24-04-2025
New Arkansas legislation imposes English language requirements on truck drivers — but no proof of roadside tests
In April 2025, claims (archived) circulated that officials in the U.S. were carrying out roadside English tests on truck drivers, with fines for those who couldn't pass. The rumor first started in March and stemmed from a popular TikTok video (archived) in which a truck driver claimed authorities stopped him at a weigh station and asked him to prove he could read and write in English.
On April 12, the same TikTok user, @rawnyates311, posted (archived) another video saying that roadside English tests had now become law in Arkansas.
@rawnyates311
♬ original sound - rawnyates311
The user said:
Well, I just saw on Mutha Trucker News, and it looks like Arkansas passed the bill. So, those that cannot read or write English — you're screwed. I know there's a lot of people going to be sitting there (unintelligible) everything about it and stuff but, honestly, I believe, and Mutha Trucker News sort of sat there and said that he agreed with it also — that, I know I believe that, I think that anybody and everybody should be able to read the signs on the road regardless. It's a safety thing.
Mutha Trucker News is a trucking-focused news and opinion YouTube channel that posted a video about the Arkansas legislation regarding English-language requirements for truck drivers on April 12, the same date as the TikTok user above.
The claim about the English tests persisted on X (archived), Threads (archived) and Bluesky (archived) into April.
At the time of our previous report on this rumor in March 2025, we were unable to prove that officials in Arkansas were administering roadside English tests for truckers. A spokesperson from the Arkansas Highway Police, a division of the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said via email on March 19 that the force was not carrying out tests. The Arkansas State Police, a separate force, did not yet respond to our questions about the alleged tests.
At that time, legislation was underway in the Arkansas House of Representatives that proposed fines of up to $5,000 for commercial driver's license (CDL) holders who did not meet the English-language requirements for drivers laid out in the Code of Federal Regulation's (CFR). The act suggested higher fines of $10,000 for commercial vehicle carriers who employed drivers who did not meet English-language requirements.
That legislation, HB 1569, was since withdrawn. However, on April 14, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a separate bill, Act 604, that also included fines of up to $1,000 for CDL holders who did not meet the CFR's English-language requirements. That bill will become active around July 13, 2025 — 90 days after Sanders signed it — according to its sponsor, Rep. R.J. Hawk, who confirmed the information to Snopes via email.
An Arkansas Highway Police spokesperson said via email on April 23 that the force had not changed the way it enforced CFR English-language requirements since Snopes' last contact with the agency in March 2025, when a spokesperson said the agency wasn't carrying out English tests. We contacted Arkansas State Police again to ask whether it would be administering roadside English tests when Act 604 becomes active, and we await a reply. The TikTok user who posted the April 12 video did not return a request for comment about his alleged roadside English test.
HB 1754, which Sanders signed into law as Act 604, enacted essentially the same English-language requirements as the withdrawn HB 1569, though with milder punishments for offenses than HB 1569 proposed.
Act 604 created, among others, the offense of "operating a commercial motor vehicle without sufficient English language proficiency" that was also featured in HB 1569. According to the act:
27-23-304. Operating a commercial motor vehicle without sufficient English Language proficiency.
(a) An operator of a commercial motor vehicle shall be able to read and speak the English language sufficiently to:
(1) Converse with the general public;
(2) Understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language;
(3) Respond to official inquiries; and
(4) Make entries on reports and records.
Under Act 604, this offense is a violation and subject to a $500 fine in the first instance and a $1,000 fine for subsequent instances.
Act 604's definition of what constituted "sufficient English Language proficiency" was identical to the definition that appears in Title 49 in the Code of Federal Regulation (CFR). HB 1569 also used similar language.
According to the CFR, a person is qualified to drive a motor vehicle, commercial or otherwise, if the driver:
(2) Can 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;
Under HB 1569, commercial motor carriers could be fined $10,000 for providing a commercial motor vehicle to an "ineligible operator." This classification included someone who did not meet the bill's English-language requirements. Act 604, however, only imposes punishments on drivers, not carriers, for offenses committed under the act.
It was unclear at the time of this writing how officials would enforce Act 604's English-language proficiency requirement. The act itself did not specify which departments should enforce it or lay out how it should be done.
Snopes' archives contributed to this report.
49 CFR 391.11 -- General Qualifications of Drivers. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
Christensen, Laerke. "What We Know about Rumors of Roadside English Tests for Truckers in Arkansas." Snopes, 18 Mar. 2025,
HB1569 Bill Information. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
HB1745 Bill Information. Accessed 23 Apr. 2025.
