WASHINGTON After 37 years of largely turning a deaf ear to the dangers posed by over-the-road truck and bus drivers who cant speak English, the U.S. Department of Transportation has decided its time to start cracking down on drivers who no habla Ingles.

In a policy memorandum issued late last month, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration directed its field personnel to begin enforcing the regulation that says bus and truck drivers must be able to communicate in English, and to place out of service those drivers who cant.

Although the English language proficiency regulation has been around since 1970, its enforcement largely has been at the discretion of individual enforcement officials and it was not an out-of-service item in the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance North American Standard Out-of-Service Criteria.

Rather than order non-English speaking drivers off the road, FMCSA personnel were directed to give drivers and/or motor carriers a citation for violating the English proficiency requirement but not to place them out of service.

That policy has long been the subject of criticism, but it was never loud enough to prompt stronger enforcement action by the USDOT.

That began changing early this decade, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when the criticism mounted and highway incidents focused increased attention on the issue.

In the trucking industry, the driver shortage apparently prompted the hiring of a hundreds of drivers, particularly recent immigrants from Russian and other eastern European countries, who had limited or no English-language skills.

At about the same time, the number of so-called Chinatown bus operators began mushrooming and those companies hired drivers with little or no English language proficiency.

All this was aided and abetted by states that began administering CDL examines in languages ranging from Spanish to Vietnamese.

Finally, in the fall of 2004, the CVSA executive committee recommended, and the CVSA membership approved, an amendment to the Out-of-Service Criteria to include the federal English speaking regulation.

Despite the action by the CVSA, the FMCSA did not alter its policy. It told its personnel not to enforce the out-of-service criteria.

Now, more than two years after the CVSA out-of-service criteria became effective, the new chiefs at the FMCSA have decided to issue new "guidance" to agency personnel to "apply appropriate enforcement procedures" when they find a driver who cant communicate sufficiently to understand and respond to questions and directions in English.

There was no indication in the memorandum written by Acting Associate Administrator for Enforcement and Program Delivery William A. Quade what prompted the policy shift.

According to the 1970 federal rule, commercial drivers must be able to read English, converse with the public, understand highway signs and signals, respond to official inquires, and make entries on reports or records.

The new policy enforcing that nearly-40-year-old rule applies to any commercial bus or truck driver operating in the U.S., except Mexican truckers limited to the 20-mile commercial zone beyond the southern border. It takes effect immediately.

Because "language proficiency" can be somewhat subjective -- to be established by an individual roadside inspector - bus operators employing drivers whose second language is English would be wise to keep any records that show the driver's proficiency in understanding and communicating in the language.