Transport and logistics
What does a Lorry Driver do?
Getting people and goods where they need to be, on time and in one piece.
What the day is like
- Largely on your own.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $58,640 a year, median
- Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Postsecondary nondegree award
- Weeks to months. Most people can start from where they are.
- Jobs
- +4% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing slowly
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.
What people find hard about it
- Nights away from home
- Sitting for hours
- Loading delays you cannot control
The licence is quick to get; the lifestyle is what people leave for.
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
Ride along for a full day, including the waiting.
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.