By Kelsey Brown – Times Union – July 23, 2025
NEW BALTIMORE — Scott Caswell has been driving trucks for most of his life.
Caswell, 54, started in freight but now works in construction, hauling salt in the wintertime and sand during the other seasons throughout New York and occasionally New Jersey for M. Romano and Son Trucking.
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Industry experts say that the trucking industry is experiencing a labor shortage. Some experts are worried that this shortage could be exacerbated by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s recent strengthening of its English language requirements.
Caswell, who’s been driving for 35 years, isn’t too concerned.
“If everybody had full staff, you probably wouldn’t be as busy,” Caswell said. “The small guy would suffer.”
In May, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy signed an order strengthening the English language enforcement for commercial truck operators. This followed President Trump’s signing of an executive order in April that directed Duffy to reinstate it, saying it was “essential to the strength of our economy, the security of our Nation, and the livelihoods of the American people.”
While English proficiency requirements for drivers predate the Trump administration, the order instills new guidance with harsher penalties. Drivers who are not proficient in English will be penalized with an out-of-service violation. When a driver is taken out of service, the driver and the company that employs them have to make sure the language violation is addressed before the driver can return to work, the DOT told the Associated Press.
Zach Miller, vice president of government affairs for the Trucking Association of New York, expressed concern for the economic impact this could have on drivers and the economy. The majority of truck drivers are paid per mile, rather than per hour.
“It’s time, it’s cost and it’s a truck and/or driver off the road. When a truck and/or driver are not on the road, the company is losing money. It’s simple economics,” Miller said.
Safety inspectors and law enforcement partners will initiate roadside inspections in English, the U.S. Department of Transportation told the Times Union. Roadside inspections may be triggered by things like a faulty brake light or as part of routine inspections that happen at weigh stations. If an inspector believes that the driver does not understand their initial instructions, the inspector will issue an English language proficiency assessment, the DOT said.
The assessment includes “a verbal driver interview conducted in English to determine whether a driver can respond to official inquiries and a highway traffic sign recognition assessment to ensure the driver can interpret critical safety signage,” the DOT said.
“Americans are a lot safer on roads alongside truckers who can understand and interpret our traffic signs. This common-sense change ensures the penalty for failure to comply is more than a slap on the wrist,” Duffy said in a statement.
Miller explained that the English language requirement has been on the books since the early 1970s. During former President Barack Obama’s administration, inspectors were instructed not to put drivers out-of-service for English language proficiency violations. Drivers were able to use interpreters, smartphones and cue cards during interviews in the past, Miller said. But those methods have now been barred.
Miller understands why being able to read road signage is necessary, noting that especially in upstate New York, a winter storm can come in a moment and it’s important that a driver can decipher a notice of a detour or a road closure.
But the timing for this heightened enforcement is less than ideal to Miller, who said the industry has been grappling with a labor shortage for more than a decade. The American Trucking Association estimated that the shortage of qualified drivers reached 78,800 in 2022, which they estimate could double by 2030 due to the aging workforce.
“There’s not a lot of breathing room for the fleets right now,” Miller said.
An American Transportation Research Institute report released this month found that the average age of a trucker is 47. It’s been difficult to find younger replacements for older drivers aging out of the industry, Miller said.
“We really need to get more and more people excited and trained and placed in our industry,” Miller said. “There’s always a concern about something that would deter people from going into this industry.”
There aren’t statistics on how many people for whom English is not their first language make up the trucking workforce. But Miller estimated that this demographic makes up a “significant amount” of the total workforce. For those who are immigrants, who didn’t attend college, or who are reentering society from incarceration or military service, Miller said trucking can provide workers with family-supporting careers.
“Frankly, you do not need to be born in America to do this job,” he said.
“The history of trucking is a history of diversity,” Miller added. “If you go back 100 years, any wave of immigration that we’ve had in this country has gone into this trucking industry, which is amazing. I want to see that continue, and we expect to see it continue. But there’s always that concern of, ‘Is this going to deter people from entering?’ ”
Miller did emphasize that the order is strengthening the English language proficiency requirement, not requiring drivers to be fluent in English. Drivers need to be able to articulate in English the functions of their jobs and the road signs.
Dennis Kennedy, executive director of communications and marketing for Hudson Valley Community College, explained that HVCC partners with a CDL school to offer career training. Students are required to take a written exam and a road test with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, so a level of English proficiency is required to complete the program.
While the CDL programs do not have direct partnerships with HVCC’s English as a Second Language programs, Kennedy said that there has been “significant growth” in the community college’s ESL program, which offers four different levels.
“It covers everything from reading and writing to listening and speaking,” Kennedy said. The fall ESL classes begin in mid-September. There is a new scholarship fund through the college president’s office to help with the cost of the program so it’s accessible to more people, regardless of income, he said.
Published: Mon, 28 Jul 2025 11:45:55 +0000 by d.gardner