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In a trucking school in New Jersey, the pupils of 18 wheels around the traffic cones. Other future drivers look under caps to carry out safety checks, narrating when they examine the steering pipes for cracks and leaks.
An instructor slides between Spanish and English while he teaches Manuel Castillo, a native Spanish speaker, how to inspect a school bus. They use a printed script of phrases in English to practice what Castillo would say during an inspection by the road.
The reduction in English has taken a new urgency for drivers of future and current trucks after the American president Donald Trump published a decree indicating that truckers who do not read and do not speak the language with jurisdiction would be considered unfit to the service.
“A driver who cannot understand English will not lead a commercial vehicle to this country. The period,” said transport secretary Sean Duffy last month while announcing application guidelines that take effect on Wednesday.
The US transport ministry of transportation procedures require improved inspections to determine whether commercial motor vehicle operators can answer questions and directions in English, as well as to understand road traffic panels and electronic babillards.
Trucks who learned English as a second language are concerned with losing their jobs if they make a mistake or speak with a strong accent during their interrogation. Some have worked to improve their mastery of English by following lessons, reciting scripts and watching educational videos.
“If it is not the language you prefer to use daily, you can become a little nervous and you can feel:” What if I say the bad thing? “” Said Jerry Maldonado, Chairman of the Board of Directors of La Laredo Motor Carriers Association, a professional association in Laredo, Texas, which represents around 200 trucking companies.
“It will ultimately be the interpretation of the officer, which makes people nervous.”
The guidelines apply to truck and bus drivers engaged in interstate trade. It aims to improve road safety following incidents in which the incapacity of truck drivers to read the panels or to speak English may have contributed to traffic deaths, said the transport service.
English requirements are not new
Demanding that truck drivers speak and read English is not new, but the penalty so as not to respect the competence standard becomes more serious.
To obtain a commercial driving license, candidates must take a written test and be able to appoint the parts of a bus or truck in English while they check the inflation of the tires, the depth of the bearing strip, nuts and cooling liquids.
The revised policy reverses the directives published nine years ago, towards the end of the last mandate of the president of Barack Obama, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. In 2016, the agency said that drivers whose skills in English had been found could receive a quote but not be prohibited from working. Before that, the penalty was placed on “off -service status”.
“We have bridges that are struck because drivers do not include signs on bridges for things like height authorization,” said the owner of the independent drivers Todd Spencer.
Practice English sentences
In Laredo, a border city where many residents speak a mixture of English and Spanish, the Maldonado association offers free English lessons on weekends to help truckers feel more confident in their ability to communicate.
“Everyone knows what a stop panel looks like,” said Maldonado. “But if there is construction or if there is a five -mile accident on the road, and they have to put a sign -” be careful, must go out now, closed road “and you are unable to read this or understand this, it could be a security problem.”
In Driving Academy in Linden, New Jersey, multilingual instructors teach students how to inspect vehicle parts in their first language, then provide explanations in English, according to the founder Jonathan Marques. The school has created scripts so that students can practice what to say if they are arrested, he said.
Students are advised to watch training videos like homework, while approved truckers can listen to applications in English instead of music when on the road, Marks suggested.
The instructor Paul Cuartas helps students prepare, but is worried that the inspectors are now expecting the truckers and bus drivers to have perfect English. “I am worried because now for all Spanish, it’s more difficult,” he said.
Castillo, who moved to the United States of Ecuador in 1993, said he had no problem understanding English but watched videos to study the terms of the industry. “Certain words that I do not understand, but I try to learn more English,” he said.
When he was asked if he supported the president’s decree, Castillo said he had voted for Trump but did not agree with the president’s pressure to expel some immigrants who did not commit crimes.
“He is doing a lot of problems, especially for Hispanics,” said Castillo.
GTR Trucking School in Detroit also offered students to ESL courses. The co-owner Al Myftiu led a truck after moving to the United States of Albania in 1993. He said that he wanted to create a small book of sentences that truckers need to learn.
For students with a thick accent, “I tell them,” slow down, talk slowly and people can understand you, and if you don’t understand something, you can ask “”, said Myftiu.
How will it work
The roadside inspections can be launched on questions such as defective braking fire or on a routine base, and often take place at the weighing stations.
The directives direct the inspectors who suspect a driver do not understand what they say to administer a skill test in English, which includes both an interview and a recognition component of road traffic signs.
In the past, some engines have used translation applications to communicate with federal inspectors. The updated policy prohibits the use of performers, smartphones, landmark cards or other aids during interviews.
Several truck drivers who take a break from the Flying J Travel Center in New Jersey said they support Trump’s order, adding that drivers who count strongly on translation programs would probably not be able to read important signs.
“We are trying to ask them questions about the company just to hit a conversation, … and they are not able to communicate with us at all,” said Kassem Elkhatib, one of the pilots of Flying J.
Fear of discrimination
We do not know how security inspectors will decide if a driver knows enough English because this part of the instructions has been expurred from the advice distributed by the transport service.
The ministry has informed car carriers that drivers should be able to answer questions about shipping documents, origin and destination for travel and how long they have been in service.
A trucker put out of service and the company he works for is responsible for ensuring that a linguistic violation is corrected before the driver reaches the highway again, said the transport service.
The drivers of trucks who practice the Sikh religion are already faced with discrimination in hiring and loading quays, according to Mannirmal Kaur, federal director of politicians for Sikh Coalition, a plea group.
Now they are worried about inspectors who make subjective and non-standardized determinations on which of them are competent in English, she said.
“A truck driver who speaks English enough to comply with federal standards, but perhaps they speak with an accent, or perhaps they use a different vocabulary that the inspector is not used to hearing: will this person then be subject to a violation of the English language?” Asked Kaur.
