Truck driver salary calculator: what a pay offer works out to
Pick a job type, choose how the job pays, and enter the miles, hours, extras and weeks you'll work. The pay stub shows the week, the year and the pay per on-duty hour, with the national median for comparison.
Stop pay, detention, bonuses
52 minus home time
Before taxes and deductions. Company drivers usually have taxes withheld; owner-operators and contractors pay their own.
Median annual wage for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, May 2025: BLS (checked 2026-10-10). Half earned more, half less.
$76,800 a year on these numbers. Thinking about running your own authority instead? Our dispatchers find the loads, and you approve every one.
Run my own authority with a dispatcherA truck driving pay offer can be quoted in cents per mile, a percentage of the load, or an hourly rate, and each one hides a different question. This truck driver salary calculator turns any of them into the same three numbers: what the week pays, what the year pays, and what you earn per hour on duty. The ruler puts the year next to the national median, so you can see where an offer sits.
How it is calculated
- Per mile: base = miles per week × cents per mile.
- Percentage: base = weekly load revenue × your percentage.
- Hourly: base = paid hours × hourly rate.
- Weekly pay = base + extras (stop pay, detention, bonuses).
- Yearly pay = weekly pay × weeks worked. Weeks worked = 52 minus home time and time off.
- Per on-duty hour = weekly pay ÷ on-duty hours, including loading, waiting and inspections, not just driving.
The national benchmark
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $58,640 for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers in May 2025. It's a median across many kinds of jobs and regions, so it's a reference point, not a target.
Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, checked October 2026
A worked example
An OTR offerExample
- BASE2,500 mi × 60¢ = $1,500.00 a week
- EXTRAS$100 in stop pay and detention
- WEEK$1,600.00
- YEAR48 weeks × $1,600 = $76,800
- PER HOUR$1,600 ÷ 60 on-duty hours = $26.67
These are EXAMPLE numbers, not a typical offer. Put in the offer you're weighing.
How to read the result
Look at the per-hour figure as hard as the yearly one. An offer with high miles and long waits can pay well per year and poorly per hour. Then check the weeks: a job with more home time may pay less per year and still be the better deal for you. When you compare two offers, put each in with its own miles, hours, extras and weeks, and save each with the copy link. Then compare them side by side before you call the recruiter back.
Questions to ask about a pay offer
- Which miles are paid? Practical miles, shortest-route miles, or something else.
- What extras are paid, and when? Stop pay, detention after how many hours, layover, breakdown pay.
- What's deducted? For percentage and lease pay especially, what comes off before you're paid.
- How many miles a week, really? Ask drivers on the same lanes, not just the recruiter.
- Home time. How often, and is it promised in writing or "as available"?
Waiting time is where many offers fall short. Our guide to layover pay in trucking explains what to ask for. For which equipment fits which work, see freight truck sizes.
Truck driver salary by pay model
Per-mile pay rewards miles, so it pays best on long, steady runs and worst on days of waiting. Hourly pay covers the waiting but caps the upside on a fast day. Percentage pay tracks the freight market: strong weeks pay more, slow ones less. None is better in every case. Run the same typical week through each model with the calculator: if an hourly offer beats a per-mile one on your real hours, that tells you more than any average. And remember the pay stub is gross: company drivers usually have taxes withheld, while contractors set their own aside.
From driver to owner-operator
A driver's pay is a business's cost. If you're weighing your own authority, the trucking cost per mile calculator shows what the truck costs to run, and the truck depreciation calculator what it loses in value per mile.
If you run your own authority, the loads are yours to choose. Our dump truck dispatch team, like every desk here, finds the loads and counters the rates, and you approve every load. Send an application.