Truck Driver Pay: Average Salary, Range, and What Affects It

What This Job Pays

The headline number is the median annual pay for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025). You will find it in the Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for the occupation and in the OEWS tables under SOC code 53-3032. A median means half of drivers earned more and half earned less — it is not a starting rate, and it is not an average.

For the full spread, use O*NET OnLine, which publishes the 10th and 90th percentile annual wages for the occupation from U.S. Department of Labor data (2025), along with the 25th and 75th percentiles (2025). The 25th-to-75th band is the more useful planning range, because it strips out both ends.

BLS also describes how these drivers are typically paid (2025), and the structure is not uniform. Over-the-road work is commonly quoted per mile. Local, regional, construction and food-service driving is more often hourly, with overtime past the weekly threshold your employer uses. Some flatbed, tanker and dedicated work pays a flat rate per trip or a percentage of the load.

That matters because OEWS figures are gross wages: they capture what was paid, including overtime and mileage earnings, but not how it was earned. A cents-per-mile rate is not comparable to an hourly rate until you know weekly miles, how much unpaid detention and loading time you absorb, and whether the carrier pays accessorials — detention, layover, breakdown, stop-off, tarping. Per diem arrangements move part of your pay into a non-taxable allowance, which changes take-home pay and the income you can document for a loan. Safety, mileage, fuel-efficiency and referral bonuses sit on top of base pay and are usually not guaranteed. Ask each carrier for an estimated annual gross and the assumptions behind it.

Owner-operators are a separate case: their gross revenue is not wages, and fuel, insurance, maintenance, tires and truck payments come out of it first. OEWS wage tables cover employed drivers only.

Salary by Experience and Location

No published table labels figures "entry-level" or "experienced" for this occupation, so wage percentiles and state tables are the stand-in. Here is which published figure answers which question.

State medians diverge from the national median in both directions, and the Nuecareer ranking citing BLS OEWS May 2025 data identifies which states sit at the top — check it rather than assuming the coastal states lead. Metro figures can differ sharply from the state containing them, which is why the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington median hourly wage is published separately from the Texas statewide median. In Texas, OEWS data also shows a clear gap between the median annual wage for light truck drivers and the median for heavy and tractor-trailer drivers (GetCDLTexas.com, citing BLS OEWS, 2025), so check that any figure you are quoted refers to the right occupation.

For over-the-road work, your home address matters less than the carrier's lane structure and pay package, because you are paid for miles run. For local and regional work, the metro OEWS figure is the right benchmark.

What Affects Pay in This Field

• Industry. The biggest published difference. BLS publishes separate median annual wages for heavy and tractor-trailer drivers in truck transportation, wholesale trade, manufacturing and construction (2025) — four distinct figures for the same job title. Compare all four in the Occupational Outlook Handbook before choosing a sector.
• Class of licence and occupation code. Texas OEWS data shows the median annual wage for light truck drivers sitting below the median for heavy and tractor-trailer drivers (GetCDLTexas.com, citing BLS OEWS, 2025), and BLS publishes separate national medians for light truck drivers and driver/sales workers (2025). Moving to Class A tractor-trailer work is a change of occupation, not just of employer.
• Pay structure. Per-mile pay rises and falls with weekly miles; hourly pay rises with overtime hours. Two drivers on identical rates finish the year far apart if one sits in unpaid detention. Get paid detention, layover and stop-off rates in writing.
• Endorsements and freight type. Hazmat, tanker and doubles/triples endorsements open higher-paying freight. Oversize, flatbed and heavy-haul work typically pays more than dry van for the extra securement, permitting and liability.
• Route type. Over-the-road, regional, dedicated and local trade money against nights at home. Local and dedicated routes usually pay hourly with predictable hours; long-haul usually pays per mile with more time away.
• Employer type and union coverage. Private fleets, LTL carriers, unionized freight operations and public-sector fleets structure pay, pensions and overtime differently from truckload carriers. Compare health coverage, retirement contributions, paid time off and guaranteed minimum pay as a package.
• Safety and tenure. A clean MVR with no preventable accidents keeps you eligible for better-paying accounts, and many carriers tie mileage-rate step-ups and safety bonuses to months of accident-free service.
• Geography. State and metro medians differ materially — see the Texas, Dallas–Fort Worth and highest-paying-states figures cited above.

For each of these, the check is the same: pull the current OEWS figure for your state, industry and occupation code, then ask the employer how their package compares.

How This Job's Pay Compares

Three titles get confused with this one, and all three are published separately.

Light truck drivers. BLS publishes a median annual wage for light truck drivers (2025) and, separately, their 10th and 90th percentile annual wages (2025). These are the box-truck and van drivers who do not need a Class A CDL. In Texas, OEWS data shows their median below that of heavy and tractor-trailer drivers (GetCDLTexas.com, citing BLS OEWS, 2025).

Delivery truck drivers and driver/sales workers. BLS publishes a combined median annual pay figure for this occupational group (2025) plus a separate median annual wage for driver/sales workers (2025). Driver/sales roles add selling or account service to the driving, and part of the earnings can be commission or incentive based — compare total compensation, not base pay alone.

All occupations. BLS publishes a median annual wage across all occupations nationally (2025) as a benchmark, and the heavy and tractor-trailer median sits above it; Nuecareer.com, citing BLS OEWS May 2025 data, states how far above as a percentage. That comparison matters because of the entry route: BLS (2024) lists the typical entry-level education and training for the occupation, and it does not include a four-year degree.

Put all four medians side by side in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. The pattern is consistent — the Class A tractor-trailer median sits above the light truck and delivery/driver-sales medians, and all of them sit inside a wide percentile range, so the job title alone does not determine what you earn.