Light truck drivers
Also called Delivery driver, Last-mile driver, Local driver, Van driver, Package delivery driver
In brief
In May 2025, BLS counted 983,300 US light truck drivers, with median pay of $44,860 a year. Of the BLS counts since 2021, the highest was 1,059,840, in May 2022. The earliest figure here is an estimate of 100,000 from 1920, not measured the same way as today's count. The last full technology era for light truck drivers: Nuro / Amazon Scout autonomous-delivery pilots, 2021 to 2024. Zero commercial displacement of last-mile delivery workers from autonomous ground vehicles by 2024.
What the sources say
Official outlook
BLS projects employment to grow 6.3% from 2025 to 2035.
AI exposure studies
- 25% of this job's tasks are exposed to large language models. Not a forecast of job losses. Eloundou and others, 2023
- 0.69 estimated probability that the whole occupation could be computerised, over an unspecified number of years. Not a forecast of job losses. Frey and Osborne, 2013
Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. BLS publishes these counts as yearly survey snapshots and cautions against reading them as a precise trend.
Last updated .
Cite this page
Future History. (2026, October 11). Light truck drivers: jobs and pay since 1920 [Data set; data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35]. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/53-3033
Future History. "Light truck drivers: jobs and pay since 1920." Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35. Last modified October 11, 2026. https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/53-3033.
@misc{futurehistory_53_3033, author = {{Future History}}, title = {Light truck drivers: jobs and pay since 1920}, year = {2026}, month = oct, howpublished = {\url{https://futurehistory.earth/timeline/53-3033}}, note = {Last updated 2026-10-11. Data as of BLS OEWS May 2025; BLS Employment Projections 2025-35}, }
The access date is today's date on your device.
≈ $43,710 in 2024 prices (derived by us, CPI-adjusted)
August 28, 1907: Jim Casey borrows $100 from a friend and opens the American Messenger Company in a basement below a Seattle saloon, the founding date of what becomes UPS. Casey is nineteen years old. His messengers are teenagers who deliver telegrams and packages by foot and bicycle. The company's first automobile arrives six years later, a 1913 Ford Model T. In 1919 the company renames itself United Parcel Service and begins expanding to California. This basement is the institutional origin point of the private parcel delivery industry in the United States.
Congress passes legislation creating Parcel Post service in 1912 (signed into law January 1, 1913), removing the prior weight limits on what the US Postal Service could deliver. Three hundred million packages are mailed in the first six months alone. The impact on mail-order retail is immediate: Sears fills five times as many orders in 1913 as the year before; within five years its revenue doubles. Parcel Post makes the home delivery of physical goods via postal carrier economically viable at mass scale for the first time in American history: the original e-commerce infrastructure.
April 17, 1973: Federal Express launches overnight delivery service from Memphis, flying fourteen jets to 25 US cities with 186 packages on the first night. Founder Fred Smith had proposed the hub-and-spoke air delivery concept in a Yale economics paper; the company loses nearly $30 million in its first 26 months before reaching profitability in 1976. FedEx establishes "time-definite delivery", packages with a committed arrival window, as a commercial standard, setting the expectation that would eventually drive the entire e-commerce delivery economy.
UPS deploys the first generation of the Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD): a handheld computer that captures electronic signatures, scans barcodes, and uploads delivery confirmation data in real time. The device saves 59 million pages of paper annually and gives UPS visibility into every package's status at every point in the delivery chain. The DIAD is the first technology to make the driver's handoff at the door a recorded, timestamped, network-connected event rather than a paper transaction. Five subsequent generations of DIAD follow, culminating in a device with GPS navigation, wireless communication, and full barcode scanning by 2012.
UPS begins full deployment of ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation) to 10,000 routes in 2013, with complete rollout by 2016. The algorithm analyzes over 200,000 routing options per driver per day and prioritizes right turns over left to minimize idle time at intersections. By December 2015, ORION has saved UPS more than $320 million; at full deployment it eliminates an estimated 100 million driving miles per year and 100,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions. The project costs $250 million and employs a team of 500 dedicated for the rollout. ORION is the first widespread deployment of operations-research-grade AI to reshape how a light-truck driver spends their day.
