Transport and logistics
What does a Delivery Driver do?
Getting people and goods where they need to be, on time and in one piece.
What the day is like
- Outside, in the weather.
- Tools, materials, your body.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $43,950 a year, median
- Delivery Truck Drivers and Driver/Sales Workers, May 2025
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Weeks to months. Most people can start from where they are.
- Jobs
- +7% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing
What is good about it
- You can be earning at it within months rather than after years of training.
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
- You can see what you did at the end of the day.
What people find hard about it
- Time pressure per drop
- Weather and parking
- Lifting all day
Routes are tracked to the minute, so the pace is set by software.
Will machines take this job?
What machines will do to this work. Routing and scheduling are heavily automated; responsibility for a vehicle, a load and a schedule stays with a person.
How to find out whether it suits you
Do a day with a driver and count the drops; ask what happens when they run late.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.