CDL Driver job description
33 verified openings in CDL Driver
The license comes first: this occupation, which BLS names heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, requires a commercial driver's license and covers tractor-trailer combinations and trucks rated at 26,001 pounds gross vehicle weight or more, tow trucks included. That definition matters for the money, because it prices the heavy end of driving rather than light delivery work. BLS measured May 2025 pay at $58,640 a year at the median, the best-paid tenth of drivers earned above $79,380, and the occupation held 2,062,040 jobs nationally.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
Little of the job is only steering. Before a load moves, the paperwork gets checked for completeness, the cargo gets inspected and secured, and the truck's mechanical, safety, and emergency equipment gets confirmed in working order. Drivers couple and uncouple trailers, crank landing gear, maneuver into dock position on a loading crew's signals, and read bills of lading to know the assignment. On the road they keep logs of hours and vehicle condition to state and federal rules, report defects, accidents, and violations, and handle basic upkeep such as adding oil, fuel, or radiator fluid. At delivery there are receipts and signatures to collect, and sometimes payment.
Common Skills and Technologies
The occupation's skill profile is operational and it is not close: operation and control and operations monitoring rate higher than everything else on the list. Running the truck and watching how it runs is the job; reading, troubleshooting, and judgment come a step below, level with each other. The truck is most of the technology, and the categories around it stay practical, route navigation software, logging and time accounting tools, and inventory systems on the freight side; the rest of the list is short: SAP at some employers, plus ordinary Windows office tools.
Education, Training, and Career Path
Formal education barely gates entry, and the survey on hiring requirements says so plainly: a high school diploma for 54 percent of responses, less than a diploma for 26 percent, and a post-high-school training certificate for 19 percent. The CDL is the real gate. O*NET's preparation estimate is a few months to a year working with experienced drivers, sometimes through a recognized apprenticeship, and the titles drivers report, over the road driver, line haul driver, log truck driver, show the routes a career here actually takes.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 53-3032.00 Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/53-3032.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 53-3032, https://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.