Bit by bit the city is built, the home is constructed and often even the individual is made; most of the materials used for these purposes are transported by trucks. This is not implying that we are dismissing other haulage means but the trucks are the closest to the people so far as haulage is the focus. Since the expansion of our growth into a society (navigating from individualism), transportation has been significant to life. Effective transportation is the foundation of both reproduction and production for several species.
Every living species survives by two mechanisms of transportation either by getting to its need or its need getting to it. While movement could be a feature of a living thing the dynamics of the movement itself limit or improve the capacity of a species to access these needs, trees grow to the resources and at other times they wait for the resources to come to them, for the other more mobile organism, sometimes they have to make advanced moves, we have seen this in the bees as well as in several others. The summary is, that trucks bring our needs to us.
Examining the Need and Role of Trucks in the US system
For humans, both letting the needs come to us and moving towards the needs are options; in the modern world, the truck is the chief enabler of this dynamic. Through the trucking system today, you can let the goods come to you or get to the goods. For this natural process of back-and-forth movement of vital resources to occur, there must be an enabler. The chief enabler is the trucking system and its maneuvers (drivers).
For the United States, a country with ample population and landmass, trucks play an even more crucial role in ensuring the distribution of resources, but every need-inspired movement must be guided by rationality trucks can’t think yet then there arises the need for drivers to fill in that part. The US has a population to landmass balance at a ratio of 38 people to a kilometer square, there’s a lot of distance to travel moving goods from one point to another thereby creating a huge need for trucks and a huge market for truck drivers in the country.
Truck Driver migration and Visa sponsorship
Truck drivers are not migrating to the US to drive trees, they are truck drivers, and as such the condition that makes their need possible must be present. For this to happen, there must be a need for truck drivers in the US market, there must also be the availability of trucks and trucking companies then the need to migrate to the US for such truck drivers. All these points to a scenario of employment relationship leading us to look at the employment-inspired migration into the United States.
With two common channels of entry into the US through the sponsorship visa model, an applicant in most cases either qualifies for family sponsorship or on the other hand employment-based sponsorship. Unless potential truck drivers have a family member in the US, they would rely on employment sponsorship. By now it could be clearer that family-based sponsorship focuses on family member’s migration.
Truck driving in most cases or as we focus on here are those purely on merit employment not on family affiliation as such utilizes employment visa sponsorship. To widen your views on visa sponsorship, we have a detailed article that may interest you here.
Responsibilities
The road to the US is wide but marked in several parts with responsibilities. Aspiring truck drivers and their potential sponsors must see to some obligations before succeeding in their pursuits of US migration. Since truck drivers’ employment sponsorship is a joint venture between the applicant and sponsor, identifying the responsibilities of both sides is instrumental to the migration process.
Responsibilities of Truck Driver Employment Visa Sponsor
- Support: Truck driving may seem like the ideal job for the tough guys but the rough of the US can break anyone. Depending on the region one is migrating from, things can take a shocking turn for average migrants experiencing a move into a foreign land. Migrant truck drivers usually need support getting used to the US system.
Some drivers are migrating from countries where the driving wheel for instance may be situated on different sides of the truck, this can create initial challenges. To overcome such challenges, migrating drivers need support beyond the actual business of driving itself. The most important thing is that until such drivers can adapt properly to things, such migrants will require support primarily from sponsor.
- Verification of driver’s abilities: Truck driving is a delicate job as it requires access to roads used by other commuters. Safety starts by ensuring that migrant drivers possess adequate know-how and experience on the job.
The employer can verify this by requesting that the applicant tender the home country’s commercial vehicle driving license or equivalent license applicable in the migrating driver’s home country. Such a document must be issued by a suitable authority.
- Verification of shortage of truck drivers at the given period: US jobs including truck driving must first satisfy local availability. Labor and employment laws in the United States jealously protect the system from outsider encroachment.
Employers intending to migrate foreign workers must satisfy such provision that maintains that a vacancy is only qualified for sponsorship if vacancy requirements can’t be satisfied or the target job can’t be effectively done by citizens or residents.
- Verification and assurance of employee’s conduct: Truck drivers must be individuals of discipline despite how tempting their job can be. Road safety is a national concern and migrant drivers must be of the best quality of conduct. For instance, individuals who drink and drive are a potential disaster on the road; employers must screen potential drivers properly.
Apart from obeying road safety provisions, an applicant is expected to submit to other US laws, failure to comply may attract legal actions not just against drivers but also against employers. With this in mind, the employer is expected to take partial responsibility given employees’ conduct.
