CVTA Applauds Secretary Duffy’s Leadership and Calls for Full Enforcement the Training Provider Registry

The announcement by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy marks a major step forward for highway safety. By reinstating enforcement of the federal English language proficiency (ELP) requirement for commercial drivers, DOT and FMCSA are returning to a common-sense approach—ensuring that drivers operating 80,000-pound vehicles on our roadways can read highway signs and respond to official instructions in English. This action fulfills a directive from the President’s Executive Order 14286, “Enforcing Commonsense Rules of the Road for America’s Truck Drivers,” and restores a vital qualification standard that had been neglected for nearly a decade.

The renewed focus on ELP is a reminder of the importance of enforcing all existing driver qualification rules. For too long, the federal Training Provider Registry (TPR) under the Entry-Level Driver Training (ELDT) rule has lacked proper enforcement. This registry exists to ensure that only qualified, compliant schools are allowed to train entry-level commercial drivers. Without meaningful oversight, unqualified training providers remain on the road—putting students, motor carriers, and the traveling public at risk.

The FMCSA’s new policy guidance rightly recognizes that a failure to enforce driver qualification standards increases the likelihood of a crash. The same logic must apply to the TPR.

“CVTA welcomes US DOT enforcement of existing laws. To that point, if the federal government is now prepared to disqualify drivers who do not meet the English proficiency standard, it must also be prepared to meaningfully disqualify and remove schools that flout Entry-Level Driver Training requirements,” said CVTA Executive Director Andrew Poliakoff. “Qualified drivers and qualified training providers are interdependent—when one is compromised, the entire safety system weakens."

CVTA applauds Secretary Duffy’s leadership and calls on USDOT to build on this momentum. As the agency moves toward uniform enforcement of English proficiency requirements starting June 25, 2025, it must also prioritize the removal of non-compliant training providers from the TPR. Doing so will honor the intent of the ELDT rule, safeguard professional standards, and most importantly—save lives on America’s roads.

Read more about this issue in the CVTA and NAPFTDS letter to Secretary Duffy, seeking robust enforcement of the ELDT Training Provider Registry.