Before Nick Barboza ever trained another driver, he had to learn how to speak for himself – in a language that wasn’t his own.
When Barboza arrived in the United States from Mexico, he spoke little English. That made his path to becoming a commercial truck driver more complicated, but not impossible.
Federal safety regulations require drivers to demonstrate sufficient English skills to read road signs, communicate with inspectors and complete required records – a standard focused on function, not fluency. For Barboza, meeting that standard became a daily, determined effort.
“I wouldn’t be here without my wife,” he says. “I didn’t speak English, so she sat with me in the classroom as I earned my CDL. She was my English teacher. Every day, she taught me.”
The stakes were real. To qualify as a driver under rules set by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, applicants must be able to communicate with the public, understand traffic signs and respond to official questions.
In practice, that expectation shows up in CDL testing and roadside inspections, where drivers might be asked to explain their route, present documents or answer basic safety questions.
Barboza encountered those expectations firsthand – and it didn’t always go smoothly.
“I went to different companies before Covenant hired me,” he says. “One sent me home because my English was not good enough.”
Another attempt didn’t go much better.
“I had a Spanish-speaking trainer, but he didn’t want to teach me,” Barboza recalls. “My wife had already told them I couldn’t speak English well. He said they weren’t paying me to learn English, so he wouldn’t train me.”
What followed was persistence – and gradual progress.
“I’m better now,” he says. “It’s much easier than before.”
That progress didn’t go unnoticed. At one point, a supervisor encouraged Barboza to become a trainer himself – a suggestion he initially resisted.
“I said, ‘How do you expect me to train somebody when I can’t speak English? Sometimes, I don’t even understand what I say,’” he recalls. “But he said, ‘I believe in you. Believe in yourself, and you’ll be fine.’”
Barboza listened – and has now been training drivers for nearly 30 years. Today, his experience guides how he approaches students who face the same hurdles he once did.
“I’ve had a lot of hard students,” he says. “Some come from Haiti, and a lot of trainers don’t want to teach them because it’s hard.”
For Barboza, that challenge is familiar.
“You have to have extra patience,” he says. “I tell them, ‘If you want to learn, I’ll teach you – but you have to want it. I was in the same situation as you. Now I’m giving you the same opportunity Covenant gave me.’”