Trucking Demographics
Posted by ConsciousAwareness69@reddit | Truckers | View on Reddit | 11 comments
I recently returned to trucking and was kinda shocked going back to truck stops seeing that like 50% of the drivers don’t seem like they’re from here (USA).
I walk in and some dude is at the lottery ticket machine rambling in a language from India. I saw a few Russian /eastern Europeans. And a shit ton from Latin countries.
Is being a noncitizen a requirement to get your American CDL these days? Why has the demographics changed so drastically in the last few years?
Apart-Steak-7183@reddit
Yup.. there are
Waisted-Desert@reddit
If you're a brain scientist or rocket surgeon in your home country, you can't just come here and do the same job. There's required schooling and testing and state exams and ion some cases an exam for every state you wish to be licensed in.
But practically anyone can take a quick 2 or 3 week course and get a CDL and make a decent living.
Top-Confidence4496@reddit
I think the explanation is probably simpler than that.
Immigrants live and work in the U.S. and if they have the required legal documentation, they can qualify for trucking jobs like anyone else.
A lot of people are just looking for economic opportunity and truck driving provides that.
GiantEnemaCrab@reddit
To have a CDL you either need to be a US Citizen or have a green card / some sort of work permit. You still need to pass a CDL test. Having a strong accent or speaking English as a second language doesn't really make it harder to read street or road signs. For a lot of people from other nations who want to work here trucking is a good career because there is minimal communication required. Just drive a truck from A to B.
There are a lot of Republicans in trucking with the "they took err jerbs" mindset but for like 99% of foreign workers they're just guys like us driving trucks for the same shitty companies to pay for the same homes that their families live in. Imo they are our brothers who just want to make a living.
Now, India call centers / tech support. Those guys can fuck right off.
DrillTheThirdHole@reddit
nah man tons of immigrants are scabs who help normalize ever-decreasing wages by taking shit pay for cheap freight, and cant go to labor boards or demand benefits. it makes sense for them because its better than it pays in their countries, but it still fucks us over because companies develop a mindset that they can just hire an immigrant if we wont take forty cents a mile.
PraiseTalos66012@reddit
It's a lot more complex than that.
There's 2 main issues.
Some states were(still are?) being super lax on proof for work auth and/or we're not properly setting CDL expiration dates to match the work auth expiration date.
Some states allow the driving school to do all the testing which has led to schools in those states that are marketed towards immigrants and let them get their CDL in just a few weeks without having to actually pass a driving test and without having to be able to read/understand signs.
With that said I don't think those issues make it such a horrible problem as most act like. But they do need to be fixed.
Ok_Weekend6350@reddit
Because immigrants and visa workers can be treated like slaves.
That's the only answer they can mistreat those people and they don't have the option to go to a new company or call the labor department .
Visa workers can only work for the employer who got their visa
So if they get their company shut down for labor violations and unsafe practices
their ass is going back home probably to a place they'd rather not be
ConsistentRegion6184@reddit
That's exactly how Amazon works it. Same as the delivery drivers, no one is Amazon employees or assets... no liabilities, unions, the whole deal.
ConsciousAwareness69@reddit (OP)
The interesting fact is that the US Dollar exchanged to their foreign currency is a huge one. Even with a USA slave wage as a foreign trucker, they can wire 80% of that money to their home country and feed a whole damn village. This is a point a lot of people miss.
PraiseTalos66012@reddit
Most immigrants aren't doing that though, legal ones at least.
Most will come and work here and send back maybe 10-20% to family back home but that amount like you said is worth a lot more.
My wife is a legal immigrant and sometimes sends money back to her family, a weeks worth of labor over there is equivalent to like $50-100 USD.
But it's not because of exchange rates between USD and foreign currency. Exchange rates mean very little. It just has to do with cost of living being far cheaper, it's not like if cost of living was the same you could somehow buy more with the same money just by converting it to another currency.
WallaWallaby011@reddit
It's an easy job to get into if you can speak English and have immigrated here legally. I mean, I only have a high school diploma and no other job will pay me as much as driving a truck.. I'm just a white girl and I love driving a truck. But am I kinda stuck here? Yeah.. but at least I enjoy what I do.