Posted on 08/26/2007 10:57:58 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
A commercial truck driver from Monterrey who has crossed Laredos international bridges countless times was stunned earlier this month when he received a ticket from U.S. inspectors because he cant speak English."We were worried," said Samuel Tamez Treviño, owner of the truck that was driven by Rafael Segovia. "We consulted with attorneys. We were somewhat relieved when they told us it would be treated as a warning. But now what are we supposed to do?"
Tamez Treviño, whose transportation company is in Montemorelos, is concerned that his drivers may be unable or unwilling to learn English, considering that even a short, intense course to learn the basics can take five months.
Segovia, who was back home and unavailable for comment, was handed the citation on Aug. 2 at about 4:45 p.m. at the Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge. He also was cited for having non-working brake lights and a leaky hydraulic hose, which are fairly routine violations.
Tamez Treviño said hes never heard of any law requiring that his drivers know English. Many company owners dont speak English, let alone their workers, many of whom dont even have a high school education.
The law requiring that Mexican truckers coming into the United States speak English has been on the books for years, but it has taken on renewed significance with the coming implementation of a new provision that will allow up to 100 Mexican carriers to go beyond the border zone. It also will allow up to 100 U.S. carriers to go deep into Mexico with their loads.
While many international trade supporters praise the move as long overdue and a natural outgrowth of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the plan has many critics, including labor leaders and some U.S. transportation companies who fear the Mexican trucks will be unsafe and create unnecessary risks on U.S. highways.
Nevertheless, a demonstration project is set to begin within a few weeks, allowing Mexican carriers that have passed the required safety audit to take their trucks onto U.S. roads.
Mexican truckers have their own complaints.
"Theyre already bothering us in the United States and it hasnt even started," said Luis Moreno Sesma, president of the Nuevo Laredo branch of Canacar, a national association of transportation company owners. "Its not fair to require English in the commercial (border) zone."
Federal transportation officials in Laredo declined to comment, but a spokeswoman for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in Washington said truck drivers who are working only in the border commercial zone may be found in violation of the law for not being able to communicate in English but wont be stopped from crossing.
Those truck drivers who are headed past the border commercial zone, however, will not be allowed to continue their trip if they cant speak English, the spokeswoman said.
"The Mexican drivers may receive citations," said the spokeswoman, who declined to give her name, "but that doesnt mean they have to stop working."
Asked why the Mexican drivers werent given notice about the plan to start enforcing the law, the spokeswoman said Mexican authorities have been fully aware of the plan for some time. The Ministry of Communications and Transportation was involved in creating the demonstration program thats set to start soon.
"Whether the Mexican government has or has not informed the drivers about this law, well, thats something we cant answer for them," she said.
For his part, Moreno Sesma said transportation company owners should form an alliance to seek help from Tamaulipas Gov. Eugenio Hernández Flores.
The leader said he can see the need for drivers heading into the U.S. interior to know English, but insisted that regulation shouldnt apply to those who only drive in the border commercial zone.
(To reach Miguel Timoshenkov call 728-2583 or timo1@lmtonline.com. Laredo Morning Times staffer Norma Mendiola contributed to this report.)
BP caught a fake Wal-Mart truck and driver hauling drugs at the Falfurrias, Texas checkpoint.
Bet ya Mexican/American/Greencarders will be the only truckers going down there for several reasons.
In all my (too long) years I have only seen ONE case involving a CDL with a driver ticketed for insufficient knowledge of English.
(the fact he needed a translator for the court did not help his case.)
English is the international language of travel.
They use it in shipping, they use it in air tavel.
This is simple common sense and it is about public safety.
Any government entity that these foreign drivers need to deal with will most certainly be required to hire translators...the cops, the motor vehicle dept, city, state, county, weigh stations, dept of trans, what else?.....Mercy, we are suckers.
When was this? I missed it.
The smugglers have been ingenuous. I remember when they did the same with a UPS truck. Was the Walmart truck a fake truck or real truck with a fake driver?
Several year ago I came behind an 1 8 wheeler loaded the 20 gallon buckets of frozen strawberries and drugs. Everyone after the truck was offered strawberries. I took one bucket. They kept the drugs. LOL.
Good point. Their drivers should also have to pass a Spanish and English test.
“So will these drivers be required to habla Espanol?”
That seems quite reasonable.
“It’d be nice if Mexicana pilots spoke English, flying into Chicago, too.”
You’re making a joke, right? English is the only spoken language on the airport frequencies.
No joke, times have changed.... a lot.....
Just last week on the TV (maybe CBS) they played the tape from an air traffic controller attempting to get a plane landed by pilots who could not speak or understand English. They had a book to translate, asking the air traffic guy to wait so they could look up words! They may have been Chinese and they said it is happening a lot lately.
I'm not finding the story on it, but will look later again.
Check this out. LOL
Allegedly, a Pan Am 727 flight waiting for start clearance in Munich overheard the following:
Lufthansa (in German): “Ground, what is our start clearance time?”
Ground (in English): “If you want an answer you must speak in English.”
Lufthansa (in English): “I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany. Why must I speak English?”
Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): “Because you lost the bloody war.”
lol...I heard about that one before. Too funny!
Given the rampant corruption and extortion exercised by Mexican police, I doubt very much it is safe for non mexican truckers.
Even tourist busses are routinly shaken down by police officers.
The way I remember it, the Wal-Mart truck was fake, the driver had a Wal-Mart shirt on but a whiskey? cap. He was waved through the BP checkpoint, but the DPS truck stop further north was manned that day and had a K-9 unit. The truck driver did a 180 and headed south. They chased and caught him. I heard later that same truck had been up and down Hwy 281 several times before.
They’d be damn fools if they didn’t speak Spanish when driving a truck there.
LOL! What can I say? Everything perfect except the "whiskey cap". Millers or Bud? That is what is so pathetic about this. Had the driver been dressed appropriately, he would not have been caught. Stupidity is what caught him.
From experience on the border I understand that for every ten trucks that cross to the U.S. only two go south into Mexico.
Figure out how many U.S. jobs will be lost. Forget about the hundred companies. That is a distraction from the real number of trucks which cross.
That’s one of the reasons I was thinking of.
There a new book just out, written by a retired Chicago air traffic controller. One of the chapters is; “Yoo-hoo...Mexicana.”
Bump
This is the US of A. Speak English or stay out.
Evidently the requirement to speak English may actually be a defactor law stating that English is the official language of America.
Anyone want to start a pool on when the liberals recind the law?
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