3000 Flip Flops Put OOS

Well....as I said before, nobody reads signs anymore. It doesn't make a difference who you are, or where you come from. Navigation systems cover up English proficiency, and it also covers up those who can't read an atlas, or those who have a terrible sense of direction. If you eliminate immigrants, which is not really that big of a percentage of drivers, you still have a lot of erratic drivers. You still have drivers that text and drive. You still have under-trained drivers that lack skill. You still have drivers that drive tired, speed, don't know how to drive in inclement weather, drivers that have no idea how to drive on mountains. In my opinion, under-trained drivers are the FAR bigger issue than the language barrier. I am not going to get into this discussion any deeper than this response because it's been beaten to death so at this point. I'm just regurgitating my unpopular opinions.....which I am standing by, and y'all can stand by yours.

 

Your first statement is false. To this day I’ve never had a gps in the truck, other than using street view if I’ve never been to a place. But as far as following turn by turn directions I’ve never done it.

General freight is a cesspool and all of us are dragged down to a lower level because of it. You can’t tell me you haven’t noticed a change in the industry after a flood of Covid money and foreign drivers the last 5 years.

If you worked at a warehouse or a fuel desk or a scale wouldn’t you get tired of having a phone shoved in your face multiple times a day to translate? I would. Others are. I was delivering to a TA on Sunday, was behind the counter checking tank levels, and one guy couldn’t communicate enough to get his pump turned on. And the person working said they wouldn’t use their translator app. He just kept trying to shove his phone in her face and she just kept pushing it back. People are tired of it. No different than Americans getting the cold shoulder on vacation for not speaking a language well.

 

Instead of editing my original post:

Cesspool was a strong word, I probably should’ve chosen better. Regardless, the entire industry is brought down to the lowest level in the eyes of the general public. Do they notice the guy just driving along, obeying traffic laws, minding his own business? Doubtful. They notice and remember the one who cut them off. Do they notice the ones throwing their trash where it belongs? Doubtful. They notice the garbage left in Walmart shopping carts though.

And it’s not all foreign drivers, I understand that. However cleaning up the industry has to begin somewhere. The issue is that companies, both trucking and broker, don’t want their source of cheap labor to dry up. Immigrant owned companies take advantage of people from their home country because they know they’d rather be here than there, and living in a truck is probably better than where they lived before. And brokers have pretty much said that English proficiency will hurt the capacity they have access to.

There needs to be real training standards, not just the lip service that exists now. It needs to be strict and the process to get a CDL should be way more involved than it currently is. The only thing is that the ATA doesn’t want that because it will cause the labor costs of their member companies to go up.

That’s a lot of incoherent rambling just to say that this industry needs cleaned up. It needs to be better than what it’s become. Maybe English proficiency will remove bad drivers from the road, maybe it won’t. If it does, great. At worst 6 months from now things will be exactly as they are.

 

You read signs and don't use a GPS. I'm wired the same way. I'm not trusting of a GPS at all. I can't tell you how many drivers that I've encountered that don't want to even pop open an atlas. I'm inclined to believe that you and I, and many drivers on here are seemingly outliers. Too many that don't do their homework before running a load.

I've noticed a change in the industry, but the slight influx of foreigners doesn't bother me like it does many others. It doesn't bother me to communicate with a foreigner through a translator app. I actually think its pretty cool that they've come up with a way app that cross communicates from different languages. I personally don't find that to be that big of an inconvenience. I usually come across foreigners that can speak English. It may be broken lol, but I can communicate with them fine. The landscape is changing and I dig it man. I understand where everyone comes from, but for me, I think there are bigger issues within the industry.

 

Much of what you said makes sense, but this part here, I can get with. In my opinion, that's the root of all problems. It's too easy to get a CDL and the training shouldn't be learning the hard by catching a couple of preventable. There are so many things that if I were training new drivers, I'd teach about, just so they can minimize bad situations. That's not to say they'll be perfect, but at least they can be a better quality driver.

 

I don’t have an issue with people from other countries. I have an issue with their attitude that I (we) need to accommodate them. When I’ve gone on vacation in Mexico I sure didn’t expect the locals to accommodate me. I didn’t shove my phone in their face.

I appreciate you don’t mind communicating using an app. On average how many times a day do you communicate that way with someone? When the person wanting fuel can’t understand “truck number?” when asked I can also appreciate the employee’s frustration. You are correct in that all this technology has made it easier for foreign people in different countries, but we all know it doesn’t work all the time, like last weekend when everyone was having to go inside to get pumps authorized.

 

I get it. I see both sides of the coin. I'd like to think that if I were the attendant at the fuel desk that I'd have the patience and ability to communicate with them. I don't communicate with foreigners through an app often but when I have, it hasn't bothered me. I personally like the diversity. I see a scenario, perhaps in our lifetime where there will be multiple official languages as USA becomes more diverse, and our own people start marrying and interacting outside of the USA's boundaries. The country is becoming very diverse and has been for some decades now, and it's happening very quickly. I don't think any administration is going to be able to hold back the changes. Adaptation? Of course you have to adapt. Seemingly, many foreigners learn English fairly quickly. As much as foreigners have tk adapt, we as Americans have to adapt as well because we are doing commerce with them, and their communities are rapidly growing. I definitely see a scenario where you'll have to be multilingual to even function in the United States. The diversity will be too great eventually.

 

Only if we allow it to totally change .....

 

I mean....you cant hold back change, or the future. You may as well get ready for it. The country is going to continue to get more diverse whether you want it to or not. Many of them already have an advantage being bilingual or multilingual. Some of them have skills that can replace unskilled American workers. Americans are marrying outside of the country more. Many of you have highlighted how many businesses prefer foreign workers. Many say for cheaper labor......I guess. Americans get paid pretty cheaply too so my thought is that perhaps foreign workers may be more loyal...only a theory.

 

So just accept it, you have no choice and are wrong for standing up for what you believe in. Thank God some men are made different.