Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

I saw a lot of action out there the last few days. Mainly in Tennessee and not so much in Arkansas or Virginia.

As Roadcheck wraps up, inspection stories begin rolling in
An estimated 10,000 to 12,000 commercial enforcement officers pulled trucks over June 5-7 in the annual North American safety dragnet. Some states, like Tennessee, even used bomb and drug dogs to inspect trucks.

This next point doesn’t surprise me at all. Didn’t I just post about this here?

But one of the most notable Roadcheck stops so far involved a driver in Greenwood, NE. The driver, who was from Russia, had all of his paperwork and his rig passed inspection – but he couldn’t speak a word of English.

Inspectors were working on putting the man out of service for not being able to speak English, when he slowly started driving away. Inspectors flagged him down and made him park the truck.

Federal regulations say CDL holders must be able to speak and read English reasonably well, but at the same time, 17 states and the District of Columbia offer CDL tests in foreign languages.

This year was the 20th annual Roadcheck, which includes state, federal, provincial and local inspectors from the U.S. and Canada. Land Line was unable to confirm whether Mexico actually participated this year.

These are CVSA rules. That means the same rules for all of North America. Quebec can do the same thing to drivers that don’t speak French. During all the Mexican truck hoopla, one of the points brought up by the pundits was that Mexican drivers may not speak English. This is a two way street. Technically, American drivers could be put out of service for not being able to speak Spanish while in Mexico.

Which leads me to think that there will be more Mexican trucks in the US then US trucks in Mexico. That’s where the unfairness is going to be.

Anyone get “looked at” this week?