How to get a driver's license in the USA and how much they pay a trucker: the experience of an immigrant

After 3 months of staying and working in America, Vladislav from Krasnodar, author of the channel “Russian Life in the USA” on “Yandex Zen“, talked about how he received a driver’s license in California and how much truck drivers earn in the United States. Next - from the first person.

Фото: Depositphotos

I decided to share with you good news for me: I got American rights, before that I traveled for the rights of my country.

Many now laugh, but I did not know that the rights in the United States are sent by mail. In the morning I woke up and went to check the box, in fact, so I saw my treasured letter of happiness.

The body that issues rights, license plates and registration is called DMV. You can enter this name in the search engine and you will see their sites by state. On the site you can find out about all the rules for obtaining rights and registering a car.

The licenses look extremely standard; you receive an ordinary A4 sheet with them glued to it. On the sheet there are various words of congratulations, a table of violations for which you can lose your license, and DMV contact information.

In principle, having a driver's license, in America you can not carry your passport. They fully confirm your identity and in any places you can show only them.

I got the rights in California, so I’ll tell you what you need to get a driver’s license in this state.

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What you need to get:

1. You need to prove that you live in this state - your proof will be living in California for 30 days, after which you can safely go get a license or identification card.

2. Identity document. You can provide your country's passport or an existing US passport.

3. To prove that you are legally located in the United States: show any document that gives you the right to be in this territory, in my case it was a green card.

After going through all these procedures, you will receive a letter in the mail with your driver’s license.

Фото: Depositphotos

Now I’ll tell you about the hard work of the driver and shed light on the level of earnings in this profession.

I work in moving (professional services for organizing the process of transportation and storage of things during the moving period - Wikipedia) and my task is to deliver things to the client at home. I am loaded with a full trailer of various things that need to be delivered to addresses in the United States.

To make it clear to you, I’ll tell you for those who don’t know what kind of work this is:

This is the work of the driver of the truck, and if in Russian, then the driver of the truck. The people who make the order in our company are mainly those who move from state to state. They have a lot of things and they are forced to order a huge truck to transport almost the entire contents of the old house.

The truck is my home throughout the entire trip (the cars are different every time, you have to get used to it). So, my task is to deliver the cargo to the client’s home or warehouse, and then unload it.

We drive on 2 person, driver and Helper (assistant). If the essence of the driver’s work is more than clear, then the assistant’s job is to unload the cargo.

My average salary in movings is 250 $ per day (depending on the mileage). I know that many will say: this is a bit for the USA. Yes, and I completely agree with you, given that I pay 2000 $ per month for housing (not including taxes and communal expenses).

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In fact, 250 $ is only for the kilometers I have traveled. If we can drive up to the client’s house on the truck, then he pays us only for unloading, and this is 50 $ per nose. But if it’s impossible to get to the person’s house on the track (and this happens with 3 clients per flight, at least), then we pull everything on carts directly to the house. Such a service costs 300 $, which the customer will have to pay us.

In fact, the work is very difficult, but no more difficult than working in the Russian Federation. The roads are everywhere and always smooth, it’s nice to drive, you almost always relax while driving. There is tension when you enter a town, there are a lot of nuances on a big truck.

For the impatient, I’ll summarize my earnings. If you take into account unloading and delivery on carts, then the approximate amount is 9000-10000 $ per month. But I want to clarify that it’s not always possible to earn that kind of money, once it turns out less.

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