The role of a Truck Driver is both essential and highly rewarding. With the growing demand for efficient logistics and timely delivery of goods, skilled truck drivers are in constant demand. Whether transporting goods for major supply chains in London, supporting regional distribution networks in Manchester, or ensuring timely deliveries for businesses in Edinburgh, professionals in this field enjoy strong career prospects and the opportunity to make a significant impact by keeping supply chains running smoothly and contributing to the economy’s backbone.
Truck Driver salary
Base pay £25K – £32K/yr
£28K/yr average base pay
The estimated total pay for a Truck Driver is £30,655 per year, with an average salary of £28,369 per year. This number represents the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from our proprietary Total Pay Estimate model and based on salaries collected from our users. The estimated additional pay is £2,286 per year. Additional pay could include cash bonus, commission, tips, and profit sharing.
What do Truck Driver earn
How much does a Truck Driver make in United Kingdom?
£40,432/yr
Highest paying cities for Truck Driver near United Kingdom
- Warrington
£41,752 per year1.7k salaries reported - Southampton
£41,654 per year1.4k salaries reported - Bristol
£41,056 per year2k salaries reported - Manchester
£39,917 per year1.5k salaries reported - Swindon
£39,293 per year716 salaries reported - Nottingham
£38,893 per year1k salaries reported - Glasgow
£38,680 per year852 salaries reported - Bridgend
£38,554 per year140 salaries reported - Newcastle upon Tyne
£37,936 per year320 salaries reported
What’s on Quora?
Do truck drivers in the United Kingdom really make an income of approximately 120 thousand sterling pounds annually?
Not even close. The most I’ve known a lorry driver to earn was around 75 thousand. They delivered oxygen to hospitals, so pretty specialised work. They worked the maximum legal hours and worked weekends, bank Holidays and Christmas.
Car transporters come close, but I believe they rely on bonuses to bump their wages up. And of course fuel tankers pay well, but again, you need to max your hours to earn the big money.
I’m on general haulage and working 70-80 hours per week makes me about 50-55k per year. Sounds a lot, but its double the average working week.
Top Answer
I am a former computer engineer, web developer, and now over the road driver. After a string of layoffs and company downsizing I decided to leave the tech field and move to driving a truck. I was single, could sell my home at a high market price, and get paid to drive the highways… Sounded amazing. I went to school at SAGE truck driving school in Grand Junction while living with my parents while my house in Denver Colorado was on the market selling. I graduated from their training after about 2 or 3 months, cant remember, with a Colorado class A CDL I studied on my own for the tanker endorsement as well as double and triple endorsement. I took those with my permit and still have them. I then studied for my hazmat endorsement while I was getting my actual license. I passed all of those tests as well when I got my actual license. So in the end I had all endorsements with the lone exception of passenger, meaning I couldnt drive a bus… I researched companies that were going to hire without experience and offer me some good benefits while being on the road. Looked for places that had terminals in cities I’d like to visit lol. I didnt know what to really expect lol.
So I decided on Werner as they offered newer company trucks all are within 3 years old. And they had a wide range of terminals in parts of the country. They also didnt require New York dispatching, heard it’s a mess with a truck and trailer lol.
Werner said they would pay for a bus ticket to denver where they had a terminal. I thought perfect I will check on my house, had a few offers and we were waiting on their finance to come through. So free trip there also was great. I went there for their new hire orientation. They put me up in the La Quienta, spelling check, with others. I grabbed an uber from the bus station to my home to go spend the night and check on it for a little. First day of orientation I got an uber to the terminal and checked in early, was there at 6am lol supposed to be 7. While there I started getting to know the older drivers. Checked in with the rest of the people. The werner employee was a little peeved I didnt check in at the hotel. Told them what I did and that I’d be back at the hotel going forward.
I was at the terminal for a week with orientation and got one of the first drivers heading out for training.
Training was paid at 500 a week, less deductions and taxes. Those were the smallest checks I had received ever. I got paid weekly and it was around 350 to 400 depending upon the week and what came out that week.
I was expected to drive when the trainer wasnt and was expected to log observation hours watching the trainer drive, and to keep a log of backing up a trailer, everywhere I backed up what kind of backing, date, time and trainer was to initial them indicating successful ones or what not.
After my 2 to 3 months with a trainer, he was off a ton lol. I was sent to a terminal. I was stoked it was Denver again as my house sold and I was picking up a nice check.
I got a 1 year old freightliner cascadia. It had some issues on it and had 150k miles lol. I checked all permits and damage. There was some major stuff. I’ll gladly tell you about it lol. And I set out for my first assignment.
First assignments, I was on a truck during july 4th weekend so dispatch was slow and it was a holiday. Weekend dispatch asked if I’d be ok helping in Denver doing local drop and hook deliveries at some stores. I said yeah sounds good. I was assigned to help walmart distribution center delivering trailers to stores in the metro area. Pay was 1200 a week base, plus miles, plus 75 per trailer delivered. I was like heck yea… I spent 2 weeks doing it made 1500 after taxes and deductions first week and 1700 second week. Was told they didnt need Werner drivers on it after the second week and to report to my normal dispatcher.
Training dispatcher, after that I was assigned a dispatcher given a name, number, and assigned first load. It was pretty easy to figure out. I never took home time or any time off the first three months. My time off was when I was stopped for the 10 hours or so each rest break. Those weeks I was bringing in 800 to 1100 after taxes and deductions. I took some time off in las Vegas, in Portland, in Florida, Texas. It was hard as I wasnt getting paid but heck a day or two in those places was fun and a good break. When I was off for two or three days the check would go down to 500 ish assuming I cracked out the miles before or after the time off.
Those are as a solo driver right after school with a large company.
Now I am a local guy in a mountain town in Colorado, I love Colorado, making much more lol.
If you are a single guy with nothing to tie you down and can drive 50 to 52 weeks a year you can easily clear 50k. No bills you can stack that money up. I didnt spend money on a mortgage or rent my car was paid for so all I made was mine to save or spend lol.
Money going out as a driver… truck stops are expensive, like eating at a gas station lol. But as a driver you earn points on your rewards card, you will easily be able to get showers everyday or as often as you want. You can also use the points for food at most. Anything with the truck is paid for by the company, wipers, fuel, oil, tires, maintenance, lights, straps, load bars… all paid for. I had to buy food, clothes, tools (they give a cheap set with some), and that’s really it. I bought protein shakes, a small fridge, an inverter, two gps, an atlas, cb, ham radio, nicer mattress. VR goggles, gaming laptop, leaf blower (battery operated), lots of gloves, coveralls (chaining up so easy), sets of chains (get your own and keep them nice), tire socks (like chains but easier lol), lots of pens, lots of clip boards, boots (vibram ice grip sole), shoes (same sole from vibram, and an oil resistant sole pair), trash basket or 5 gal bucket. Lots of bags for trash and other stuff, sticky notes, a pocket scanner (color). Those are the first purchases I made they were followed with some other not so needed ones.
