Profile For Marcus M.

You bring up an interesting path to truck driving. The problem is that what you consider a "well documented" problem is not easily agreed on here in the U.S. Many of the trucking employers see the same truck drivers coming and going all the time. Some refer to this as "driver churn." Many here don't really think we have a "shortage" of drivers. We have drivers moving around a lot from one employer to another, but as far as a shortage goes, no one seems to agree on that matter. Even the large trucking driving organization, OOIDA, has been known to argue in court against this "fact."

Thanks for the in-depth reply and welcome, I appreciate that!

Yes, I agree with you.

I've heard there are varying opinions on the so-called "driver shortage", as you mentioned, and we have the same problem here in NZ. Are we truckers a fickle lot? Are the employers all terrible? Is this issue specific to the newer generation of drivers? I have no idea.

I guess what I'd be interested to find out is if non-Canadian/Mexican drivers have been successful in actually obtaining a EB-3 via an employer sponsor, as a truck driver. You're only required to convince the good folks at USCIS and you would be able to quote the ATA estimates (some 80,000, if memory serves, last year?), though whether they agree with those figures is the question.

(I am aware that Canadians and Mexicans have been able to obtain the EB-3 relatively easily, per some trucker recruiting agencies. So it is a backup option to go to Canada first, but definitely not a preference.)

There is a global freight company here in NZ with multiple US offices (Mainfreight), so I'm going to attempt this through them, as I figure they'd be my best bet. But it would be interesting to see if anyone's been successful.

Hi there.

So as we all know, there's a global shortage of truck drivers, which according to the data (many truck drivers set to retire) is only going to get worse.

(This applies to the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand...but I'm sure other countries are affected.)

We know Canada's response, recently, was to let the trucker's in via their Express entry program.

There's been some talk (but not much) about the US possibly looking to immigration as a solution to fill the jobs.

In the meantime, however, there are options for truckers to come in - the most popular appears to be the HB2, but I don't see as much talk about the EB-3, which is a viable option and offers a Green Card.

The crux of the matter is the employer has to prove that there are insufficient workers available in the US, therefore, the employer has to look abroad. This is why the EB-3 is so appealing - the truck driver shortage is a well-documented fact.

So this is the option I'm looking at (experienced, European truck driver currently based in NZ), but I'm wondering how motivated US employers currently are to consider a program like this.

After all, there's a fair bit of paper work required on their end.

Would love to hear your comments.