The Datum Report

Occupation 8219 · Process, plant and machine operatives

Road transport drivers n.e.c.

Half of full-time road transport drivers n.e.c. in the UK earn more than £32,892 a year, and half earn less.

Job holders in this unit group drive other transport vehicles in roles not classified elsewhere in minor group 821: Road transport drivers.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements. Entrants must possess a clean car driving licence. In order to drive vehicles between 3.5 and 7.5 tonnes, entrants must pass an additional test for a category C1 licence. Minimum age restrictions apply according to the weight of vehicle and whether the driver holds a Driver CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence). NVQs/SVQs in relevant areas and at various levels are available.

What the work involves

• drives vehicle to destination in accordance with schedule
• checks tyres, brakes, lights, oil, water and fuel levels and general condition of the vehicle
• maintains records of journey times, mileage and hours worked
• undertakes minor repairs and notifies supervisor of any mechanical faults

Also called

Driver · Driver-cleaner · Driver-valeter · Recovery driver · Test driver (vehicle mfr)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for road transport drivers n.e.c., full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 11 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Bus and coach drivers · Delivery drivers and couriers · Driving instructors · Heavy and large goods vehicle drivers · Taxi and cab drivers and chauffeurs