I don’t like to moan or put down anyone’s hopes and dreams but it seems at least once a month I see a new member who wants info on coming here to drive a truck.
If the people concerned just took a bit of time to browse through this forum before asking such questions it would save a lot of time and effort involved in them getting the inevitable bad news.
So new members … please read earlier posts before wasting your time.
Hiya Pat please tell me what its like to drive in the USA & how I can get a job & pass my test & move my ■■■ over there soonest■■? 
You have a nice day you hear.
I agree with you Pat, it doesn’t take much to trawl through the older threads, it would make interesting reading for someone thinking about making the move anyway, it beats me how they don’t do that, it doesn’t create the impression that someone is enthusiastic about moving to another country if they can’t be bothered to read through a thread or two…
However, we don’t know that they haven’t read through them and haven’t found the answer they’re looking for, look at the last one from DABenji, it all got a little heated on there, we found out that you need to be able to build your own roads with a chainsaw 
and that Big Freight and H&R upset a few of us, but all in all, not much use to someone who wanted an answer about getting work this side of the world
fly sheet:
Hiya Pat please tell me what its like to drive in the USA & how I can get a job & pass my test & move my ■■■ over there soonest■■?You have a nice day you hear.
Unless you got a Green card or sponsored by blood relative, dont even ask stupid questions that Pat refers to.
You can only get a green card, if married to or related to a family member or if from Eire lucky enough to have got one though there lottery system, or dumb enough to take out a investors/ business visa ( minimum $150,000 I believe and still doesnt guarantee the right to stay)
This is the basic requirement you need to drive in the USA commercially - without this no employer will even consider you for hire ( In NC, where I drove, illegal employees that get caught cost the employer $50,000 each - would you take the chance )
Not onty the above applies, but if your stupid enough to get in illegally and get caught - dont even think about coming back for a 2 week vacation with the family to Disney 10 years down the road, you’ll be plastered all over Homeland security systems- no fly list, and theres nothing worse than having saved for 5 years and then standing at the departure gate waving goodbye to your family as they go on your hard earned holiday. 
Sorry lads and Lass’s, but unless the above criteria applies to you, forget about driving the black top over there, it aint going to happen
I’d be more interested in how I can sell up here, have enough to make a good start and persuade my wife and kid’s to move back to the UK at the moment.
Better wrkers rights, easier work days, better roads, better climate (5 months of constant snow here) and … … BETTER TRUCKS.
Pat Hasler:
I’d be more interested in how I can sell up here, have enough to make a good start and persuade my wife and kid’s to move back to the UK at the moment.
Better wrkers rights, easier work days, better roads, better climate (5 months of constant snow here) and … … BETTER TRUCKS.
“easier work days” you just told us you got 1600 miles and only worked 2 days a week i never had it easier than that back in the old country.
Some people just done’t know which side their breads butterd on 
Oh, the snows going so now you can look forward to mud season then black flies and mosquiteos, then some really hot humid days, 
Yup winters gone its Road Construction (or is that destruction) Season
And Phoenix hit its first 100 degree day of the season yesterday…I would kill for some snow 
Pat Hasler:
I’d be more interested in how I can sell up here, have enough to make a good start and persuade my wife and kid’s to move back to the UK at the moment.
Better wrkers rights, easier work days, better roads, better climate (5 months of constant snow here) and … … BETTER TRUCKS.
Pat, I think everyone goes through phases like that. As it happens my wife is unsettled at the moment after going home for a funeral. The trouble is she was laid off from a good job in 2009, and has not found another job. We emigrated 20 yrs ago, and this is the first time she has hit me with this, but being as stubbon as she is if she makes her mind up to move back, thats what she will do with or with out me.
For me the biggest issue is my 11 year old daughter.
Life is supposed to get easier as you get older, or at least I thought.
Pat Hasler:
I’d be more interested in how I can sell up here, have enough to make a good start and persuade my wife and kid’s to move back to the UK at the moment.
Better wrkers rights, easier work days, better roads, better climate (5 months of constant snow here) and … … BETTER TRUCKS.
Get a grip Man its doom & gloom here, very reminisent of the 80’s at the moment, instead of the workers rioting its the middle class lot having a pop at it now.
Pretty ■■■■■ here Pat, get yer chin up and read teh Daily Mail on-line, or just come over for a holiday and get put off.
After 13 years in the US my wife is a tad unsettled here.
Thing is we have 2 girls going to college in August, there is
no way we would come back now. She knows and accepts that though.
I always say to anyone that asks…its not better here, just
different. If you like hot weather the great AZ is the place to be. Pat
mentioned earlier about the American health care system.
It really does catch people out with ongoing health problems.
It is way overpriced and insurance companies love to wriggle out of
denying healthcare in certain situations. It really is something to think
about if you coming out with a family.
Life seems to be cheap, particularly here in Arizona, and yet the numerous
churches in our area are congregated by thousands on a Sunday morning.
Personally I like it here, wouldn’t see me moving back to the UK, but there
are better places in the world to live, put it that way.
It’s very hard to settle in another country, especially for us Brits, unlike the Africans, Asians, Eastern Europeans and Indians, we had a pretty decent standard of life before we made the move, so we’re making a sideways move at best.
