Truckers fear job loss as new English language rules take effect

LINDEN, New Jersey (AP) — At a trucking school in New Jersey, students are maneuvering 18-wheelers around traffic cones. Other future drivers look under hoods to perform safety checks, narrating as they examine steering hoses for cracks and leaks.

An instructor glides between speaking Spanish and English as he teaches Manuel Castillo, a native Spanish speaker, how to inspect a school bus. They’re using a printed script of English phrases to practice what Castillo would say during a roadside inspection.

Brushing up on English has taken on new urgency for future and current truck drivers after President Donald Trump issued an executive order saying truckers who don’t read and speak the language proficiently would be considered unfit for service.

“A driver who can’t understand English will not drive a commercial vehicle in this country. Period," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last month while announcing enforcement guidelines that take effect on Wednesday.

Updated U.S. Department of Transportation procedures call for enhanced inspections to determine if commercial motor vehicle operators can reply to questions and directions in English, as well as understand highway traffic signs and electronic message boards.

Truckers who learned English as a second language are concerned they may lose their jobs if they make a mistake or speak with a heavy accent while under questioning. Some have worked to improve their English fluency by taking classes, reciting scripts and watching instructional videos.

“If it’s not the language that you prefer to use daily, you may get a little nervous and you may feel, ‘What if I say the wrong thing?’” said Jerry Maldonado, chairman of the board of the Laredo Motor Carriers Association, a trade association in Laredo, Texas, that represents approximately 200 trucking companies. “It’s going to be, at the end of the day, the interpretation of the officer, so that makes people nervous.”

The guidance applies to truck and bus drivers engaged in interstate commerce. It aims to improve road safety following incidents in which truck drivers' inability to read signs or speak English may have contributed to traffic deaths, the Transportation Department said.

Requiring truck drivers to speak and read English isn’t new, but the penalty for not meeting the proficiency standard is becoming more severe.

To get a commercial driver’s license, applicants must pass a written test and be able to name the parts of a bus or truck in English as they check tire inflation, tread depth, lug nuts and coolants.

The revised policy reverses guidance issued nine years ago, near the end of then-President Barack Obama’s final term, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. In 2016, the agency said drivers whose English skills were found lacking could receive a citation but not be prohibited from working. Before that, the penalty was getting placed on “out-of-service status.”

“We have bridges that get hit because drivers don’t understand the signs on the bridges for things like height clearance,” Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer said.

In Laredo, a border city where many residents speak a mix of English and Spanish, Maldonado’s association is offering free English classes on weekends to help truckers feel more confident in their ability to communicate.

“Everybody knows what a stop sign looks like,” Maldonado said. “But if there’s construction or if there is an accident five miles down the road, and they have to put up a sign — ‘Caution, must exit now, road closed ahead,’ and you are not able to read that or understand that, that could potentially be a safety issue.”

At Driving Academy in Linden, New Jersey, multilingual instructors teach students how to inspect vehicle parts in their first language and then provide explanations in English, according to founder Jonathan Marques. The school created scripts so students could practice what to say if they're stopped, he said.

Students are advised to watch training videos as homework, while licensed truckers can listen to English language apps instead of music when they're on the road, Marques suggested.

Instructor Paul Cuartas helps students prepare but worries that inspectors will now expect truckers and bus drivers to have perfect English. “I’m concerned because now for all the Spanish people it’s more difficult,” he said.

Castillo, who moved to the U.S. from Ecuador in 1993, said he has no problem understanding English but has been watching videos to study industry terms. “Some words I don’t understand, but I try to learn more English,” he said.

Asked whether he supports the president's executive order, Castillo said he voted for Trump but doesn’t agree with the president's push to deport some immigrants who haven’t committed crimes.

“He makes a lot of problems, especially for Hispanic people,” Castillo said.

GTR Trucking School in Detroit also has offered students ESL classes. Co-owner Al Myftiu drove a truck after moving to the U.S. from Albania in 1993. He said he wants to create a small book of phrases that truckers need to learn.

For students with a thick accent, “I tell them, ‘Slow down, speak slowly and people can understand you, and if you don’t understand something, you can ask,’" Myftiu said.

Roadside inspections can be initiated over issues such as a faulty brake light or on a routine basis, and often take place at weigh stations.

The guidance directs inspectors who suspect a driver doesn’t understand what they're saying to administer an English proficiency test, which includes both an interview and a highway traffic sign recognition component.

In the past, some drivers used translation apps to communicate with federal inspectors. The updated policy bars the use of interpreters, smartphones, cue cards or other aids during interviews.

Several truck drivers taking a break at Flying J Travel Center in New Jersey said they support Trump's order, adding that drivers who heavily rely on translation programs probably wouldn’t be able to read important signs.

“We try to ask them questions about the business just to strike a conversation, ... and they’re not able to communicate with us at all,” Kassem Elkhatib, one of the drivers at Flying J, said.

It’s unclear how safety inspectors will decide whether a driver knows enough English because that portion of the instructions was redacted from the guidance distributed by Transportation Department.

The department advised motor carriers that drivers should be able to answer questions about shipping documents, the origin and destination of trips, and how long they've been on duty.

A trucker placed out of service and the company they work for are responsible for ensuring a language violation is corrected before the driver hits the highway again, the Transportation Department said.

Truck drivers who practice the Sikh religion already face discrimination in hiring and at loading docks, according to Mannirmal Kaur, federal policy manager for Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group. Now they are worried about inspectors making subjective, non-standardized determinations about which of them are proficient in English, she said.

“A truck driver who does speak English sufficiently to comply with federal standards but maybe they speak with an accent, or maybe they use a different vocabulary that the inspector isn’t used to hearing: Is that person then going to be subject to an English language violation?” Kaur asked. “And under the new policy, are they then going to be designated out-of-service, which could result in unemployment?”

