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Why Do Truck Drivers Need to Speak English?
American Thinker ^ | 05/26/25 | John F. Di Leo

Posted on 05/26/2025 7:24:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

The left is furious that the Trump administration is officially enforcing (effective date: June 25) the longstanding law that truck drivers must be proficient in English.

The left claims that you don’t need to speak English to drive; this must be bigotry against immigrants, or against Spanish speakers, or against the uneducated, or against certain ethnicities.

It’s not.

Whether one is an immigrant or a native American, whether one has a college degree or just a high school diploma, whether one’s skin color is black or white or plaid or polka-dotted — none of this matters to the question of whether a person can be a safe truck driver.

What does matter?

Whether the person has quick reflexes, respects rule of law, respects pedestrians and other drivers — that all matters.  Whether one respects the cargo one is hauling, whether one respects his employer and client — that matters. 

Whether one has decent vision and hearing, is attentive enough to make that myriad of split-second decisions between potholes and curbs, between red light and yellow, between debris in the road and people or animals who don’t belong there — that matters. 

Whether one is capable of being fully attentive for hours at a time without being distracted by music or cellphone or scenery or a cute girl across the street matters.  Distractions like these are among the biggest dangers.

And yes, whether the driver speaks English — the lingua franca of our very diverse United States — is at the top of the list as well.  It’s not about prejudice; it’s about functioning in the job.

Not everyone is cut out for being a truck driver.  There’s no constitutional right to drive a 60-foot-long, 80,000-lb vehicle full of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of other people’s goods down a road at 70 mph,


(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: drivers; english; trucks
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And if part of government’s job is to protect the public from reasonably controllable dangers — and yes, it is — the restriction of commercial drivers’ licenses has to be among these.
1 posted on 05/26/2025 7:24:15 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

English has been the official language for international aeronautical communications since 1951 and no one complains.


2 posted on 05/26/2025 7:28:45 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: jfd1776

Ping! Another great one!


3 posted on 05/26/2025 7:38:58 PM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
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To: SeekAndFind

If you can’t speak it you likely can’t read it either. Therefore, you can’t understand police, construction crews directing traffic or emergency personnel. Nor can you read street signs or exit names. Other than that what’s the big deal, right?


4 posted on 05/26/2025 7:41:15 PM PDT by Rowdyone (Vigilence)
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To: SeekAndFind

Pres. Bush 43 allowed Mexican truck drivers to drive across the border.
Prior, they had to turnover their load to U.S. drivers at the border.
Would going back to the old way help ?


5 posted on 05/26/2025 7:43:41 PM PDT by stylin19a ("Death Smiles At Everyone - Marines Smile Back" - 250 years of smiling - 11/10/2025)
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To: SeekAndFind

Helps if the commercial truck driver can read the road signs..

Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos crashed into stopped traffic in Denver.. a Cuban truck driver, killed four people and injured several others


6 posted on 05/26/2025 7:44:22 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: SeekAndFind

How else are these drivers going to read the road signs so that the idiots know what state they’re in.


7 posted on 05/26/2025 7:47:58 PM PDT by gildafarrell (You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Because they are driving in the USA. Not just reading road signs but dash board panel words, wording on other vehicles, communicate with police or other drivers if need be.


8 posted on 05/26/2025 8:03:19 PM PDT by b4me (Pray, and let God change you. He knows better than you or anyone else, who He made you to be.)
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To: Rowdyone

The govt could require all signs be in se eral languages /sarc


9 posted on 05/26/2025 8:17:01 PM PDT by Greg123456
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To: Greg123456

several


10 posted on 05/26/2025 8:17:24 PM PDT by Greg123456
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To: SeekAndFind

They are terrible drivers.
I was hauling loads of gravel to oil field locations, driving a “ Pete “ pulling a belly dump.
We had a road to take in and one to come back on.
I was coming back to the pit for another round when a foreign driver crossed my lane of traffic...right in front of me.
If I had been loaded I wouldn’t have been able to stop


11 posted on 05/26/2025 8:58:09 PM PDT by South Dakota (Vance / Trump...2028 )
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To: Greg123456
Stop Sign in Quebec:

Stop Sign in France:

12 posted on 05/26/2025 9:17:00 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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To: SeekAndFind

OSHA rules usually required a monthly training session with a follow up test question sessions per my work experience.
Knowing where to look and how to identify hazards is part of the training. Knowing that only qualified persons can deal with certain particular problems restrict direct attempts at problem solving responses. The safety procedures are in place for a reason and can be complicated to comply with.


13 posted on 05/26/2025 9:54:52 PM PDT by Scram1
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To: SeekAndFind

April 2019-Colorado. Truck driver Rogel Mederos was driving 85 MPH in a semi truck when his brakes would fail him and he would crash causing a 28 car accident ...

The crash occurred on a part of the interstate where commercial vehicles are limited to 45 mph because the steep descent. Police said Aguilera-Mederos’ truck was traveling 85 mph when he slammed into the stopped after passing multiple runaway truck ramp signs.

The guy couldn’t read English.


14 posted on 05/26/2025 10:13:57 PM PDT by Revel
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To: SeekAndFind

Road signs? Who needs to read road signs!


15 posted on 05/26/2025 10:21:36 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: SeekAndFind

Oh, and how and why do we have working-age adults in the US who don’t speak English?


16 posted on 05/26/2025 10:22:42 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: SeekAndFind
In 1994 six children of a Chicago family died in Wisconsin after a metal bracket holding a mud flap on a semi trailer that was hanging loose fell to the expressway and the van they were traveling in ran it over, puncturing its gas tank and setting the van ablaze. Turns out that several truck drivers tried to warn the driver on the CB radio of the piece of metal that was hanging off of his trailer, but the driver didn’t speak English and he kept driving until it fell off.

It turns out the driver obtained his commercial drivers license by paying a bribe to someone in the Illinois Secretary of States office. The scandal took place while former Illinois governor George Ryan was the Secretary of State, and thus another one of our illustrious Governors was sent to prison.

17 posted on 05/26/2025 10:30:03 PM PDT by dznutz
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To: SeekAndFind
drive a 60-foot-long, 80,000-lb vehicle full of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of other people’s goods down a road at 70 mph

I do miss that.

18 posted on 05/27/2025 1:21:50 AM PDT by Jeff Chandler (The judges are ganging up against the American people.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Don’t know how long you’ve been out of it, but you’re not missing much. It’s not the same as it was 10 - 15 years ago. I cannot wait to hang up the keys and never look back.


19 posted on 05/27/2025 1:40:11 AM PDT by big truck ("This space intentionally left blank.")
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To: dznutz

You Illinois types have a habit of your governors going to prison, don’t you?


20 posted on 05/27/2025 3:54:08 AM PDT by Spacetrucker
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