains that CDL drivers could always be cited for violation of this requirement, but “the driver would get a violation or a fine, but they could keep driving.” The change in enforcement now means that the drivers are “put out of service.” On the ground, this usually looks like a driver pulling into a weigh station, found to be in violation, put out of service, and the truck and its load can’t move until another qualified driver comes to pick it up.
“We would see major delays in those cases if the driver was put out of service. Then they would be reviewed for having their license revoked if they can’t meet those qualifications,” Cooper says.
He tells The Packer that the difference between drivers being put out of service and actually having their licenses revoked muddies the water on exact numbers, estimating that it could be anywhere between 10,000 to 20,000 drivers impacted. But that’s out of 2 million to 3 million active commercial driver license holders, he adds.
“It’s too small of a segment at the moment to really have that big of an impact on the overall industry,” he says.
The impacts Cooper does foresee are localized, both geographically and within specific segments of the trucking industry. This would include the simpler hauls with dry vans and recent immigrant entrants into the trucking industry.
“They’re going to jump into just dock-to-dock dry van, so I think that’s going to be the segment of the industry we’re going to see the most,” he says. “Obviously, that’s going to have some impact on the reefer side because that is dock-to-dock stuff as well, but just with the specialized equipment, I think you’re going to see less of an impact than you would just the straight dry van.”
He also says that any trucking that involves crossing a border into the U.S., as a lot of produce does these days, already has higher levels of scrutiny than dock-to-dock or warehouse-to-warehouse hauling. This usually means more experienced, heavily vetted drivers who would not be impacted by the English proficiency requirement.
Trucking Issues to Watch in 2026
Enforcement of English proficiency for CDL drivers isn’t the only 2025 development in trucking that could impact the industry in 2026.
For example, that same executive order directed Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to review non-domiciled CDLs issued by state agencies “to identify any unusual patterns or numbers or other irregularities.” Non-domiciled CDLs are CDLs issued to qualified non-citizens who are in the U.S. legally. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an interim final rule to apply this order in late September, but that was blocked by an administrative stay in mid-November.
“The rule is still in place, but they’re not enforcing it again,” Cooper says. “So, it’s this back and forth of things changing, new rules put in place, and are we enforcing it or not enforcing it?”
He says he expects additional guidance on that in early 2026. He also expects that a new round of arguments will happen sometime in January on the Montgomery v. Caribe case currently before the Supreme Court. Cooper says the case “could be hugely impactful to the industry.”
It effectively asks if states can hold trucking brokers liable for the actions of a driver or carrier. Cooper says that depending on how the case goes, brokers might have to dramatically increase their insurance coverage, which could drive small-to-midsize brokers out of the industry.
“It could make it where the big carriers or the big brokers have a lot more power in the industry and the small guys get chopped off at the bottom because they just can’t pay to play in this case,” he says.
