The 2016 “don’t OOS for English” memo is the thing USDOT tore up. Everything since is downstream

What the notice actually said

If you only remember one ELP date, make it two: April 2025, when the 2016 memo was directed to be rescinded, and June 25, 2025, when ELP went back into the out-of-service book. Everything else in this file — Austin, the three-state MCSAP notices, the California $40 million, the 2026 codify effort — hangs off those two moves. Mixing them creates fake urgency, as if the qualification were invented four times.

This is the policy-rescind chapter. The regulation always said a driver who cannot read and speak English sufficiently is not qualified under 49 CFR 391.11(b)(2). The 2016 guidance told inspectors not to place drivers out of service for that. On the day of the April 2025 trucking executive order, Secretary Duffy directed FMCSA to rescind that guidance, issue new enforcement guidance that matches the CFR, and ask CVSA to restore the OOS item.

Austin and June 25 were how that instruction became a sticker. The 2026 “codify the rule” story is about making the posture harder to unwind with another memo. Guidance can be swapped in a year. A final rule takes notice, comment, and an effective date. Until that date is on the books, treat roadside practice and the current FMCSR as the live standard.

We will not copy the newsroom’s campaign cadence into body copy. The operational fact is simpler: the non-enforcement memo is the thing that got torn up. Drivers feel inspectors, not press releases.

What it changes on Monday

We hire to the regulation, not to the memo of the year. English sufficient to work with dispatch, a dock, and a scale officer is part of the file. That predates April 2025. A shipper can ask whether the driver can work the dock and the scale. That is a service question. It is not a campaign question, and it does not belong as a paragraph on a rate confirmation.

Keep the three ELP articles labeled when you forward them. Rescind (this page), OOS date (June 25), and later codify are three legal steps. A customer who blends them will ask why we “suddenly” have a new rule every quarter.

Monday’s quote does not change because a 2016 memo died. Monday’s hire does not skip English because a future rule is still being written. See Drive With Us for applicants and For Brokers if you want the packet without the essay.

Illinois scales are not waiting on a Federal Register comment period. The OOS book is the live chapter after June 25. This page is why that book changed.

What we will — and will not — do

We will hire people who can do the job in English, and we will not turn a rescinded memo into a recruiting ad. Campaign language stays on the agency site. Our bar stays on the hire form.

We will not pretend ELP was invented in 2025. The CFR text is older. Enforcement posture changed. That distinction is the whole reason this page exists next to the June 25 note.

Same desk, same phone: +1 (847) 702-8181. Applicants: apply. Freight: origin, destination, commodity. We will not add a language surcharge to a dry-van rate.