Troopers Ban Non-English Speaking Trucker

local10.com ^ | 06/06/07 | local10

[org.whodat]

Better pay and more time at home might solve your problem.

That is the whole truth.

[org.whodat]

My customers call me to clean up the mess of non-english speaking drivers trying to shake them down for “inside delivery charges” to offload their cargo quite often.

I would say there in is the problem, it should be against the law for a truck driver to be ask to load are unload freight. I don't want to be on the road with a driver that just spent six hours unloading a truck and logged it as off duty time.

[SkyDancer]

I do understand though you can get software that will type in other languages ....but I guess you have to know that language .....

[Army Air Corps]

I have one, VPS Keys, that allows me to type in Vietnamese. It is pretty easy to learn and use.

[TornadoAlley3]

CSPAN 2 now, voting on English official language amendment and other amendments.

[PAR35]

Babelfish will translate for you. Babelfish переведет для вас. http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

[tubasonum]

Ты должен думать по-русски. Только по-русски!

[Army Air Corps]

:-)

Thanks for the translation! My very limited Russian can pick-out a couple of words in there.

[FreedomCalls]

If he was driving this pimped out Russian truck, the State Patrol would be too afraid to stop him.

[SpeakLittle_ThinkMuch]

Spoke to a truck dealership friend the other day. They are having to hire service writers who speak Russian or Spanish since most drivers can't speak English.

[annelizly]

“It isn’t a question of them not understanding the trucking industry or safe driving. They simply need some time to be more conversant in English.”

They couldn’t even understand “we want your papers”. So how in the heck can they read and understand the road signs?? How can they understand our road rules? Our families are unsafe on our roads as long as non english speaking people are allowed to drive here.

I would never ever attempt to go to say...germany, rent a car and just start driving!!!

[Army Air Corps]

Warum nicht?

[NRA2BFree]

Does this mean that from now on, we have to press 3 for Russian?

No, 3 is for Chinese. Haven't you ever tried calling Walmart? LOL!

[deport]

Federal regulations said that commercial drivers should be able to read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public. But 17 states and the District of Columbia offer the commercial driver’s license test in foreign languages.

[Army Air Corps]

Oy vey.

[sig226]

“inside delivery charges”? I’d love to get my hands on one of those guys. We get them fairly often - they walk up to the loading dock door waving the freight bill in front of them. They’re Russians and South Americans. It makes me wonder what kind of idiot would hire an OTR driver that can’t read the signs on the highway.

[elcid1970]

“You must think in Russian....think in Russian!”

[`Skaiytiye vpyoredi raketyii!’ ]

WHOOOOOOOOOSH!! BOOM!!!

Sure glad I only had to live there (USSR) a few months.

[sarasmom]

Roadway.

[Army Air Corps]

What were you doing there?

A friend of mine spent a year there as a student in undergrad.

[perfect stranger]

He's probably proficient in written English. Speaking it is a totally different skill.

If you are aware enough to be able to read English words and understand what they mean then you should be able to muster more of a defense than just, "I don't know how to speak your language."