How much do car haulers make in 2026?

The published numbers

What the salary sites list for car hauler drivers, as of early October 2026:

• ZipRecruiter, car hauler driver: $55,857 a year on average ($26.85 an hour). The middle half earns $37,500 to $72,000; the top 10% $108,500 and up.
• Salary.com, car hauler: $55,612 a year, with the middle half between $50,602 and $62,043.
• Glassdoor, driver/car hauler: $68,499 a year ($33 an hour).
• BLS, all heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers: a median of $58,640 a year (May 2025). The government does not break car haulers out separately.
• ZipRecruiter, hotshot driver: $58,947 a year.
• ZipRecruiter, car hauler owner-operator: $228,575 a year. Read that one carefully: listings for owner-operators quote what the truck brings in, which is much closer to gross revenue than to what the owner takes home. More on that below.

Driver pay is a percentage of the load. Owner pay is whatever the load leaves.

How company car haulers are paid

Most car hauling carriers pay drivers a percentage of the load's gross rather than by the mile. Two car hauling carriers' careers pages we checked on 5 October 2026 both publish 25% of the load. Others pay per mile, per day or a flat amount per load.

On a percentage, the driver's pay moves with the rate, the number of cars and how many loads the dispatcher strings together in a week. Take the load from our worked example: three cars, Kansas City to Denver, $1,400. At 25% the driver earns $350 for the load, about $117 per car, for 620 loaded miles. A full seven-car deck on the same lane pays the driver more for the same miles, which is why drivers care which loads their dispatcher takes.

What owner-operators actually keep

An owner-operator gets the whole rate and pays for everything. The same $1,400 load, worked line by line on our net-profit page:

• Fuel on the loaded leg, counting only this load's share of the trailer: $347.
• Fuel for 140 empty miles to the pickup: $77.
• Driver pay at 28% of gross, if someone else drives: $392.
• Factoring at 3% because the broker pays net 30: $42.

With a hired driver, the load leaves $542. An owner who drives it keeps the driver's share too, so about $934. Out of that still come the truck and trailer payments, insurance, tires and repairs, which is why an owner-operator listing of $228,575 says little about take-home pay.

Run your own load through the calculator: it has a switch for "I drive it myself".

Per mile

Two different numbers hide behind "per mile":

• What shippers pay. Large auto transport brokers publish their customer prices for open transport. Sherpa's cost guide (April 2026) lists $1.60 to $2.60 a mile under 500 miles, $0.85 to $1.25 for 501 to 1,500 miles and $0.60 to $0.95 beyond that. Montway lists $1.85, $0.91 and $0.59 for the same bands. RoadRunner's calculator page gives a median of $1.23 a mile for open transport. That is per car, and the broker keeps a share before the carrier is paid.
• What the carrier keeps. Our worked load shows $2.26 per loaded mile on the board and nets $0.87 a mile after fuel, deadhead, driver pay and factoring. That gap is the whole business.

Hotshot car haulers

Hotshot drivers list at about $58,947 a year on ZipRecruiter. For a hotshot owner-operator, the arithmetic is the same as above with fewer cars per trip: on round assumptions, a two-car load paying $1,100 for 650 miles leaves about $731 after fuel and factoring, before the truck payment and insurance. The setup, the CDL rules and the example are in hotshot car hauling.

What moves the number

• Empty miles. 300 empty miles to a pickup can cost more than a better rate brings in.
• A full deck. Fuel on the loaded leg is shared by every car on the trailer, so the fourth and fifth car on a trip are worth far more than the first.
• When the money arrives. COD and instant pay cost nothing; net-30 usually means factoring at around 3%.
• Inoperable cars and enclosed work pay more per car for more time and equipment.
• Lanes and loops. A strong load out of a busy metro is half a week; what you haul back decides the rest.

See the number before you claim the load

loadez puts that arithmetic on every load on its own load board: on Growth, each load is ranked by what it nets your truck after fuel, deadhead, driver pay and factoring, before you claim it, and the driver's pay is calculated from the same numbers when the load is delivered. The board, dispatch and the driver app are free for one truck. Pricing.

Common questions

How much do car haulers make a year?

Company car hauler drivers average about $55,600 to $68,500 a year on the major salary sites as of October 2026: $55,857 on ZipRecruiter, $55,612 on Salary.com and $68,499 on Glassdoor. The BLS median for all heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers was $58,640 in May 2025. Owner-operator listings average $228,575 on ZipRecruiter, but that is much closer to gross revenue than to take-home pay.

How much do car haulers make per car?

There is no fixed per-car rate; drivers are usually paid a percentage of the whole load. At 25% of the load, which two car hauling carriers publish, a driver on a three-car $1,400 load earns $350, about $117 per car. An owner-operator who drives the same load keeps about $934 after fuel, empty miles and factoring, before the truck payment, insurance and repairs.

How much do car haulers make per mile?

Shippers pay brokers roughly $0.60 to $2.60 a mile per car for open transport, depending on distance, according to large brokers' published cost guides. What the carrier keeps is far less: in our worked example a load showing $2.26 per loaded mile nets $0.87 a mile after fuel, deadhead, driver pay and factoring.