SWIFT hiring non-english speaking drivers

Yep, when my last company bought out VanPak, they inherited a crowd of Russians. About a dozen or so of them. As far as I know, only one speaked english and communicated with the rest. I tried to talk with some of them and they just look at you funny.

What's one more number? Press 3 for Russian.

It's one rule they messed up with two numbers. I wonder if they know that? Usually they write a rule and refer back to it in other rules.

 

The numbers are different in Spanish as well. 9/15 is actually 9/16

 

Question, will that be the case when not some but all trucks from Mexico come pouring across the border, I'm inclined to say no because even their trucks will not be subject to our DOT regulations, overweight, no problem keep on trucking, no cdl, who cares your mexican, flat tires, nah, fix them next week, truck not inspected since the 70;s, no problem come on across and if for some reason our imperfect roads mess up your suspension, we'll fix that too, thats what I think will happen.

 

Here's the regulation:

§ 391.11
General qualifications of drivers.
(a) A person shall not drive a commercial motor vehicle unless he/she is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle. Except as provided in §391.63, a motor carrier shall not require or permit a person to drive a commercial motor vehicle unless that person is qualified to drive a commercial motor vehicle.

(b) Except as provided in subpart G of this part, a person is qualified to drive a motor vehicle if he/she—

(1) Is at least 21 years old;

(2) Can read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records;

It's also an out of service criteria item as well:

In recognition of the three countries’ language differences, it is the responsibility of the driver and the motor carrier to be able to communicate in the country in which the driver/carrier is operating so that safety is not compromised. Driver is unable to communicate sufficiently to understand and respond to official inquiries and directions.​

(391.11(b)(2)) Declare driver out-of-service.

 

It doesnt seem to be enforced at all. There are alot of drivers out there with little to no english skills.

Im usually all for less laws and regulations, but english is a must.

 

alright just a bit of curiosity here DB. If a driver were to call into a local LEO or DPS office and report a driver believed to not be able to communicate properly, how serious would the report be taken?

 

The severity is directly related to how much money the state can make off the ticket.

 

If you do that in Texas, it would be easier to report it in Spanish- to the Hispanic Lady behind the counter !!

 

Dave, when I was renewing my license I actually saw a HISPANIC lady not only refuse to help a group of non speaking people with their license, but also called a trooper because their car tags were out of date.

 

The first that comes to mind is I would report it to a motor carrier enforcement agency or officer. Regular road guys do not have the authority to cite or place them out of service. They could stop him for procable cause of a violation then call a motor carrier officer to respond.

In my State, it would be taken seriously, but the problem becomes locating the non english speaking driver. I give the non speaking english driver a lot of tolerance and first I speak to them and see if they can communicate. I'll use hand signals and write down on paper the questions. If I get nothing by those means, I have gave them ample opportunity to communicate. They will be placed OOS and cited. That way when the carrier complains or they come to court I can tell the judge I tried everything and they couldn't understand what I was asking of them.