Driver Pay

Truck Driver Salary by State, Ranked From the Newest Federal Data Washington pays heavy truck drivers more than any other state in the lower 48. Its average was $68,230 a year in the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for May 2025, the newest federal numbers available this fall. Louisiana came last at $51,930. So…

Truck Driver Pay Increases in 2026 and How to Judge the New Offers On September 7, 2026, Anderson Trucking Service moved its regional company van drivers from 60 to 70 cents a mile. That 16.7% truck driver pay increase is one of the largest in the St. Cloud, Minnesota, carrier’s history, and it landed in…

Trucking Company Bankruptcy and What a Driver Does in the First 24 Hours You’re 900 miles from home with a loaded reefer when dispatch sends two words: park it. That is how a trucking company bankruptcy usually reaches a driver. This fall it reaches more of them. FreightWaves counted at least 16 carriers and other…

Lease Purchase Trucking and the Real Math Before You Sign for a Truck Lease purchase trucking is sold as the shortcut to “your own truck”: no bank, no credit check, start next week. But in January 2025 a federal Truck Leasing Task Force told Congress that carrier lease-purchase programs should be banned, estimating that 90%…

Is Truck Driving Worth It in 2026? An Honest Answer From the Road Is truck driving worth it? For three years the honest answer was “maybe, if you can ride out a bad market.” As of September 2026 the picture has changed. The Cass Freight Index just posted its first year-over-year shipment gain since January…

Record Diesel Prices Truck Drivers Face. Who Pays and How Much On September 21, 2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) put the national average for on-highway diesel at $6.529 a gallon, the highest weekly reading in its records and about 74% above the $3.749 of a year earlier. California averaged $8.246. These are the…

Practical Miles vs Household Miles — Which Miles Actually Get Paid? Two recruiters offer the same cents per mile; one driver goes home with $250 more a week on the same truck, same lanes, same odometer. The difference is a question most drivers never ask before signing. Which miles are you counting? Below: household goods…

Truck driver expenses on the road, and where the money actually leaks Two drivers earn the same paycheck. One brings $500 a week home in cash that the other one leaves at truck stops, same miles, same freight, different habits. Here is an honest map of road expenses in 2026: what things cost, which costs…

Team truck driving splits the pay and doubles the miles A team truck barely stops. While one driver sleeps, the other drives, and the urgent freight that can’t afford to sit still rides with them, at premium miles. Team driving is the highest-mileage job in trucking. It is also the fastest way to find out…

What Is OTR Trucking? Pay, Home Time and Real Life on the Road OTR is where trucking money actually lives, and also where the myths do. Over-the-road driving in 2026 comes down to three things: how the schedule works, what you’ll earn, and how to tell a solid OTR job from a burnout machine. Short…