Amazon launches the Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program, contracting with thousands of small businesses to handle last-mile delivery at scale. Each DSP company employs 40-100 drivers in Amazon-branded vans; Amazon provides vehicles, routes, and guaranteed volume; the DSP owner is responsible for hiring, HR, and operations. By early 2024, the program has grown to 3,500 DSP companies employing approximately 275,000 drivers globally, delivering more than 20 million packages per day. This is the largest single structural change to the light-truck-driver employment landscape since UPS expanded nationally in the 1970s: a new employment form (DSP worker) that is neither a traditional carrier employee nor a gig-economy contractor.
The COVID-19 pandemic compresses a decade of e-commerce adoption into twelve months. From February to December 2020, the number of couriers and messengers in the US rises 26%: the largest single-year gain of any BLS-tracked occupation category. E-commerce's share of total retail sales jumps from 11% (Q1 2020) to 16% (Q2 2020). Amazon, UPS, and FedEx each add tens of thousands of delivery workers to handle volume that overwhelms existing capacity. The last-mile delivery driver becomes, briefly, an essential worker whose presence at the door is as routine as the mail carrier.
Amazon begins rolling out Rivian EDV 700 electric delivery vans to its DSP fleet: the first purpose-built electric vehicle designed around the last-mile delivery driver's working day: step-in entry, 700 cubic feet of cargo space, ~200 mile range, integrated Alexa voice controls, and deep telematics integration with Amazon's routing and monitoring systems. By July 2024, Rivian has delivered over 15,000 EDVs to Amazon; by end of 2025, approximately 30,000. In 2024, Amazon's Rivian vans deliver over one billion packages in the US. The 100,000-vehicle order is the largest single electric-commercial-vehicle commitment in US history and the clearest signal that the e-commerce delivery economy intends to electrify before it automates.
Will AI replace light truck drivers? What the research says
Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, we show the disagreement rather than an average.
Each figure is stated by the named source; we publish no forecasts of our own. Where sources disagree, the spread is the honest signal.
What's changing day to day for light truck drivers
Three parts of your work where AI is already doing real lifting, and what stays yours.
AI is sitting alongside you hereExecute AI-optimized delivery routes using fleet navigation systems, accepting the day's stop sequence from the carrier's route-optimization platform (UPS ORION, Amazon routing, or third-party fleet software), monitoring real-time traffic alerts and AI-generated route adjustments during the shift, confirming completed stops in the app to trigger automatic next-stop rerouting, and flagging access exceptions (blocked driveways, closed roads) that the algorithm cannot resolve.
Execute AI-optimized delivery routes using fleet navigation systems, accepting the day's stop sequence from the carrier's route-optimization platform (UPS ORION, Amazon routing, or third-party fleet software), monitoring real-time traffic alerts and AI-generated route adjustments during the shift, confirming completed stops in the app to trigger automatic next-stop rerouting, and flagging access exceptions (blocked driveways, closed roads) that the algorithm cannot resolve.[5],[1]
Route optimization AI has transformed navigation from a driver skill into a platform dependency, but the driver who understands why the algorithm made a choice (traffic prediction, stop clustering, time-window constraints) can override it intelligently when ground conditions diverge from model assumptions. Learn to read your carrier's route scoring metrics and build the habit of flagging access exceptions with specific notes; this data feeds back into the algorithm and improves future routing for your territory.
AI is sitting alongside you hereMaintain accurate digital delivery records and proof-of-delivery documentation, capturing GPS-timestamped delivery photos (package placed at door with address visible), obtaining digital signatures for signature-required shipments, logging delivery exceptions (attempt, access failure, refused) with reason codes in the carrier app, and ensuring all POD data syncs to the carrier's tracking system before end of shift so customers receive real-time delivery notifications.
