Updated September 2026
What Companies Pay Reefer Drivers in the United States (September 2026)
Through September 2026, Lanefinder benchmarks reefer 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 $1,600/week, the middle half of postings pay $1,300–$2,000, and the 90th percentile sits at $2,890, across 1,564 active postings.
What carriers are paying reefer drivers in the United States
Median weekly pay
$1,600/wk
1,564 active postings · September 2026
Half of the United States postings pay between $1,300 and $2,000 a week; the top carriers (90th percentile) post $2,890. Find where your offer sits on the scale above.
| Hiring type | 25th | Median | 75th | Active postings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company Driver (W2) | $1,200 | $1,400 | $1,625 | 778 |
| Independent Contractor (1099) | $1,500 | $1,850 | $2,350 | 550 |
| Owner Operator | $4,150 | $7,000 | $8,500 | 236 |
Source: Lanefinder index, September 2026
What drives reefer driver pay
Refrigerated pay reflects the added responsibility of temperature-controlled freight: reefer monitoring, tighter delivery windows, and food-safety/load-integrity stakes. Reefer typically benchmarks above dry van, with produce-season demand swings pulling pay higher at peaks.
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 September 2026 distribution, and how the fastest-hiring carriers on Lanefinder structure their offers.
CDL driver pay by segment
- Home time & miles for reefer drivers, the other half of the offer
- How fast carriers respond to reefer drivers, speed wins the hire
- Why steady miles beat top-line CPM, reframing the offer
- All segments: CDL driver pay benchmarks
- Flatbed driver pay
- Dry van driver pay
- Tanker driver pay
- Car carrier driver pay
- Container driver pay
- Dump driver pay
- Hopper bottom driver pay
- Livestock driver pay
- Log driver pay
- Hazmat tanker driver pay
- Pneumatic tanker driver pay
- Curtain van driver pay
- Double drop driver pay
- Step deck driver pay
- Removable gooseneck (RGN) driver pay
- Walking floor driver pay
Where these pay numbers come from
The distribution is built from currently-active job postings. A posting counts as the midpoint of the weekly-pay range it advertises; outliers are removed with a standard interquartile filter, then the 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles are taken by nearest rank. Any slice below 30 postings is withheld: too few ads to call a benchmark. Read the full methodology. Updated September 2026.