Video journalist Mingson Lau contributed from Carneys Point Township, New Jersey.

An instructor checks in on students practicing in a school bus at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J., where students prepare to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) with multilingual instructors. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Trucking student Mohammed Kamal, left, overseen by instructor Tom Panton, practices driving a tractor-trailer truck in a simulation at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Mohammed Kamal practices handling a tractor-trailer truck in a driving simulator at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J., where students prepare to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) with multilingual instructors. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Mohammed Kamal practices handling a tractor-trailer truck in a driving simulator at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

An instructor provides reverse parking advice to a student at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J., where students prepare to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) with multilingual instructors.(AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Manuel Castillo, right, one of the Spanish-speaking truck driving students, runs through a safety check with guidance from instructor Paul Cuartas on a training school bus at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Solane Ellis studies at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J., where students prepare to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) with multilingual instructors. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

A student studies a truck engine at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J., where students prepare to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) with multilingual instructors. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

An instructor helps a student study at the Driving Academy on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Linden, N.J. where students prepare to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) with multilingual instructors. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Trucking students practice reverse parking in training trucks at the Driving Academy on Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017 in Linden, N.J., where students prepare to obtain a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) with multilingual instructors. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

NEW YORK (AP) — Reviving a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump wants a one-year, 10% cap on credit card interest rates, a move that could save Americans tens of billions of dollars but drew immediate opposition from an industry that has been in his corner.

Trump was not clear in his social media post Friday night whether a cap might take effect through executive action or legislation, though one Republican senator said he had spoken with the president and would work on a bill with his “full support.” Trump said he hoped it would be in place Jan. 20, one year after he took office.

Strong opposition is certain from Wall Street in addition to the credit card companies, which donated heavily to his 2024 campaign and have supported Trump's second-term agenda. Banks are making the argument that such a plan would most hurt poor people, at a time of economic concern, by curtailing or eliminating credit lines, driving them to high-cost alternatives like payday loans or pawnshops.

“We will no longer let the American Public be ripped off by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Researchers who studied Trump’s campaign pledge after it was first announced found that Americans would save roughly $100 billion in interest a year if credit card rates were capped at 10%. The same researchers found that while the credit card industry would take a major hit, it would still be profitable, although credit card rewards and other perks might be scaled back.

About 195 million people in the United States had credit cards in 2024 and were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says. Americans are now carrying more credit card debt than ever, to the tune of about $1.23 trillion, according to figures from the New York Federal Reserve for the third quarter last year.

Further, Americans are paying, on average, between 19.65% and 21.5% in interest on credit cards according to the Federal Reserve and other industry tracking sources. That has come down in the past year as the central bank lowered benchmark rates, but is near the highs since federal regulators started tracking credit card rates in the mid-1990s. That’s significantly higher than a decade ago, when the average credit card interest rate was roughly 12%.

The Republican administration has proved particularly friendly until now to the credit card industry.

Capital One got little resistance from the White House when it finalized its purchase and merger with Discover Financial in early 2025, a deal that created the nation’s largest credit card company. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is largely tasked with going after credit card companies for alleged wrongdoing, has been largely nonfunctional since Trump took office.

In a joint statement, the banking industry was opposed to Trump's proposal.

“If enacted, this cap would only drive consumers toward less regulated, more costly alternatives," the American Bankers Association and allied groups said.

Bank lobbyists have long argued that lowering interest rates on their credit card products would require the banks to lend less to high-risk borrowers. When Congress enacted a cap on the fee that stores pay large banks when customers use a debit card, banks responded by removing all rewards and perks from those cards. Debit card rewards only recently have trickled back into consumers' hands. For example, United Airlines now has a debit card that gives miles with purchases.

The U.S. already places interest rate caps on some financial products and for some demographics. The Military Lending Act makes it illegal to charge active-duty service members more than 36% for any financial product. The national regulator for credit unions has capped interest rates on credit union credit cards at 18%.

Credit card companies earn three streams of revenue from their products: fees charged to merchants, fees charged to customers and the interest charged on balances. The argument from some researchers and left-leaning policymakers is that the banks earn enough revenue from merchants to keep them profitable if interest rates were capped.

"A 10% credit card interest cap would save Americans $100 billion a year without causing massive account closures, as banks claim. That’s because the few large banks that dominate the credit card market are making absolutely massive profits on customers at all income levels," said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator, who wrote the research on the industry's impact of Trump's proposal last year.

There are some historic examples that interest rate caps do cut off the less creditworthy to financial products because banks are not able to price risk correctly. Arkansas has a strictly enforced interest rate cap of 17% and evidence points to the poor and less creditworthy being cut out of consumer credit markets in the state. Shearer's research showed that an interest rate cap of 10% would likely result in banks lending less to those with credit scores below 600.

The White House did not respond to questions about how the president seeks to cap the rate or whether he has spoken with credit card companies about the idea.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who said he talked with Trump on Friday night, said the effort is meant to “lower costs for American families and to reign in greedy credit card companies who have been ripping off hardworking Americans for too long."

Legislation in both the House and the Senate would do what Trump is seeking.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., released a plan in February that would immediately cap interest rates at 10% for five years, hoping to use Trump’s campaign promise to build momentum for their measure.

Hours before Trump's post, Sanders said that the president, rather than working to cap interest rates, had taken steps to deregulate big banks that allowed them to charge much higher credit card fees.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., have proposed similar legislation. Ocasio-Cortez is a frequent political target of Trump, while Luna is a close ally of the president.

Seung Min Kim reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, Jan. 9, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

FILE - Visa and Mastercard credit cards are shown in Buffalo Grove, Ill., Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)