As a trucker, wanderlust may be part of your genetic makeup. Perhaps you would really like to see the world from above 18 wheels and you are wondering if that is a possibility. As a licensed commercial driver, you are a member of a profession that is extremely portable. Any nation with roads needs truckers if you want to drive a truck outside the U.S..

While local and over-the-road trucking have been around for a century, along with the very specialized skill set they require, it is also true that trucking is going through a time of change, partly because of new equipment being introduced, new laws coming into being and the uncertainty of the economy. If you would like to be an expat trucker, here are some ideas and current conditions you may want to consider.

State-Of-The Art Trucking Technology

Wherever you end up driving, you will probably want to make certain that the company you hire on with is going to use state-of-the-art technology. While national highway standards vary dramatically by country, truckers in every land around the globe know what safety measures will cut the risks they face.

Your job, once you become focused on a specific land, will be to discover the driving standards, the required equipment and what optional technology is available. Serious outfits, regardless of the country, will use approximately the type of safety regulations and machinery you are accustomed to in the U.S. for emissions, fuel conservation and especially driver safety. The best clue about this will be whether or not the firm employs a system with GPS for fleet management.

The USMCA Countries

You may remember that the old NAFTA treaty was supplanted in 2020 by the new United States Mexico and Canada Agreement (USMCA) that, among other things, sets standards for international trucking between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. If you assume that means you can easily become an ex-pat trucker north or south of the border, that is not the case.

To drive in Mexico, you must satisfy the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes (SCT), whose requirements are listed on their website. The average annual trucker pay for drivers in Mexico is equal to about $10,700.

Canada is eager to bring in American drivers due to its extreme shortage of truckers. Pay is considered low up north as well, and the long-haul stents are truly very long and tend to be gruelling.

Best Paid Truckers

While your current pay in the U.S. or the money you would make in Canada may not seem like all that much, drivers in these two countries are the best paid in the Western Hemisphere. If you want comparable pay, you will have to travel Europe or down under. Here is a list of the ten nations where truckers receive the best pay:

• Australia
• Switzerland
• Norway
• Canada
• United States
• Denmark
• Germany
• Italy
• Sweden
• Netherlands

Perusing the list reveals that northern Europe and North American are the locales where truckers make the best pay. If the paycheck is a key aspect of your desire to drive internationally, you will probably note from the list that there are no Asia or African nations listed as lucrative spots for drivers. Scandinavia and Northwestern Europe are not only high-paying nations but also tend to be the most highly developed countries on the list.

Work Anywhere in the World

One aspect of trucking that may change the pay scale is the reality that there is in fact a worldwide shortage of truckers. As the global economy continues to recover from the 2020 shutdown and supply chains continue to reopen, one professional person desperately needed around the globe is the trucker. A recent study discovered that 800 shipping firms in 23 different nations are reporting a dramatic shortage of drivers. The shortage of drivers means, among other things, that the supplies that keep infrastructure functioning around the world are not being delivered.

So, if you ever wanted to drive internationally, there are lots of places where your skills are needed.