The Language Barrier
There is no official language in the United States. But, for truckers, understanding the English language is a requirement. Some states do allow parts of the commercial driver’s license examination to be taken in a language other than English, but all applicants for a commercial driver’s license are required to be able to communicate in English. Period.
With all the talk about Mexican truckers coming over the border, this requirement to be able to communicate in English could come to the forefront of trucking news in the near future. But French-speaking truckers from Canada, Arabic-speaking truckers from the Middle East and Polish-speaking truckers from Europe (as well as those from other European countries who speak a variety of languages) have also had to comply with the English-speaking requirement.
Not all states require that the written CDL test be taken in English. Their logic is that drivers must be able to communicate in English on a basic level- to understand road signs and to understand and follow instructions from law enforcement officers, but they don’t need to understand English well enough to pass the written test. For instance, a driver doesn’t need to understand English in order to understand how the air brake system works and a driver doesn’t need to understand English in order to know how to perform a pre-trip inspection. For the more in-depth concepts tested in the written exam, they allow drivers to rely on their native tongue.
But for real-life, on the road situations, English is required. And if a driver cannot communicate with law enforcement officers, he or she may very well receive a ticket. The AP recently reported a story about trucker Manuel Castillo who received a $500 fine for poor English communication skills while traveling through Alabama. He’s not alone.
This requirement is understandable. After all, the vast majority of Americans speak English as their primary language, and many more speak English as their second language. According to ethnologue, there are more than 6,900 spoken languages in the world today. You cannot reasonably expect law enforcement officers across the country to learn every foreign language out there. Even requiring them to learn to most common ones among foreign truckers- take, for example, Spanish, French, Polish and Arabic- would require massive resources and time. Not to mention the cost of translating the road signs across the United States.
The rules regarding the English language requirements can be reviewed by checking with the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration).
According to 398.3 (c)(4), one of the requirements for becoming a commercial vehicle driver is “knowledge of English. Every driver shall be able to read and speak the English language sufficiently to understand highway traffic signs and signals and directions given in English and to respond to official inquiries.”
According to 391.11 (b)(2), one of the qualifications for becoming a truck driver is that the driver “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.”
