What truck drivers earn in North Carolina: 2026 pay by city

The short version

Half of North Carolina's heavy and tractor-trailer drivers earned more than $51,530 in May 2025, and half earned less. That works out to $24.77 an hour. [1]

The U.S. median for the same job was $58,640, so the typical NC driver made about $7,100 less than the typical driver nationwide. [1][2]

Pay is highest in the Triad, Hickory and Charlotte areas and lowest around Jacksonville and Goldsboro. No NC metro area reached the national median. [3]

These are the newest official numbers, from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics survey released in 2026. They count company drivers on payroll, not owner-operators. [3][4]

Tractor-trailer pay in North Carolina

BLS counted 62,400 heavy and tractor-trailer drivers on NC payrolls in May 2025. The average (mean) pay was $55,810 a year, or $26.83 an hour. [1]

The spread is wide. The lowest-paid 10% earned under $39,400 a year, and the top 10% earned more than $76,360. [1]

The middle half of NC drivers earned between $46,320 and $62,640. That range is a fair reality check when you compare job offers. [1]

Nationally, the middle half ran from $47,960 to $69,120, and the top 10% earned more than $79,380. The gap with NC widens toward the top of the scale. [2]

By our count from the BLS state tables, NC had the 10th most heavy truck drivers of any state but ranked 45th of 50 in median pay. [3]

Neighbors mostly pay more. Median pay was $58,620 in Tennessee, $57,050 in Georgia and $56,860 in Virginia. South Carolina was close to NC at $51,130. [3]

BLS lists median national pay by industry, too. Drivers working for trucking companies earned $60,320, versus $58,550 in wholesale trade and $56,570 in manufacturing. [4]

Which NC cities pay the most

Greensboro-High Point had the highest median for heavy truck drivers in May 2025 at $58,480, with 6,480 jobs. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton was next at $57,460. [3]

Burlington's median was $56,290, and its top 10% earned more than $94,000, the highest of any NC area. It's a small market, with about 1,020 jobs. [3]

Greensboro-High Point's top 10% earned more than $80,560. Rocky Mount had a low median but a wide spread, with its top 10% above $84,510. [3]

The Charlotte metro, which includes South Carolina counties, had the most jobs at 18,700 and a median of $56,120. [3]

Raleigh-Cary paid a median of $52,110 across 7,210 jobs. Durham-Chapel Hill was at $53,280, Asheville $51,750 and Winston-Salem $51,320. [3]

In Raleigh, the middle half of drivers earned $46,590 to $61,570. In Asheville it was $47,210 to $63,840, so the spread matters as much as the median. [3]

Down east, medians ran lower: Fayetteville $49,980, Greenville $48,980, Wilmington $48,850, Rocky Mount $48,090 and Goldsboro $47,140. Jacksonville was lowest at $45,640. [3]

Rural NC fell in between. BLS put the median at $49,460 in its western nonmetro area, $49,080 in the central one and $48,210 in the eastern one. [3]

Greensboro-High Point and Hickory also have more truck driving jobs per worker than the U.S. as a whole. Small-area numbers carry more sampling error, so treat them as rough. [3]

Box truck and route drivers

Light truck drivers, a BLS group that covers many local delivery jobs, earned a median of $39,910 in NC in May 2025. There were 31,810 of them. [1]

The U.S. median for light truck drivers was $44,860. In NC, the Charlotte area paid the most among larger metros, with a $42,860 median. [3]

Other NC light truck medians included $40,980 in Asheville, $40,730 in Durham-Chapel Hill, $40,650 in Greensboro-High Point and $39,840 in Raleigh-Cary. [3]

Driver/sales workers, who sell or take orders on a route as well as drive, earned a median of $36,540 in NC, across about 14,530 jobs. [1]

BLS's estimates for driver/sales workers in individual NC metros have high sampling error, so we've left those out. [3]

Job outlook

State projections expect NC heavy truck driving jobs to grow 5%, from 69,590 in 2024 to 72,860 in 2034. That means about 7,470 openings a year, most of them replacing drivers who leave. [5]

Nationally, BLS projects 4% growth from 2025 to 2035, with about 214,500 openings a year. [4]

The job counts here are higher than the pay survey's 62,400 because the projections include self-employed drivers. Use the pay survey for wages and the projections for outlook. [1][5]

How drivers get paid

BLS says most long-haul drivers are paid by the mile, plus bonuses. The rate depends on the employer, the cargo and the driver's experience. [4]

Some long-distance drivers, especially owner-operators, get a share of the revenue from each load instead. [4]

BLS also notes long-haul drivers can be away for days or weeks and often work nights, weekends and holidays. Weigh that when comparing a regional or local job. [4]

For leased owner-operators, federal rules say the lease must state the pay clearly before any trip. It can be a percentage of revenue, a flat rate per mile, a rate by direction or commodity, or another method. [6]

A driver paid a percentage is entitled to a copy of the rated freight bill, so you can check the math. [6]

We found no official source for typical NC cents-per-mile rates or how many local drivers are paid by the hour, so we don't quote any. Ask each carrier for its pay plan in writing. [4]

Overtime and minimum wage

Federal overtime pay doesn't apply to employees whose qualifications and hours the U.S. Department of Transportation can regulate. That covers most drivers in interstate commerce. [7]

The Labor Department says the exemption also reaches helpers, loaders and mechanics whose work affects truck safety. Dispatchers and office staff aren't covered by it. [8]

Drivers of vehicles at 10,000 pounds or less can still be owed overtime under the small vehicle exception. [8]

The Labor Department says a driver who could reasonably be expected to make interstate trips stays under DOT rules for a four-month period. [8]

North Carolina's own overtime law also leaves out drivers, helpers, loaders and mechanics as the federal law defines them. [9]

The overtime exemption doesn't remove the federal minimum wage. NC's minimum is $7.25 an hour, matching the federal rate. [7][10][11]

Our reading: on a slow week, a per-mile driver's pay should still work out to at least minimum wage for the hours worked. If it doesn't, ask the NC Department of Labor. [7][10]

Per diem and meal costs

The IRS's special meal rate for the transportation industry is $80 a day anywhere in the lower 48 and $86 outside it, starting Oct. 1, 2026. That's the same as last year. [12][13]

The IRS defines the transportation industry as work moving people or goods by truck and similar ways that regularly takes you away from home. [13]

Meals eaten while you're under DOT hours-of-service limits are 80% deductible, instead of the usual 50%. [14]

Company drivers on a W-2 generally can't deduct unreimbursed travel costs on their own returns under current law. Self-employed owner-operators can. Check with a tax pro. [13]

What it costs to run a truck

OEWS doesn't count owner-operators, so their earnings come down to revenue minus costs. ATRI's 2026 report put the average cost of running a truck in 2025 at $2.336 a mile, a record. [4][15]

Without fuel, the cost was $1.854 a mile. Tolls, repairs, driver benefits and tires rose fastest. [15]

ATRI found driver pay rose less than inflation for the second year in a row. Trade coverage of the report put average driver wages at 81.8 cents a mile in 2025. [15][16]

Margins were thin. Truckload and refrigerated carriers averaged under 1%, and flatbed carriers lost money. These are national fleet averages, not NC figures. [15]

ATRI also found carriers cut their truck counts by 2.4% in 2025, with another 10% of trucks sitting unseated on average. [15]

Waiting at docks costs drivers, too. A 2018 DOT Inspector General report estimated detention cut for-hire truckload drivers' pay by $1,281 to $1,534 a year each. That data is now dated. [17]

The same report found that 15 more minutes of average dwell time raised the expected crash rate by 6.2%. [17]