Maintain accurate digital delivery records and proof-of-delivery documentation, capturing GPS-timestamped delivery photos (package placed at door with address visible), obtaining digital signatures for signature-required shipments, logging delivery exceptions (attempt, access failure, refused) with reason codes in the carrier app, and ensuring all POD data syncs to the carrier's tracking system before end of shift so customers receive real-time delivery notifications.[1],[1]
Digital POD has replaced paper manifests almost entirely: carrier apps now auto-capture GPS coordinates with every scan, making fraudulent non-delivery claims traceable by both carriers and customers. The driver's POD habits directly determine their dispute resolution record; a timestamped photo of a delivered package at the correct address closes the vast majority of customer complaints. Build consistent POD discipline regardless of time pressure; the few seconds to take the photo is the cheapest insurance you carry.
AI is sitting alongside you hereRetrieve and stage packages using AI-assisted identification systems, in AI-equipped vans (Amazon VAPR), scanning the stop manifest so the system projects a green indicator on packages for the current stop and red on all others, then physically retrieving and staging flagged packages near the door in delivery order
Retrieve and stage packages using AI-assisted identification systems, in AI-equipped vans (Amazon VAPR), scanning the stop manifest so the system projects a green indicator on packages for the current stop and red on all others, then physically retrieving and staging flagged packages near the door in delivery order; in standard vans, manually sorting the load against the manifest sequence at the start of shift and restaging between clusters of stops.[11],[1]
VAPR and similar vision systems eliminate the package-hunt problem that consumed several minutes per stop on dense routes, but the physical retrieval and sequencing still requires the driver. As these systems expand to more carriers and van types, the differentiating skill shifts from package organization to stop execution speed and accuracy: completing the handoff, capturing proof of delivery (photo + signature), and correctly flagging delivery exceptions. Build consistent POD habits now; they are your record when a customer claims non-delivery.
Where light truck drivers go next
Natural next steps for someone with your foundation: not exits, evolutions.
- Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers
- US median pay
- $107,230 (May 2025)
- BLS outlook 2025-35
- +6.1%
- Bus and Truck Mechanics and Diesel Engine Specialists
- US median pay
- $61,770 (May 2025)
- BLS outlook 2025-35
- +3.6%
- First-Line Supervisors of Material-Moving Machine and Vehicle OperatorsNo timeline for this role yet
- Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers
- US median pay
- $58,640 (May 2025)
- BLS outlook 2025-35
- +3.8%
What each move takes
Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers
Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers are responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating the storage and distribution operations that delivery drivers execute daily. The path from driver to operations manager is long (several years, often through a supervisor role first) but follows a clear arc: driver → dispatcher/supervisor → operations coordinator → operations manager. Drivers who develop working knowledge of route optimization systems, carrier SLA management, fleet cost economics, and DOT compliance have material domain knowledge that non-logistics managers lack. Adding a logistics/supply chain management certification (APICS CSCP, CLTD) and experience with fleet management platforms accelerates the transition significantly for drivers who aspire to the management track.
How has the work of light truck drivers changed since 1896?
The tools that defined the work, one line per era. Select an era to see how it reshaped the work.
Horse-drawn parcel wagon + Rural Free Delivery carrier (foot / bicycle)
The first institutionalized last-mile delivery workers were the Rural Free Delivery carriers established by the US Postal Service in 1896: men who drove horse-drawn wagons or rode bicycles out from small post offices to farmhouses that had never received home mail service before. The Parcel Post Act of 1913 extended what these carriers could deliver: suddenly a farmer could order a coat from Sears, a harness from Montgomery Ward, and a pair of boots, all shipped to the rural route box at the end of the lane. Three hundred million packages moved in the first six months of Parcel Post service. The private equivalent was Jim Casey's American Messenger Company in Seattle: foot messengers and bicycles, borrowed hundred dollars, 1907.
Effect on the workParcel Post created a mass market for home delivery of physical goods for the first time. Sears filled five times as many orders in 1913 as the year prior; the company's revenue doubled over the following five years. The postal carrier route became the first standardized last-mile delivery job in American history.
