The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has announced that professional licence tests for truck and bus drivers will have to be taken in English, as the Trump administration steps up its campaign to remove unqualified drivers from the road. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the goal is to ensure drivers can read road signs and communicate with enforcement officers during inspections.
In the United States, drivers of heavy trucks and buses typically need a commercial driving licence — commonly referred to as a CDL (Commercial Driver’s License). The new federal approach aims to make sure the testing process matches the long-standing expectation that commercial drivers can operate safely in an English-language road environment.
According to the Associated Press, many states currently allow license tests in languages other than English, even though drivers are expected to demonstrate English proficiency. The agency notes that California offers tests in 20 languages, which has become a focal point in the debate about how consistently the requirement is applied nationwide.
Reuters reports that the English-only testing plan is being paired with a broader crackdown on fraudulent or substandard training in the sector, including steps to tighten the way driving schools are overseen.
Enforcement is already tightening at the roadside
For international carriers and operators following US developments, the key point is that language requirements are not just about exams — they can have immediate operational consequences.
The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) explains that failure to comply with the federal English language proficiency requirement can result in a driver being placed out of service, with the out-of-service violation taking effect from 25 June 2025. In practice, that means a roadside check can potentially stop a journey there and then if an officer determines the driver cannot meet the requirement.
USDOT itself has framed the English-only test change as part of a wider “safety and integrity” package, alongside actions targeting non-compliant training centres and efforts to strengthen identity verification in registration systems.
Florida moved first at state level
The federal announcement follows a similar step taken in Florida, where the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles agency (FLHSMV) said in an official statement that driver licence exams in the state would be administered in English only, with implementation tied to 6 February 2026.
While Florida’s policy covers driver licence exams in that state, USDOT’s announcement signals a move towards a national standard for professional truck and bus licensing tests.
Europe moves the other way: Germany plans more exam languages to ease shortages
While the US is moving towards English-only professional licence testing, Germany is preparing changes that would do the opposite: reduce language barriers in order to get more professional drivers onto the road faster.
According to a draft rationale obtained by dvz.de and described in a Trans.info report (17 Feb 2026), Germany’s Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMV) is working on amendments to the Ordinance on the qualification of professional drivers. The key proposal is to allow parts of the accelerated qualification exam to be taken not only in German, but also in eight additional languages: English, Croatian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and Classical Arabic. The ministry’s stated aim is to lower language barriers and open the profession to more people, including faster integration of workers from countries such as Ukraine, Syria and Turkey.
The same draft package would also shorten and simplify parts of the exam process, including:
- reducing the driving-time element of the initial qualification by 30 minutes,
- removing the exam module on handling critical situations (cutting a further 60 minutes),
- allowing multiple retakes in vocational-training exams (instead of only one retake as before).
In parallel, Germany is also planning changes to its Driving Licence Ordinance to make it easier to exchange licences from certain third countries, with specific measures aimed at Montenegro and Ukraine. The draft also foresees expanding the number of languages available for obtaining a German driving licence to include Ukrainian and Kurmanji (a Kurdish language used in Turkey, Syria and Iraq).
