The Datum Report

Occupation 8221 · Process, plant and machine operatives

Crane drivers

Half of full-time crane drivers in the UK earn more than £46,463 a year, and half earn less.

Crane drivers supervise and undertake the operation of cranes, jib cranes, power driven hoisting machinery and power driven stationary engines to raise and lower mine and other cages, and to lift and move equipment, materials, machinery and containers.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic entry requirements, though GCSEs/S grades are advantageous. Entry is typically through an apprenticeship programme or college course in conjunction with on-the-job training, leading to a NVQ/SVQ level 2/3 qualification, or through building up work experience operating other heavy machinery supplemented with short courses. Operators are required to hold a Construction Plant Competence Scheme (CPCS) card owned and administered by the National Open College Network (NOCN) group, demonstrating basic skills and safety awareness.

What the work involves

• gives signals for movement of cage carrying workers/equipment
• starts crane or engine motor and checks that cables run freely and that brakes and drum(s) are working
• manipulates levers, switches and pedals to rotate jibs into position and turns winding drum to raise or lower hook, bucket or other holding equipment
• lifts load or cage, or hauls object into required position and lowers or positions for ground workers to detach, unload or load
• watches control panel for warning lights and indications of wind speed and direction and carrying capacity of crane
• oils and greases machine and checks ropes

Also called

Crane driver · Crane operator · Haulage engine driver · Grab driver · Winchman

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for crane drivers, 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. 4 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

Fork-lift truck drivers · Mobile machine drivers and operatives n.e.c.