Trump orders 'Proficient English' for truck drivers, Permian Basin workforce could be affected
ODESSA, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – Thousands of truck drivers come through the Permian Basin on any given day, but could that number soon change after a recent executive order from President Trump?
To watch the on-air version of Powering the Permian – CLICK HERE
April 28, 2025, President Donald Trump issued 'Enforcing commonsense rules of the road
for America's truck drivers' executive order.
According to The White House, the purpose of the order is to provide quote a 'non-negotiable safety requirement for professional drivers. They should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers. Drivers need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English. This is common sense.
That is why Federal law requires that, to operate a commercial vehicle, a driver must 'read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records.' Yet this requirement has not been enforced in years, and America's roadways have become less safe,' end quote.
According to labor statistics from Zippia, the most common ethnicity of truck drivers is:
White (59.8%)
Hispanic or Latino (18.6%)
Black or African American (12.8%)
Other races (8.8%)
Here in the Permian Basin, James Beauchamp, President of MOTRAN tells ABC Big 2's Chris Talley, while enforcement is important, there are bigger problems that exist out on the road.
'Over the last 4 years, it really hasn't been enforced, but from the perspective, we weren't going to put somebody out of service over just that,' Explained Beauchamp.
'If you look at 2024 at commercial motor vehicle inspections that took place in the Permian Basin, over 40% of those trucks went out of service just on the condition of the truck and you had anywhere between 17 and 20% going out because of the driver either not following log hours or – in a lot of cases, not licensed, maybe, no CDL License maybe no license period,' said Beauchamp.
Congressman August Pfluger, (Rep.) 11th District, a representative of the Permian Basin Told ABC Big 2's Chris Talley, President Trump 's administration aims to enforce a law that has been widely ignored.
'What President Trump has tried to do is reestablish the rule-of-law, which I think this executive order gets to the heart of the rule-of-law, especially with many of the illegal immigration issues that we saw over the last 4 years,' said Rep. Pfluger.
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