Responsibilities of Truck Driver on the migration route to the US
- Possession of Home Country’s commercial driver’s license or its equivalent
- Possess a valid passport
- Obtain a US commercial driver’s license upon arrival and before starting duty
- Tender a photograph
- Indicate capacity to fund the visa process
- Submit educational qualification proof
- Indicate abilities through practical examination and detailed experience through a CV or resume
- Tender lab results or medical fitness certificate
- Indicate language efficiency (English)
- Tender a character assessment report issued by home’s country police
- Satisfy security clearance in applicable cases
- Satisfy background checks through the use of birth certificates or equivalent documents
Benefits
- Amazing financial take-home: Most truck driver’s salaries can be regarded as amazing. Sometimes earning $1500 per week is a norm for some drivers, we consider this a decent earning.
- Insurance benefit: A surviving tradition from the days when truck driving was tougher. Today it does seem like trucks only look tough; nevertheless, the insurance aspect has survived.
- Tips on lucky days: Some long miles of driving usually turn into a brief moment of smiles. Truck driving attracts more tips than you can ordinarily imagine.
- Exploration opportunities: It is even impossible for citizens to visit all the amazing places in the US even if that’s what such an individual’s life will be dedicated to. We are not saying as a truck driver, you get to see all of the United States but certainly, you would see more than you could have if you were not a truck driver.
- Limited expenditure on other things: Truck driving will save you a fortune. Less money is spent on gas for a separate drive, less travel tickets, and less time using electricity at home. Certainly, you will spend less and may learn how to survive on less luxury which in turn leaves you with more money.
- Flexibility in time management and autonomy: For truck drivers, numerous factors impact their schedules. These other factors are mostly understandable. Loading time can be quickened thereby gifting the driver some extra minutes.
Remote truck driver job search approach
For foreign drivers aiming to migrate to the United States, the primary challenge is securing employment. This used to be difficult before the internet emerged with its remote communication. Today, the following steps can improve your chances of gaining truck driving employment in the US.
- Find and follow or join related service groups on social media: Social media has become a meeting ground between products or service renderers and consumers. Sometimes these business activities are conducted over social media groups. Joining such groups or communities will grant aspiring truck drivers access to potential employers. From there, aspiring truck drivers can contact potential employers via their pages, mail, or phone.
- Utilize targeted searches: Enterprises hiring truck drivers also advertise their vacancies over search engines like Google. They intend to reach their potential employees through searches. Targeted searches can help you discover such firms; you can reach out to such businesses through their website or other contact means they may have available.
- Go the traditional route: Times have changed but firms and individuals still advertise job opportunities the traditional ways using US local publishers. While accessing local copies of these publishers may be tough, digital copies of their publications are sometimes hosted over the Internet. You can access such digital copies and contact or apply for available opportunities.
Visa consideration
Perhaps you can secure a job, but the question of migration becomes practical. In such cases, visa class becomes a focus. US migration on employment has visas designed for different classes of employees. Consideration is usually based on educational qualification, the nature of the job or employment, and the applicant’s position in the sponsoring firm.
For truck drivers, we believe the H-2B visa to be ideal. Unlike other jobs, truck driving is practical; although its demand surge can be impacted by agricultural harvest, it is a part of the haulage or shipping sector; the temporal non-agricultural visa (H-2B visa) can apply.
US truck driver’s employers known to sponsor visas
As our world and societies become bigger and the distance between people and resources widens, distribution becomes a tough challenge. Truck drivers serve the purpose of ensuring that the chain of supply is sustained even as habitation expands across the planet, continents, and countries. The US is not left out in this consequence of human expansion. These firms in their pursuit of breaking their barriers of distance deploy a trucking system and they sponsor visas too.
- Coca-Cola: Arguably the world’s largest beverage manufacturer. But to get these products to thirsty consumers the need for trucks and truck drivers arises. Coca-Cola sponsors visas for their numerous department. In situations of truck driver shortage, they can sponsor drivers from the international space.
- ABF Haulage: Even as a less-than-a-truck haulage system, ABF still needs truck drivers. In times of shortage like during harvest, international drivers make up for the additional truck drivers need. In such a situation, ABF sponsors their drivers’ migration.
- Walmart: Over time operating a super successful chain of retail stores, Walmart has learned that operating a dedicated trucking system and employing drivers not only saves cost but also improves efficiency. Walmart sponsors visas when it is convenient.
- XPO Logistics: Experienced truck drivers are the keys to staying ahead in the haulage industry. XPO Logistics is aware of this. Irrespective of timing, when the firm recognizes an excellent truck driver, they hardly let go.
They understand the seasons, demand, and supply and they won’t let the right driver go just because it is not yet time of huge demand. They sponsor visas for exceptional truck drivers.
Conclusion
Truck drivers are bringing a kind of bridge to our society despite the gaps. For the US a country that relies on trucks as a primary haulage means, truck drivers migration has become a sustained reality as home supply of drivers becomes insufficient.
For this, it has become necessary for drivers to migrate into the country. You can take advantage of the opportunities open to truck drivers in the country by taking intentional steps to migrate to the US.