Box truck driver salary: what employee drivers earn, from BLS data

Salary sites quote box truck driver pay from job ads and self-reports, usually without a date. This guide uses the official source instead: the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, pulled from the BLS data service. It covers employee drivers; owner income is a different calculation, covered in box truck owner operator salary.

Which BLS job is a box truck driver?

BLS splits truck drivers by weight. Light truck drivers drive a truck or van with a capacity under 26,001 lb gross vehicle weight, mostly picking up and delivering goods. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers drive trucks of 26,001 lb or more, or combinations, and need a CDL. A non-CDL box truck, including a 26 ft box rated 26,000 lb, is light truck driver work; a box truck rated over that line is heavy truck work, the same line where federal CDL rules start.

SOURCE:O*NET OnLine (U.S. DOL), 53-3033.00, OCT 2026;eCFR, 49 CFR 383.5, OCT 2026

Box truck driver pay, national

SOURCE:BLS OEWS, May 2025 (via BLS public API), OCT 2026;BLS OEWS, May 2025 (via BLS public API), OCT 2026

The CDL line is worth about $13,780 a year at the median.

The full pay range

SOURCE:BLS OEWS, May 2025 (via BLS public API), OCT 2026

The spread is wide: the top 10% earn more than $80,310, over two and a half times the bottom 10%. Overtime, route type, location and the employer drive the difference.

What moves a box truck driver's pay

The BLS figures are wages across all employers, so they blend very different jobs. When comparing offers, look past the hourly rate:

• How you are paid. Hourly, per stop, per route or per day. A per-stop rate can pay well on dense routes and poorly on spread-out ones; convert every offer to an hourly figure for a normal week.
• Overtime. Ask whether hours over 40 are paid at overtime rates, and how many hours a typical week runs.
• The work itself. Multi-stop residential delivery with heavy lifting is harder than dock-to-dock freight; pay should reflect it.
• The truck. Moving up to a truck rated 26,001 lb or more means a CDL and the heavy-driver wage band.
• Location. State medians differ by more than $20,000, as the table below shows.
• Benefits. Health coverage, paid time off and retirement contributions can be worth thousands a year on top of the wage.

Box truck driver pay by state

Highest medians for light truck drivers: Alaska ($57,190), District of Columbia ($49,330), Washington ($49,070), Minnesota ($48,880), Colorado ($48,410). Lowest: Arkansas ($37,080), South Carolina ($37,680), Mississippi ($38,140), Alabama ($38,490), West Virginia ($38,860).

ALL 51 STATES AND DC, MAY 2025

Light truck driver annual median wage and employment by state, BLS OEWS May 2025

Rank	State	Annual median wage	Employment
1	Alaska	$57,190	1,790
2	District of Columbia	$49,330	540
3	Washington	$49,070	23,290
4	Minnesota	$48,880	17,360
5	Colorado	$48,410	15,810
6	Maryland	$48,150	18,420
7	Massachusetts	$48,110	23,350
8	North Dakota	$47,950	1,950
9	Illinois	$47,380	47,190
10	Oregon	$47,150	11,120
11	New Jersey	$46,820	33,900
12	California	$46,790	111,950
13	Montana	$46,420	2,960
14	New York	$46,330	56,490
15	New Hampshire	$46,260	4,670
16	Hawaii	$45,930	3,690
17	Utah	$45,860	9,930
18	Wisconsin	$45,670	19,140
19	Rhode Island	$45,660	3,110
20	Missouri	$45,500	16,210
21	Arizona	$45,140	18,400
22	Vermont	$45,090	2,050
23	Tennessee	$45,050	33,710
24	Indiana	$44,560	19,880
25	Maine	$44,550	3,120
26	Connecticut	$44,500	10,720
27	Idaho	$44,370	7,120
28	Nebraska	$44,120	4,210
29	Pennsylvania	$44,120	42,380
30	Georgia	$44,050	26,050
31	Delaware	$43,990	4,200
32	Wyoming	$43,780	1,450
33	Nevada	$43,760	9,520
34	Kansas	$43,730	9,140
35	South Dakota	$43,240	4,820
36	Kentucky	$43,230	15,630
37	Michigan	$43,000	26,160
38	Iowa	$42,750	9,680
39	Ohio	$42,600	35,130
40	Texas	$42,500	78,540
41	Virginia	$42,450	25,170
42	New Mexico	$42,360	4,220
43	Florida	$41,810	67,390
44	North Carolina	$39,910	31,810
45	Oklahoma	$39,840	10,020
46	Louisiana	$39,440	14,300
47	West Virginia	$38,860	3,330
48	Alabama	$38,490	13,980
49	Mississippi	$38,140	7,030
50	South Carolina	$37,680	11,950
51	Arkansas	$37,080	9,340

Download the state data (CSV)

SOURCE:BLS OEWS, May 2025 (via BLS public API), OCT 2026

What a driver costs an owner

If you hire a driver, the wage is not the whole cost. As an employer you also pay your share of Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) on wages, plus any workers' compensation, unemployment insurance and benefits. Put the full cost into the box truck business profit calculator before hiring.

SOURCE:IRS Topic 751, OCT 2026

Starting out? See how to start a box truck business, how much is a box truck and box truck authority cost.

SOURCE:BLS OEWS, May 2025 (via BLS public API), OCT 2026;BLS OEWS, May 2025 (via BLS public API), OCT 2026;O*NET OnLine (U.S. DOL), 53-3033.00, OCT 2026;eCFR, 49 CFR 383.5, OCT 2026;IRS Topic 751, OCT 2026

Questions box truck owners ask

Q-01How much do box truck drivers make?

The BLS median for light truck drivers, the occupation covering trucks under 26,001 lb GVW, was $44,860 a year in May 2025. Half earned less and half more. The middle half earned between $37,270 and $52,310, and the top 10% earned $80,310 or more.

Q-02How much do box truck drivers make an hour?

The median hourly wage for light truck drivers was $21.57 in May 2025, and the mean was $23.45. Pay varies by state, employer and whether the work includes overtime, loading and unloading, or multi-stop delivery.

Q-03Do CDL box truck drivers make more?

In the BLS data, yes. Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, who drive trucks of 26,001 lb GVW or more and need a CDL, had a median of $58,640 in May 2025, about $13,800 more than light truck drivers. A box truck rated 26,001 lb or more falls in that group.

Q-04Which states pay box truck drivers the most?

For light truck drivers in May 2025, Alaska had the highest median at $57,190, followed by the District of Columbia and Washington. Arkansas, South Carolina and Mississippi had the lowest. The full ranking and a CSV are on this page.