Ford Model T / TT panel truck: the motorized delivery van
Jim Casey's American Messenger Company took its first automobile delivery vehicle in 1913: a Ford Model T. Ford's Model TT truck (1917) was the first purpose-built commercial truck variant and became the standard delivery vehicle for small parcel operations through the 1920s. Panel-body van configurations, available on T and later A platforms, gave delivery drivers weatherproof cargo space and basic organization for multiple stops. UPS adopted standardized brown package-car bodies (the Pullman-Standard "UPS brown" first appeared in the 1920s) to make their vehicles instantly recognizable: the first systematic use of vehicle branding in delivery. Route drivers for milk, bread, ice, and parcel delivery all drove motorized routes by the 1930s.
Effect on the workMotorized delivery expanded the geographic radius a single driver could cover in a day from a few city blocks to dozens of stops across a wider territory. Dairy route men, bread drivers, and parcel drivers became a significant occupational category in US cities by the 1940s.
Two-way radio dispatch + route manifest (paper)
Post-war delivery operations (UPS, Railway Express Agency, local parcel carriers) coordinated drivers via two-way radio between the terminal and the vehicle, a significant improvement over the phone-based dispatch of the 1930s-40s. Route manifests were printed paper documents listing each stop in sequence; the driver worked from a clipboard. Dispatch centralized at the terminal could redirect a driver mid-route or call for pickup of unexpected volume. This era established the rhythm that delivery drivers would follow for another four decades: depart terminal loaded, work a preset sequence of stops, return, repeat.
FedEx overnight air network: the time-definite delivery standard
When Fred Smith flew fourteen jets out of Memphis on April 17, 1973, carrying more than a hundred packages to many US cities overnight, he did more than launch a company. He established "by 10 a.m. tomorrow" as a delivery standard that would eventually migrate from priority packages to everyday consumer expectations. FedEx's hub-and-spoke model (everything flows through Memphis at night, sorted, and dispatched) became the infrastructure template for every major e-commerce carrier that followed. The local delivery driver who met the customer at the door was still the last link, but the network feeding that driver had become radically faster.
Effect on the workOvernight delivery created a premium tier of the delivery market that supported higher driver wages and better equipment than the slow-parcel tier.
UPS DIAD handheld + electronic signature capture
In 1991, UPS deployed the first generation of the Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD): a ruggedized handheld computer that let drivers capture electronic signatures, scan barcodes, and upload delivery confirmation data in real time via cellular or Wi-Fi networks. The device saved tens of millions of pages of paper per year and gave UPS's operations center real-time visibility of package status across its entire network. Five generations of DIAD followed; by the DIAD V (2012), drivers had GPS navigation, wireless communication, and integrated barcode scanning in a single device worn on a belt holster. The DIAD fundamentally changed what proof-of-delivery meant, from a carbon-copy manifest to a timestamped, geolocated electronic record.
Effect on the workElectronic signature capture and real-time delivery confirmation became the industry standard. The DIAD's data also fed UPS's route optimization systems, eventually informing ORION.
UPS ORION route optimization + Amazon Flex gig app (2015)
UPS deployed ORION (On-Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation) beginning with beta sites in 2012 and full rollout by 2016: an algorithm that analyzes hundreds of thousands of routing options per driver daily to minimize left turns, reduce miles, and improve on-time performance. By 2015, ORION had already saved UPS more than $320 million and was on track to reduce annual miles driven by 100 million once fully deployed. In September 2015, Amazon launched Amazon Flex: a smartphone app that recruited independent contractors to make same-day and Prime Now deliveries using their own vehicles, bypassing the traditional carrier relationship entirely. Flex drivers received delivery blocks through the app and were classified as independent contractors, not employees.
Effect on the workORION reduced average route miles per driver per day, compressing more stops into fewer miles. Amazon Flex introduced gig-economy labor structures to last-mile delivery, creating a category of delivery workers with no benefits, no guaranteed hours, and no vehicle allowance.
