The vast majority of goods that are shipped across the United States are moved by truck. Such a huge industry requires thousands of truck drivers and logistical workers that make sure goods get to where they need to be. A lead driver is one such logistical worker crucial in the shipping industry.
A lead driver probably has prior experience as a truck driver, but their main duties go way beyond driving. They supervise truck drivers and take care of logistical tasks that help truckers do their jobs, such as writing dispatch reports, managing communications, and controlling the accuracy of shipments.
Lead drivers also have an important responsibility to the truckers that they manage. They help train new drivers to follow safety procedures and make sure that all trucks are actually fit for use. Trucking is an important but also dangerous industry, and a lead driver needs to be a highly attentive, safety-oriented person to manage a smooth shipping operation and keep their drivers safe.
Lead Driver Overview
Lead Driver Careers
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a lead driver. For example, did you know that they make an average of $18.68 an hour? That's $38,850 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 5% and produce 99,700 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Lead Driver Do
There are certain skills that many lead drivers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed hand-eye coordination, hearing ability and physical health.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a lead driver, we found that a lot of resumes listed 24.1% of lead drivers included dot, while 9.1% of resumes included cdl, and 8.1% of resumes included company policies. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the lead driver job title. But what industry to start with? Most lead drivers actually find jobs in the transportation and retail industries.
How To Become a Lead Driver
If you're interested in becoming a lead driver, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 15.8% of lead drivers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.4% of lead drivers have master's degrees. Even though some lead drivers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a lead driver. When we researched the most common majors for a lead driver, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on lead driver resumes include associate degree degrees or diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a lead driver. In fact, many lead driver jobs require experience in a role such as driver. Meanwhile, many lead drivers also have previous career experience in roles such as truck driver or delivery driver.
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Lead Driver Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of owner/operator you might progress to a role such as owner/manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title general manager of operations.
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Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Lead Driver
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
HD Supply Lead Driver Lead Driver | HD Supply HD Supply | 03/08/2021 03/08/2021 | $48,00103/08/2021 $48,001 |
Swift Transportation Driver Leader Senior Driver Leader Senior | Swift Transportation Swift Transportation | 01/11/2021 01/11/2021 | $38,00001/11/2021 $38,000 |
AAA Mid-Atlantic Club Fleet Lead Driver Club Fleet Lead Driver | AAA Mid-Atlantic AAA Mid-Atlantic | 12/23/2020 12/23/2020 | $38,61012/23/2020 $38,610 |
Clutter Lead Driver/Mover Lead Driver/Mover | Clutter Clutter | 11/25/2020 11/25/2020 | $41,74011/25/2020 $41,740 |
Granite City Electric Supply Lead Night Driver Cdl-A Lead Night Driver Cdl-A | Granite City Electric Supply Granite City Electric Supply | 11/08/2020 11/08/2020 | $53,21911/08/2020 $53,219 |
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Lead Driver Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Lead Driver. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Lead Driver Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Lead Driver resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Skills For a Lead Driver
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 24.1% of lead drivers listed dot on their resume, but soft skills such as hand-eye coordination and hearing ability are important as well.
- DOT, 24.1%
- CDL, 9.1%
- Company Policies, 8.1%
- Timely Delivery, 6.3%
- New Drivers, 6.2%
- Other Skills, 46.2% See All Lead Driver Skills
Best States For a Lead Driver
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lead driver. The best states for people in this position are Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New York. Lead drivers make the most in Rhode Island with an average salary of $49,716. Whereas in Massachusetts and Minnesota, they would average $49,670 and $49,346, respectively. While lead drivers would only make an average of $46,239 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. North Dakota
$45,108
Avg. Salary
2. Minnesota
$49,346
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$49,716
Avg. Salary
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