Lift drivers are an essential part of the transport department when it comes to a warehouse. You need them to move heavy loads across places, and the process of moving piles of goods can be jammed in their absence. They also play a vital role in loading and unloading of goods.
Talking about their responsibilities, they maintain and repair the machines so that they can continue to operate optimally and efficiently. In addition to loading and unloading products, they also run various warehouse machines. Keeping track of distribution trucks, shipment information, and order details is also a part of their job.
They typically earn around $13.62 an hour during their eight hour work shifts. They are well organized and possess top-notch time management and communication skills to follow strict production schedules and perform rough and challenging tasks. You will generally find them working in warehouses, industrial firms, or shipping companies.
What is a Lift Driver?
What Does a Lift Driver Do
There are certain skills that many lift 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 alertness, communication skills and coordination.
How To Become a Lift Driver
If you're interested in becoming a lift driver, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 9.0% of lift drivers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 0.7% of lift drivers have master's degrees. Even though some lift drivers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Lift 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 forklift operator you might progress to a role such as technician eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title operations manager.
Average Salary for a Lift Driver
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Lift Driver
There are several types of lift driver, including:
Driver
Role:
Almost anyone can drive a car, but not everyone gets paid for it. Drivers are responsible for everything from driving customers from point A to point B, to delivering packages to clients, you have a range of what exactly you want to be driving. If you're going to be delivering packages, you'll want to build up your upper body strength in case you have to lift heavy objects.
As far as driving people around, you might want to brush up on your communication skills, either that or blast your music during the ride. Some drivers are especially helpful to tourists who are curious about the area. In these instances, your favorite restaurant or activity might come in useful.
The hours you'll work as a driver can range dramatically. Your work schedule will depend on who you're working for and if you're able to set your own hours. There are some companies where you'll work 60 hours in 7 days, but other companies will only require 40 hours. If there's anything to take away from being a driver, it's that the job is nothing less than interesting.
- Average Salary: $34,771
- Degree: High School Diploma
Forklift Operator
Role:
As a forklift operator, the majority of your time will be spent riding around on a forklift. You'll use it to move objects around so, unfortunately, there will be no time for any funny business. In fact, you'll probably need to follow some safety rules to ensure no one gets hurt.
There really aren't any formal education requirements, but you will probably need to be trained on how to operate the machine. Since products and materials are shipped at all times, you may need to stay late or even work an overnight shift from time to time.
And you better believe you'll get some overtime hours from being a forklift operator, which will be a nice little surprise when it's payday. Plus, did we mention you get to drive a forklift around. Sure, you have to be careful moving objects and trying to avoid running over your co-workers but, hey, at least you get to drive a forklift.
- Average Salary: $34,213
- Degree: High School Diploma
Material Handler
Role:
Material handlers, well, they handle materials. But you probably already knew that. Generally, the handling portion extends to moving, shelving, loading and unloading said materials. The materials can vary depending on what industry you're working in.
Materials aren't just shipped on a 9-5 schedule. The materials will arrive at any time of the day or night. So you may need to be prepared to work some overnight shifts. As a material handler, the only requirement to the job is being able to physically perform your job duties. So as long as you can do that, you won't have any problems handling material.
- Average Salary: $33,215
- Degree: High School Diploma
States With The Most Lift Driver Jobs
Mouse over a state to see the number of active lift driver jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where lift drivers earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.
