Jesús Dueñas left Spain for the endless roads of the US. His story shows the hard routine, rare perks, and tough choices that come with driving a truck across America.
Jesús Dueñas starts his day in the cab of his Freightliner Cascadia. His truck is both his home and his job. This is what life looks like for many truckers in the US—a world far from what most Spaniards know. Each month, he drives close to 19,500 kilometers. He spends weeks on the road, living out of his truck, with little more than the dashboard, his bunk, and the highway ahead.
The US stands out for its size and for the way it supports drivers who live on the road. Truck stops here are huge. They have showers, restaurants, supermarkets, laundries, pharmacies, clinics, and even hairdressers. Drivers like Jesús can keep moving for days without leaving this network. As he puts it, "this job is a lifestyle." In America, that’s not an exaggeration.
In September 2026, Love’s announced the opening and renovation of travel stops with expanded amenities for truckers, including showers, restaurants, and stores.
But these comforts come with a cost. The company Jesús works for limits his truck to 65 miles per hour. US law lets him drive up to 11 hours a day, with a maximum of 70 hours over eight days. The routine never lets up: drive, refuel, check the truck, handle paperwork, load or unload, and wait—sometimes for hours. No two days are the same, but the grind never stops.
Jesús sees big differences between trucking in the US and Spain. In America, companies often pay for licenses, hotel stays, and offer sign-on bonuses. In Spain, these perks are rare. But not everything is better. He’s wary of the flood of new drivers chasing quick money. Many, he says, don’t have a strong work ethic. He sees risky driving and little sense of community on the road.
One thing stands out for him: safety. His American employer gives drivers room to adjust schedules if they’re sick or if the weather turns bad. Drivers are expected to speak up and reorganize, not just push through. Jesús says this puts safety first, unlike the strict time pressure he remembers from Europe.
According to the US Department of Transportation, federal regulations strictly limit truck drivers to 11 hours of driving after 10 consecutive hours off duty, with a 14-hour on-duty window and mandatory 30-minute breaks after 8 hours. These rules are designed to combat driver fatigue and improve road safety, and recent temporary exceptions for fuel haulers have been introduced only in response to supply crises, while still requiring rest and excluding companies with poor safety records.
Jesús doesn’t buy the headlines about a general trucker shortage in the US. He says the real problem is finding people willing to take certain jobs and stick with them. His own path was long. He started his immigration process in 2018. He arrived in the US in 2022 with permanent residency, then had to get an American commercial license before he could drive.
Life on the road is both freeing and lonely. Jesús likes the independence and seeing new places. But the solitude can be hard. He spends months away from family, sleeps in his cab, and deals with fatigue, traffic, and bad weather. Over time, he’s learned to appreciate small comforts and accept that some days just go wrong. "Sometimes everything runs smoothly, but there are moments when the road gets rough," he says. When that happens, you fix the problem and keep going.
For Spanish drivers thinking about making the jump, the road is long and full of hurdles. The US system has its chances, but it also demands grit and the ability to adapt to a tough, unusual way of life. As reported earlier, even small habits behind the wheel can have big effects—a lesson that matters on both sides of the Atlantic.
Jesús Dueñas’s story shows that the American dream for truckers means long hours, personal sacrifice, and a system that rewards those who can handle the pressure. Modern truck stops and company perks are real, but so are the long stretches of loneliness and the never-ending schedule. For those ready to make the road their life, the US offers chances Spain rarely does. But the trade-offs are real, and only those who can face the full reality will find what they’re looking for behind the wheel.
