“What really burns me” “if you can’t speak English you can’t drive a truck” a truck driver’s perspective

• Executive order from President Trump that says You need to speak English to work here

What really burns me

I believe that I have a unique perspective on this executive order that was signed into law by President Trump stating that all truck drivers have to have a firm grasp on the English language Read write and speak.

I have a unique perspective as I am a truck driver, owner operator, with my own business, and I see everyday now, that this type of executive order should have been implemented long ago.

I’ll put this in a perspective that might make all of you understand why this is a good thing. I drove truck overseas and no not just for the military I drove in Germany and all around Europe from Italy all the way up to Ireland Scotland and England and I did so with a German CDL.

After I got out of the military I took what was called a European out I was an expat. When I got out I decided that I wanted to go and drive a semi which was one of the best things I’ve ever done but to do that in Germany, guess what I have to do, I have to speak read and write German I have to understand the language I have to understand The road signs other drivers and the laws and I have to understand them in German. I had to take the driving test in German I had to also learn something that’s called hochedeutsch which is a higher form of German lovingly referred to as business German. That way when I communicated with shippers and receivers I would have a higher understanding of the language and know more business German to be able to do the job correctly.

But that is something we don’t have here in America we do not force people that come here to this country to speak English, we used to, but that was for those who were trying to become citizens. Now you don’t have to do that anymore if you don’t believe me just look at the over 15 million illegal immigrants that don’t speak English.

I don’t know if you knew this but in New York City and many other cities across America you can take the driving test in multiple different languages languages such as Spanish Korean Farsi Chinese and many others. Taking the test in your own language defeats the purpose of having a driving test if you can’t read the signs or speak to anyone in English What are you going to do when there’s an emergency involving yourself or how about what are you going to say to the EMS or police when something goes wrong on the road What are you going to say when someone dies because you couldn’t read a sign and just happened to go down the wrong road and have a head on collision with someone?

I used to see it sporadically but now I see it almost daily where some driver is at a shipper or receiver holding out their phone with a translating app talking to the shipper or receiver. And it’s all fine and good You have a translator there but the time that it takes that to translate a conversation back and forth could be the time necessary to save someone’s life or the time necessary for you to be able to read a sign and stop from going down the wrong road and causing an accident or God forbid something worse.

President Trump has given the FMCSA (Federal motor Carrier safety administration). 60 days to find these folks who don’t speak the English language with enough fluency to hold a CDL and revoke their license and I 100% agree.

If you go to a foreign country for any length of time longer than a vacation You are made to learn their language, speak read and write it. And out of respect you should That’s the problem here is the people that come here don’t have any respect for us for our language and for the families and people traveling our highways.

I hope that President Trump cracks down on them and makes sure that the FMCSA actually goes out there and starts pulling licenses if you don’t speak the language if you can’t read the signs you can’t write down any information You don’t deserve a CDL there are times when you receive a bill of lading that you have to be able to read it and follow the instructions on it or you could get violated and lose your license anyway.

To the states That give the licenses out if they don’t speak English they don’t get to take the test. give it to them in English and only English no second languages no third languages this is an English-speaking country and we should be demanding English speaking drivers both car and semi trucks

That’s “what really burns me”

Thomas Domich