US vs Canadian truck drivers

hkloss1:
5. Health care

I’ve never been a fan of private healthcare, but seeing how underfunded NHS is and from what I can see the same story is with the Canadian equivalent, as waiting times involved to have anything done or to see a specialist I’m starting to wondering maybe Yanks have it better with their private health care, as from what I read an average monthly contribution is jus over usd 300, so I thought that was manageable if in exchange you could get an efficient and reliable healthcare.
If, as you are saying Robinhood, when you get seriously ill, say cancer, and you are left alone by the healthcare provider you’ve been paying monthly contribution for so many years, why would people bother paying anything in at all?

Few other questions if you don’t mind chaps

How is it sleeping at truck stops, are these truck stops noisier than UK’s services are?
I’ve heard you need to middle overnight to keep warm, so I guess it must be noisy.
Do companies allow drivers to middle overnight, dou to cost of fuel being used?
What about night heaters, are there any?

Thanks

Health care has to be paid for whether it’s the US version or the UK NHS version.The problem with both being that there is a difference between what it costs v the amount that is being paid in.In large part because of wage reductions in real terms leading to taxation shortfalls here or insurance premiums there.While I for one don’t believe that anyone with any sense there wouldn’t have unlimited health cover just like anyone from here going there for a holiday.However there are obviously a number of grey areas in the private insurance based system such as those described of people having policies arbitrarily terminated.Which can only logically be a flaw in the policy requirement at the purchase stage regarding the definition of ‘unlimited’ cover. :bulb:

Engine idling is mostly a necessary result of the harsh North American climate conditions.At least in the winter.Not only because the average Euro night heater wouldn’t be powerful enough but because the cold can be enough to seize engines,freeze fuel lines and take out batteries in a short time.As for extreme heat/humidity without idling to maintain standard factory fit vehicle air con it would take a decent stand alone generator and independent roof type air con plant.Such as used on RV’s. :bulb:

Robinhood’s comments were interesting.Which seemed to confirm what I’ve said about the superiority of distance full load work whether UK,Europe or North America.As opposed to relatively short haul tramping type operations.Like everywhere else I’d guess the problem in the US being the increase in rail movements taking out much of the potential for full load distance work there ( IE mostly East/West traffic ).Unlike Canadian/US North/South traffic which is also obviously helped by the issue of cabotage ?.While also possibly all bets are off regarding domestic long haul Canadian East West traffic in that regard.Although with the allowance there of doubles outfits probably making the difference. :bulb: On that note Canada can be the only logical choice for anyone intending to work in North America even if by some miracle America ever allowed any foreign nationals to work there as a driver anyway which is historically a case of no chance.