Will automation put an end to the American trucker?

Europe generally prioritises passenger transport over freight transport, but there are rail freight terminals -- probably not anywhere you're likely to visit (example [1])

Rail traffic is allocated on a timetable, for both passenger and goods trains. The time and route is called a "path" in British English, and reserving one costs money.

A power station might have a daily path from a port to their power plant, as they can reliably use all the coal.

Rail freight companies book many paths between freight terminals, container ports and so on and mix together goods from many customers to run on trains on these paths. Therefore, the timings are reliable, potentially more reliable than by road, but the flexibility is less.

If there aren't any goods to move, the company doesn't need to use the path. (I used to live close to a railway line used to transfer trains containing nuclear waste. The reprocessing plant had a path to run a train every day, but only used it every couple of weeks -- presumably, they don't like leaving the waste at the power station any longer than necessary.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_freight_in_Great_Britain#...

Because trucking is, or at least was, cheap.

Prior to the rise of the Interstate Highway system, most warehouses were on rail lines, or spurs. You'll still find the trackage, or at least the traces of them, in many urban areas throughout the U.S.

In San Francisco, the region near Potrero Hill by the old Fashion Design Centre. The odd street patterns and building perimeters show the former track rights of way.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/San+Francisco+Design+Cente...

The fact that you'd first have to secure employment at your destination city?

Truck driving is not the largest employment by major NAICS job classification. Instead you'll find that the ranking puts office & administrative, sales, and food services ahead of all transport. The final column is per-mille, not per-cent, contribution.

    43-0000 Office and Administrative Support Occupations                22026080  156.881
    41-0000 Sales and Related Occupations                                14536530  103.537
    35-0000 Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations             12981720   92.462
    53-0000 Transportation and Material Moving Occupations                9731790   69.315
    51-0000 Production Occupations                                        9105650   64.855
    25-0000 Education, Training, and Library Occupations                  8636430   61.513
    29-0000 Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations            8318500   59.249
    47-0000 Construction and Extraction Occupations                       5585420   39.782
    49-0000 Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Occupations             5456640   38.865
    39-0000 Personal Care and Service Occupations                         4514960   32.158
    37-0000 Building and Grounds Cleaning and Maintenance Occupations     4426090   31.525
    15-0000 Computer and Mathematical Occupations                         4165140   29.666
    31-0000 Healthcare Support Occupations                                4043480   28.800
    33-0000 Protective Service Occupations                                3386360   24.119
    17-0000 Architecture and Engineering Occupations                      2499050   17.799
    21-0000 Community and Social Service Occupations                      2019250   14.382
    27-0000 Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media Occupations    1902970   13.554
    19-0000 Life, Physical, and Social Science Occupations                1152840    8.211
    23-0000 Legal Occupations                                             1075520    7.660
    45-0000 Farming, Fishing, and Forestry Occupations                     463640    3.302

Source: https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm

Edit: I'm perplexed by the downvotes. Care to explain yourself?