Amazon DSP program + Mentor driver-monitoring app
In 2018, Amazon launched the Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program: a model in which Amazon contracted with thousands of small businesses (each employing many drivers) to handle last-mile delivery. DSPs received branded vans, Amazon's routing software, and guaranteed delivery volume; drivers were employees of the DSP company, not Amazon directly. Alongside DSP, Amazon required all DSP drivers to use the Mentor app (developed by eDriving): a telematics platform that scores driver behavior on harsh braking, speeding, seatbelt use, and phone handling, generating a daily "FICO Safe Driving Score." By early 2024, the DSP network had grown to 3,500 contracted companies employing approximately 275,000 drivers globally, delivering over 20 million packages daily.
Effect on the workThe DSP model created a large new category of delivery employment structured outside the traditional carrier (UPS/FedEx) model: lower wages, fewer benefits, no Teamster protection, high algorithmic monitoring.
Nuro / Amazon Scout autonomous-delivery pilots: last-mile autonomy tested but unscaled
Nuro raised a large Series D round in 2021 and piloted autonomous delivery pods in Houston (Domino's, FedEx) and Phoenix (CVS). Amazon separately ran Scout, a six-wheeled electric sidewalk delivery robot, in pilot neighborhoods in Washington, Georgia, and California from 2019-2022. Neither achieved commercial scale. Nuro closed its Houston and Phoenix depots; Amazon ended the Scout program in 2022 after three years of pilots. The reason was consistent: the last-mile environment (pedestrians, driveways, uneven sidewalks, apartment intercoms, package handoff) presented navigational and social challenges far harder than the structured environments where autonomy had succeeded (highway trucking, warehouse robotics). Waymo Via explicitly targeted long-haul, not last-mile, for the same reason.
Effect on the workZero commercial displacement of last-mile delivery workers from autonomous ground vehicles by 2024. The technology remains in research and limited-pilot phase; neither Nuro nor Scout ever replaced a meaningful number of driver-hours in normal commercial operations.
Amazon Rivian electric delivery vans: the zero-emission fleet buildout
Amazon ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian as part of its Climate Pledge (committed to net-zero carbon by 2040). The first Rivian EDV 700, a purpose-built step-in electric delivery van with a 700-cubic-foot cargo area and estimated range, began rolling out to DSP fleets in 2022. By July 2024, Rivian had delivered over 15,000 EDV units to Amazon; by end of 2025, approximately 30,000. In 2024, Amazon's Rivian vans delivered over one billion packages in the US. The EDV is the delivery driver's primary physical workspace in a transitional moment: the van is more software-defined than any previous delivery vehicle, with integrated routing, telematics, and Alexa-voice controls. The driver's relationship with the vehicle is increasingly mediated by the same algorithmic layer as the routing app.
Effect on the workThe electric fleet changeover requires driver training on vehicle operation and charging management but does not reduce headcount. It is an infrastructure change, not a labor substitution. The 100,000-vehicle order represents the most significant single investment in delivery-fleet electrification in US history.
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Browse all rolesLight Truck Drivers employment and pay by year
In other countries
The latest figure each country's statistics agency publishes for this job. Each uses its own occupation definition, survey basis and currency, so the numbers are not directly comparable with each other or with the US figures.
Canada (NOC 75201)
- Employment, 2020
- 90,360, Statistics Canada Census 2021 Official statistic Report an errorStatistics Canada Census of Population 2021: number of persons with employment income in NOC 75201 Delivery service drivers and door-to-door distributors, Canada, reference year 2020. A recipients basis (anyone with employment income during the year), slightly broader than a point-in-time employed count. Statistics Canada Open Licence.
- Median pay, 2020
- C$40,000, Statistics Canada Census 2021 Official statistic Report an errorStatistics Canada Census of Population 2021 (Table 98-10-0586): median employment income for NOC 75201 Delivery service drivers and door-to-door distributors, Canada, reference year 2020, full-year full-time workers (the basis comparable to the US OEWS full-time median). Statistics Canada Open Licence.
