15 minutes of being an "Interpreter"

Today I spent 15 minutes being an Interpreter for a language I didn't know or understand. While at a customer this morning, the driver in front of me was rejected because his Bill of Lading was written by hand and they required printed bills because if something was short, the customer didn't want to pay for it. 

"Chain of custody" That is, the product is loaded by the shipper, the trailer is sealed by the shipper and the customer that receives the product, breaks that seal and unloads. If something is short, it had to be from the shipper. With a hand bill, you don't know if that is the original seal, did the trucking company or the driver steal anything, or if the shipper didn't load it right. Generally, the trucking company and the receiver fight it out over who pays if the product is short. At this customer, just ONE pallet can be worth over $100,000... 

The driver didn't know how to explain to his boss why the load was being rejected and ask me to do so. It took me about 15 minutes to word things right for his boss to understand why there were not taking the load, why he needed a printed bill of lading, why that was required and...  This situation reminded me of my 624 page Federal Safety Regulations book - Federal regulation 391.13 (b) 2 "Can read or speak the English language sufficiently...."   A rule that is commonly ignored..  

People have the right to apply for a work visa, come to America, work hard and then become a citizen.. I fully support that, however it has been proven that trucking companies bring people in, run them hard, and if they have a problem - just ship them back home... I also would expect if I went to Germany, France or Mexico that I would be able to speak the language sufficiently to safely get the job done..

Once this drivers dispatcher knew what was required, he sent his driver over to the truck stop for a fax so he could deliver the following day.