What is the median weekly pay for car carrier drivers in the United States?

As of July 2026, the median weekly pay across 46 active car carrier job postings is $1,850. The middle half of postings pay between $1,500 and $2,750 per week.

What do the top-paying carriers offer car carrier drivers?

The 90th percentile of active car carrier postings is $2,900 per week (July 2026). Offers above that beat 9 in 10 competing postings in the United States.

How is the car carrier driver pay benchmark computed?

Each active job posting counts as the midpoint of its advertised weekly-pay range. Outliers are removed with an interquartile filter, percentiles are computed by nearest rank, and segments with fewer than 30 active postings are not published.

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Updated July 2026

What Companies Pay Car Carrier Drivers in the United States (July 2026)

Written by Lanefinder Editorial Team

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Through July 2026, Lanefinder benchmarks car carrier driver pay across the United States as a distribution: median plus the 25th/75th/90th-percentile spread, so carriers can see exactly where a given offer lands. Right now the median is $1,850/week, the middle half of postings pay $1,500–$2,750, and the 90th percentile sits at $2,900, across 46 active postings.

Car carrier driver pay distribution (July 2026)

Median weekly pay

$1,850/wk

46 active postings · July 2026

25th: $1,50075th: $2,75090th: $2,900

Half of the United States postings pay between $1,500 and $2,750 a week; the top carriers (90th percentile) post $2,900. Find where your offer sits on the scale above.

Behind the car carrier pay premium

Car-hauler pay reflects a specialized, equipment-intensive niche: high-value loads, exacting damage standards, and demanding load/unload skill. The narrow operator pool and equipment cost push pay above general freight for experienced haulers.

Benchmark your offer

If applications are slow, pay is the first thing to rule out. Tell us what you're offering and we'll show you where it sits in the July 2026 distribution, and how the fastest-hiring carriers on Lanefinder structure their offers.

Get your pay benchmark

CDL driver pay by segment

The methodology behind the benchmark

Source: active CDL job postings in Lanefinder's index. Per-posting pay is the midpoint of the posted weekly range. We filter outliers with the interquartile method, compute the quartile and 90th-percentile bands by nearest rank, and publish a segment only when at least 30 active postings back it. Read the full methodology. Updated July 2026.