United Kingdom (UK SOC 8214)
- Employment, 2025
- 126,000, ONS ASHE 2025 Official statistic Report an errorONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 14): employee jobs in SOC 8214 Delivery drivers and couriers, United Kingdom, 2025 (ASHE "number of jobs", thousands x1000; excludes self-employment). Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Median pay, 2025
- £24,627, ONS ASHE 2025 Official statistic Report an errorONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Table 14.7a): median gross annual pay for all employee jobs in SOC 8214 Delivery drivers and couriers, United Kingdom, 2025. Open Government Licence v3.0.
Australia (ANZSCO 7321)
- Employment, 2025
- 83,300, ABS Labour Force Survey Official statistic Report an errorABS Labour Force Survey (Detailed), table EQ08: employed persons in ANZSCO 7321 Delivery Drivers, national (summed across sex and state/territory), annual average of 4 quarterly estimates.
- Median pay, 2025
- A$68,016, ABS Employee Earnings May 2025 Official statistic Report an errorAnnualised (x52) from A$1,308 median weekly earnings. ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025: median pay for full-time non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate, before tax. Surfaced via the Jobs and Skills Australia occupation profile.
View all 27 years of cited US data, each linked to its source
| Year | US employment | Annual pay (median unless marked) | Source | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1920 | 100,000 | n/a | Est., USPS Researched context | Report |
| 1950 | 400,000 | n/a | Est., UPS Researched context | Report |
| 1980 | 600,000 | $14,000 | Est., FedEx (employment) Researched contextEst., Bureau of Labor Statistics (pay) Researched context | Report |
| 2000 | 800,000 | n/a | Est., Wikipedia Researched context | Report |
| 2003 | 943,840 | $24,090 | BLS OEWS May 2003 Official statistic | Report |
| 2004 | 938,730 | $24,540 | BLS OEWS May 2004 Official statistic | Report |
| 2005 | 938,280 | $24,790 | BLS OEWS May 2005 Official statistic | Report |
| 2006 | 941,590 | $25,300 | BLS OEWS May 2006 Official statistic | Report |
| 2007 | 922,900 | $26,380 | BLS OEWS May 2007 Official statistic | Report |
| 2008 | 908,960 | $27,610 | BLS OEWS May 2008 Official statistic | Report |
| 2009 | 834,780 | $28,330 | BLS OEWS May 2009 Official statistic | Report |
| 2010 | 780,260 | $28,630 | BLS OEWS May 2010 Official statistic | Report |
| 2011 | 771,210 | $29,080 | BLS OEWS May 2011 Official statistic | Report |
| 2012 | 769,010 | $29,390 | BLS OEWS May 2012 Official statistic | Report |
| 2013 | 776,930 | $29,170 | BLS OEWS May 2013 Official statistic | Report |
| 2014 | 797,010 | $29,570 | BLS OEWS May 2014 Official statistic | Report |
| 2015 | 826,510 | $29,850 | BLS OEWS May 2015 Official statistic | Report |
| 2016 | 858,710 | $30,580 | BLS OEWS May 2016 Official statistic | Report |
| 2017 | 877,670 | $31,450 | BLS OEWS May 2017 Official statistic | Report |
| 2018 | 915,310 | $32,810 | BLS OEWS May 2018 Official statistic | Report |
| 2019 | 923,050 | $34,730 | BLS OEWS May 2019 Official statistic | Report |
| 2020 | 929,470 | $37,050 | BLS OEWS May 2020 Official statistic | Report |
| 2021 | 1,010,040 | $38,280 | BLS OEWS May 2021 Official statistic | Report |
| 2022 | 1,059,840 | $40,410 | BLS OEWS May 2022 Official statistic | Report |
| 2023 | 1,003,960 | $42,470 | BLS OEWS May 2023 Official statistic | Report |
| 2024 | 994,410 | $44,140 | BLS OEWS May 2024 Official statistic | Report |
| 2025 | 983,300 | $44,860 | BLS OEWS May 2025 Official statistic | Report |