English Speaking

The rules of the game have changed! Effective 25-Jun-2025 a violations of 391.11(b)(2), English language requirement, has become an “Out of Service” violation. My personal opinion is that we have entered into a very, very subjective area in that the determination is going to be made by a single individual, under (more than likely) adverse situations that have a high probability of being more subjective than objective. This being said, “What are we going to do about it?” We need to prepare our drivers for what “lurks in the bushes.” English is not the “Native” language in many of our drivers and often training, dispatch, and daily communications are conducted in the native language. While it is true that we have a greater depth of understanding in our “native tongue;” it is also true that that it does little to expand our ability in a 2nd language. Drivers, experiencing inspections, are under increased pressures for many reasons. This is amplified if the drivers first language is not Enlish – a different lifes experience to authority, nuanced meaning of words in English that need to be translated in the mind and then reshaped into an English response. This does not necessarily indicate a lack of understanding, but a need for time to process and respond. Under the operant environment, frustration may be experienced in one while impatience is experienced in the other. This is likely to have a more negataive than positive outcome.

“What are we going to do about it?” I suggest that a consideration of making all communications in the course of the work day, dispatch, training, idle office chatter, and all forms of communications be in the English language. We never forget our first language! It is engrained into our DNA! But, unless (from childhood) we grew up bilingual, we have the tendencvy to lose command of our second language through non-use. We need to place our drivers in the best possible position to respond to this regulatory change. The number of “non-English speacking” violations has been substantial in the past and we have no way of knowing how the change in status to “out of service” is going to affect our operations. The first obstacle will be having to recover the vehicle and contents from the “out of service” location. The list of obstacles only expands from there.