Number Of Lift Driver Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 2,700 | $36,208 |
| 2 | Texas | 1,608 | $33,146 |
| 3 | Florida | 1,436 | $31,183 |
| 4 | Pennsylvania | 1,429 | $35,871 |
| 5 | Georgia | 1,333 | $31,335 |
| 6 | Illinois | 1,285 | $34,937 |
| 7 | Ohio | 1,188 | $33,070 |
| 8 | North Carolina | 1,086 | $30,365 |
| 9 | New York | 923 | $36,506 |
| 10 | Tennessee | 911 | $30,567 |
| 11 | Indiana | 879 | $32,940 |
| 12 | Massachusetts | 806 | $35,809 |
| 13 | Michigan | 790 | $33,536 |
| 14 | Virginia | 776 | $34,836 |
| 15 | Wisconsin | 726 | $34,808 |
| 16 | New Jersey | 725 | $33,573 |
| 17 | Maryland | 655 | $34,538 |
| 18 | South Carolina | 601 | $30,776 |
| 19 | Minnesota | 584 | $39,872 |
| 20 | Missouri | 544 | $32,381 |
| 21 | Washington | 466 | $37,757 |
| 22 | Kentucky | 453 | $32,140 |
| 23 | Arizona | 445 | $32,627 |
| 24 | Alabama | 439 | $29,127 |
| 25 | Iowa | 410 | $33,368 |
| 26 | Mississippi | 407 | $29,723 |
| 27 | Connecticut | 384 | $33,250 |
| 28 | Oregon | 365 | $36,228 |
| 29 | Colorado | 341 | $36,238 |
| 30 | Louisiana | 337 | $30,868 |
| 31 | Kansas | 331 | $34,190 |
| 32 | Utah | 294 | $34,471 |
| 33 | Oklahoma | 222 | $31,161 |
| 34 | Arkansas | 221 | $31,391 |
| 35 | Nebraska | 202 | $35,949 |
| 36 | New Hampshire | 196 | $31,980 |
| 37 | West Virginia | 186 | $31,667 |
| 38 | Nevada | 164 | $35,645 |
| 39 | Idaho | 117 | $35,730 |
| 40 | Maine | 114 | $35,568 |
| 41 | Rhode Island | 110 | $37,281 |
| 42 | Vermont | 104 | $31,569 |
| 43 | Delaware | 91 | $34,070 |
| 44 | South Dakota | 70 | $36,446 |
| 45 | Montana | 60 | $36,926 |
| 46 | New Mexico | 60 | $33,505 |
| 47 | North Dakota | 51 | $42,155 |
| 48 | Hawaii | 40 | $37,953 |
| 49 | Alaska | 39 | $41,530 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 14 | $37,299 |
Top Skills For a Lift 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 lift drivers listed fork-lift on their resume, but soft skills such as alertness and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Lift Driver Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Lift Driver templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Lift Driver resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Lift Driver diversity
Lift Driver Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among lift drivers, 12.0% of them are women, while 88.0% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among lift drivers is White, which makes up 59.2% of all lift drivers.
- The most common foreign language among lift drivers is Spanish at 85.3%.
Online Courses For Lift Driver That You May Like
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Best States For a Lift Driver
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lift driver. The best states for people in this position are North Dakota, Alaska, Minnesota, and Hawaii. Lift drivers make the most in North Dakota with an average salary of $42,155. Whereas in Alaska and Minnesota, they would average $41,530 and $39,872, respectively. While lift drivers would only make an average of $37,953 in Hawaii, 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. Pennsylvania
$35,871
Avg. Salary
2. Minnesota
$39,872
Avg. Salary
3. Rhode Island
$37,281
Avg. Salary
How Do Lift Drivers Rate Their Jobs?
Top Lift Driver Employers
Most Common Employers For Lift Driver
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | International Paper | $39,424 | $18.95 | 25 |
| 2 | Tyson Foods | $38,612 | $18.56 | 21 |
| 3 | The Coca-Cola Company | $38,565 | $18.54 | 33 |
| 4 | Georgia-Pacific | $38,209 | $18.37 | 22 |
| 5 | Exel Inc. | $38,177 | $18.35 | 22 |
| 6 | General Motors | $38,049 | $18.29 | 19 |
| 7 | The Home Depot | $37,540 | $18.05 | 67 |
| 8 | Dollar General | $37,440 | $18.00 | 23 |
| 9 | Sears Holdings | $36,945 | $17.76 | 19 |
| 10 | Walmart | $35,166 | $16.91 | 661 |
Lift Driver Videos