Leaving family behind is very hard, like Pat and many others I left my older kids behind, they have their own lives now so they weren’t interested, our parents are also getting older and the inevitable will happen sooner or later, that’s a very difficult time believe me, I just had to return to the UK to go to my Mother in Law’s funeral, you also leave behind lifelong friends, you can stay in touch by phone, email, skype etc, but it’s no substitute for a pint or two in the Dog and Duck.
Although having said that, I’ve spent a couple of months back in London since I moved over here, the first couple of weeks were brilliant, then reality set in again and all the reasons I left in the first place became apparent again and I couldn’t wait to come back home to Canada, it’s not a paradise, but it does give me a happier life.
Ah come on guys it’s a lot better than that,trouble is we all take it for granted now.Have a read of the British press online,doom and gloom and very negative,even the people living there say the place is buggered.
Apart from a long weekend last November,which mostly involved drinking and Rugby,I’ve only been back once with my immediate family ,we were all ready to come back to Canada within the first week.
Sure if I won the Lottery then I might have a few holiday homes around the globe,but as I don’t buy tickets I’m happy to spend the rest of my days here in the valley in deepest Saskatchewan.Might not be Utopia,but it’s relatively civilized,quiet,beautiful scenery,and we don’t lock our doors or worry about the next terrorist attack.
Small observations that make the bigger picture.
NMM, FTTM, Good points that you made, though i never had to leave grown up kids behind ( owing to being a late starter ) i did leave from a large family, though i only have two brothers and two sisters, my dad was one of 10, take into account all them aunties, uncles cousins etc, not too mention my grandma, that’s a few, but like mark said a pint down the local is often missed.
I speak to family and friends there at least once a week and am always being told that we made a good move, i do hope the Uk can be a better place to live like the one when we were younger! or am i wearing rose tinted specs■■?
Though most of us made the move to “live the dream” or “drive the big rigs” i think i am right in saying we moved for a “better way of life” and i also think that most of us here have found it, though at times for some it has been a struggle, again as Mark said as he had to go back for his wifes mothers funeral, i was in the same position last year but the wife made the trip on her own, ( and she came back to me )lol.
But as we said before the move, we would not be able to go back for all the funerals etc. which does hurt alot, and as we get a little older there is always going to be those sad times.
On the whole after seven yrs here i do not regret it and have never given a thought to going back, when people here ask “do you miss home” i tell them no as this is our home now.
Mark, had fish chips and mushy peas in Joeys at Brandon the other night, very nice too but not the same as out the paper, walking home half sloshed and three sheets to the wind!! Now that i do miss!
Pat, did you live in Towcester itself, i started out life in the village of Weston just down the road.
I absolutely love living here, but there are certain aspects to life in the old country that I will always miss
newmercman:
I absolutely love living here, but there are certain aspects to life in the old country that I will always miss
NMM,
Cor blimey gov’nor,not a jellied eel in sight !! Dreadful rubbish anyhow.
Steve O,
We had a similar conversation before moving over here,involving brothers and sisters left behind managing elderly parents and the inevitable,quite emotional,but everyone agreed we were making the right decision.When events occur we will endeavour to return,but if that’s not possible it’ll be understood with the family’s blessings.5 years later,we did the right thing.
Pat Hasler:
I’d be more interested in how I can sell up here, have enough to make a good start and persuade my wife and kid’s to move back to the UK at the moment.
Better wrkers rights, easier work days, better roads, better climate (5 months of constant snow here) and … … BETTER TRUCKS.
Pat, I believe the workers rights in Canada are better than those in the States.
I can only speak about my friends in Ontario who have a good standard of living, although I do have a brotherinlaw who lives in Edmunton and he’s happy with his lot.
Here in the States it depends which State you live in. Florida a right to work state has no workers rights. You can be fired for no reason at all, no verbal or written warning, you are only as good as yesterdays work performance.
Vacation time, what a laugh 1 week after 1 year, 2 weeks after 3 yrs, 3 weeks after 10 yrs FFS
Very few companies have sick days with pay, and those offering health insurance are shrinking too.
Flat rate pay night or day, no overtime no guarantee of min hours or miles.
A lot of companies pay trip money, absolute daylight robbery.
When you get a good job you need to hang on to it, you will not believe the crap people will pull to get your job, with no recourse if they fabricate evidence to get you fired.
It is nigh on impossible to prove you are innocent, as you have no representation.
■■■■■■■■ it really is.
Rant over, Paul
newmercman:
I absolutely love living here, but there are certain aspects to life in the old country that I will always miss
All of those are cardiac arrests on a plate.
Are you kidding me? North American food is appalling, even your meat is crap, cows are meant to eat grass not genetically modified corn feed that requires the meat to be bleached in chlorine or ammonia before it’s fit to be sold and don’t get me started on veggies, it’s corn corn corn or nothing anything that requires the use of both a knife and a fork is not on the menu as nobody has the motor skills to use both implements at the same time
The meals I posted are examples of British fast food, I would wager that every single one of them has far more nutritional value than a North American burger and fries, even the Saveloys and they’re made of lips, ears and ■■■■■■■■■ A proper British evening meal, in my house at least, will have 2 or 3 vegetables alongside the meat and potatoes, maybe that’s why the British have less problems with diet related illness than North Americans, who let’s be honest, value quantity over quality anyday