Driver/Sales Workers

AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
96%
risk level
POLLING
79%
Based on 217 votes
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
12.0%
by year 2032
WAGES
$32,690
or $15.72 per hour
Volume
489,510
as of 2022
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
3.1/10

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Automation risk

96% (Imminent Risk)

Imminent Risk (81-100%): Occupations in this level have an extremely high likelihood of being automated in the near future. These jobs consist primarily of repetitive, predictable tasks with little need for human judgment.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Cramped Work Space, Awkward Positions

  • Finger Dexterity

  • Social Perceptiveness

User poll

79% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 96% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Driver/Sales Workers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?






Sentiment

The following graph(s) are included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Driver/Sales Workers' job openings is expected to rise 12.0% by 2032

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2023.

Wages

Very low paid relative to other professions

In 2022, the median annual wage for 'Driver/Sales Workers' was $32,690, or $15 per hour

'Driver/Sales Workers' were paid 29.4% lower than the national median wage, which stood at $46,310

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Significantly greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2022 there were 489,510 people employed as 'Driver/Sales Workers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.33% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 302 people are employed as 'Driver/Sales Workers'.

Job description

Drive truck or other vehicle over established routes or within an established territory and sell or deliver goods, such as food products, including restaurant take-out items, or pick up or deliver items such as commercial laundry. May also take orders, collect payment, or stock merchandise at point of delivery.

SOC Code: 53-3031.00

Resources

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Comments

GunAndAmmo (Highly likely) says
there are already autonomous taxi in san francisco the question is what will the driver do ?
Sep 05, 2023 at 04:33 PM
Constantin (Highly likely) says
Very likely to be automated by self-driving cars.
I think by 2040, the majority of cars on the road will be driven by AI.

And if you don't need human drivers, then trucks and lorries will not make sense from a business standpoint. So, I think large trucks will disappear and a large truck will be replaced with a fleet of smaller cars driven by AI artificial intelligence algorithms.
Dec 30, 2022 at 07:01 AM
Vivian (Highly likely) says
I hate being a delivery driver, robots please take my job
Nov 04, 2021 at 04:18 AM
Jo (Highly likely) says
There are at least three tech firms already seriously working on self-driving lorries... that on top of the large number of companies in the self-driving car market already... the writing on this wall is writ very large... or maybe in three mile high illuminated
letters...
Jul 24, 2021 at 11:53 AM
Heath Edwards (Uncertain) says
There are multitude of "blind spots" in GPS coverage. When encountered by a human delivery person that is familiar with the area they are annoying but are not insurmountable.
If a drone loses signal...what, hover in place with 500 other stones until the battery runs out, return to base, etc..
If the Earth's GPS coverage reaches 100% confidence over an entire delivery area then yes, automation, UNLESS the delivery is to a condo/apartment/mobile home park/ hotel or any delivery point that exists as one unit among many, all sharing the same street address. If these two issues are solved then yes, automation. If these issues persist it will delay implementation.
In sum, it could go either way.
Sincerely,
Heath Edwards
Jul 29, 2020 at 01:27 AM
jo says
GPS (and the rest of the world's positional tracking systems) have very few "blind spots", particularly from the air, and machines unfamiliar with the area would do what a human would do and use a map... one familiar with the area would do as a human would do, use an internal map.

Multiple addresses in one place would also be handled initially by the human equivalent expedient of dumping the package at the apartment block door or leaving a "we missed you - come collect your package at the depot" postcard... given that the delivery times would probably still be faster there would be as few complaints as now (and it would get blamed on software errors instead of shuffling the human to a different route).

This might improve with new buildings with drone landing pads on the roof with special recepticles might well become the norm, proving safer for the incoming packages as well as not having to go to the depot to collect packages that could not be delivered because you weren't in.
Jul 24, 2021 at 12:02 PM
Vivian says
There are several workarounds to this problem. The first and most obvious I could think of is delivery over local areas that can work off of downloaded maps. This can be expanded to include fairly large regions nowadays with recent technological advances in the efficiency of GIS software and databases. The second solution I can think of is our current technologies in electronic compasses that combine GPS units with measurements of the magnetic field to allow fairly accurate positioning without satellite contact. The biggest issue facing automated delivery is really to deal with changing road hazards. The current solution of AI decision making based on photographic sensors and communication with other devices is useful, but I think a possible future development that would revolutionize this field, especially in rural areas, would be cost-efficient land-based LIDAR sensors paired with electronic compass. But take everything I'm saying with somewhat of a grain of salt, I'm just studying this in school currently.
Nov 05, 2021 at 12:58 AM
Helia (Moderate) says
because it can be driven by robots
Mar 27, 2020 at 06:38 PM
Jo says
24/7, more safely and more quickly and the money being left on the table by not automating it means that although this might be a harder task than some others it will be done faster because the rewards to success are so incredible... hence the large number of companies in the market already.
Jul 24, 2021 at 12:04 PM
Awaluddin says
It would not be happened here in Indonesia and every developing countries in the world, since the road user are not as obedient as those in advanced countries, try it here and the robot would not run their cars because human drivers are driving careless.
Dec 15, 2019 at 11:52 PM
Michael says
They’re obviously talking about advanced countries such as the United States...
Jul 04, 2020 at 10:13 PM
Jo says
Drones don't need roads and fly above human drivers, crazy or not...
Jul 24, 2021 at 11:55 AM

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