---
title: "Driver/Sales Worker"
description: "Drive truck or other vehicle over established routes or within an established territory and sell or deliver goods, such as food products, including…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/driver-sales-worker"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Driver/Sales Worker

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-3031 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-3031.00

Drive truck or other vehicle over established routes or within an established territory and sell or deliver goods, such as food products, including restaurant take-out items, or pick up or deliver items such as commercial laundry. May also take orders, collect payment, or stock merchandise at point of delivery.

Also advertised as: Delivery Man; Driver; Driver Salesman; Pizza Delivery Driver; Route Delivery Driver; Route Driver; Route Sales Driver; Route Sales Representative.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $38,770 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $18.64/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $22,590 to $59,980, with the middle half between $30,200 and $49,000
- **Total US employment:** 409,180
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +8.8% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 51,300 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 52/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 409,180 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $22,590 |
| 25th | $30,200 |
| 50th (median) | $38,770 |
| 75th | $49,000 |
| 90th | $59,980 |
| Mean (average) | $40,730 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| AK | $48,420 | $47,304 | 1,270 |
| IA | $47,120 | $53,691 | 4,400 |
| MA | $46,870 | $44,319 | 3,830 |
| VT | $46,300 | $47,265 | 510 |
| CA | $45,600 | $41,185 | 34,480 |
| SD | $45,050 | $50,855 | 1,050 |
| NJ | $44,720 | $41,101 | 9,720 |
| CO | $43,420 | $42,134 | 10,790 |
| KS | $43,180 | $47,942 | 1,950 |
| NY | $42,730 | $39,594 | 18,990 |
| TN | $42,220 | $45,956 | 9,620 |
| DC | $41,600 | $37,852 | 1,020 |
| WA | $41,570 | $38,846 | 5,890 |
| NH | $41,520 | $39,860 | 1,990 |
| OR | $41,080 | $39,744 | 5,210 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/driver-sales-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/driver-sales-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 451,500 in the 2024–2034 base year to 491,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 39,800 jobs, or +8.8%. Much faster than average: 8.8% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 51,300 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 64.0% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 35.5% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.4% |

## What the work involves

- Drive trucks to deliver such items as food, medical supplies, or newspapers.
- Listen to and resolve customers' complaints regarding products or services.
- Record sales or delivery information on daily sales or delivery record.
- Inform regular customers of new products or services and price changes.
- Collect money from customers, make change, and record transactions on customer receipts.
- Maintain trucks and food-dispensing equipment and clean inside of machines that dispense food or beverages.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Food Production — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.34 |
| C — Conventional | 4.67 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.67 |
| S — Social | 2.43 |
| I — Investigative | 1.00 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 86.0 |
| ISTJ | 82.0 |
| ISFJ | 77.8 |
| ESFJ | 75.0 |
| ESTP | 63.4 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Light Truck Driver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/light-truck-driver) — median $44,860
- [Shipping, Receiving, and Inventory Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shipping-receiving-and-inventory-clerk) — median $45,260
- [Door-to-Door Sales Worker, News and Street Vendor, and Related Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/door-to-door-sales-worker-news-and-street-vendor-and-related-worker) — median $41,380
- [Counter and Rental Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/counter-and-rental-clerk) — median $41,300
- [Courier and Messenger](https://nuecareer.com/careers/courier-and-messenger) — median $39,200
- [Stocker and Order Filler](https://nuecareer.com/careers/stocker-and-order-filler) — median $37,330
- [Buyer and Purchasing Agent, Farm Products](https://nuecareer.com/careers/buyer-and-purchasing-agent-farm-products) — median $77,710
- [Truck Driver](https://nuecareer.com/careers/truck-driver) — median $58,640
- [Dispatcher](https://nuecareer.com/careers/dispatcher) — median $50,340
- [Postal Service Mail Carrier](https://nuecareer.com/careers/postal-service-mail-carrier) — median $60,550

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/driver-sales-worker