Heavy truck and lorry drivers
AI can help with a few sub-tasks (emails, paperwork), but the core of the job doesn't change.
Exposure is not job loss: it shows how much of the work generative AI could do today. Whether that turns into transformation, productivity gains or cuts depends on employers, regulation — and on you.
0 = today’s generative AI cannot perform any of the job’s tasks, 100 = it could do all of them fully. The pale band is the spread across tasks.
Work out your own score ↓What can you do?
The AI analysis for this occupation is still being prepared — the background process covers a few occupations every day.
Task by task
The ILO scored every task of the occupation separately, as the average of two AI models (GPT-4o and Gemini). The pale band is the range between the two models' scores, the dot the ILO's final score (for a few tasks expert review placed it outside the band).
- Determining the most appropriate routes70
- Carrying out minor maintenance to vehicles, and arranging major maintenance and repairs20
- Ensuring goods are stowed and securely covered, to prevent loss and damage18
- Estimating weights to comply with load limitations, and ensuring the safe distribution of weights.14
- Driving and tending a heavy motor vehicle, such as a lorry with or without trailer or a dump-truck, to transport goods, liquids or heavy materials over short or long distances14
- Assisting with or carrying out loading or unloading operations, using various lifting or tipping devices11
How much does it affect you?
Every job is different: mark which of these tasks you do and how much, and we'll compute your own, time-weighted score.
For each task: I don't do it · sometimes · most of my job.
- Determining the most appropriate routes(70)
- Carrying out minor maintenance to vehicles, and arranging major maintenance and repairs(20)
- Ensuring goods are stowed and securely covered, to prevent loss and damage(18)
- Estimating weights to comply with load limitations, and ensuring the safe distribution of weights.(14)
- Driving and tending a heavy motor vehicle, such as a lorry with or without trailer or a dump-truck, to transport goods, liquids or heavy materials over short or long distances(14)
- Assisting with or carrying out loading or unloading operations, using various lifting or tipping devices(11)
You are exactly at the occupation average. (The occupation's score: 24.)
About 17% of your working time goes to highly exposed tasks (score ≥ 50).
- • Determining the most appropriate routes
- • Carrying out minor maintenance to vehicles, and arranging major maintenance and repairs
- • Assisting with or carrying out loading or unloading operations, using various lifting or tipping devices
- • Driving and tending a heavy motor vehicle, such as a lorry with or without trailer or a dump-truck, to transport goods, liquids or heavy materials over short or long distances
An estimate from the ILO task scores. Everything is computed in your browser — nothing is sent or stored.
How many people work in this occupational group?
Share of the Drivers and mobile plant operators group in total employment, by country (Eurostat, ISCO 2-digit — 4-digit breakdowns are not public by country).
Table view
| Country | Drivers and mobile plant operators |
|---|---|
| Romania | 8.8% · 675 thousand · 2025 |
| Czechia | 6.9% · 362 thousand · 2025 |
| Bulgaria | 6.8% · 200 thousand · 2025 |
| Latvia | 6.2% · 55 thousand · 2025 |
| Estonia | 5.9% · 41 thousand · 2025 |
| Croatia | 5.7% · 98 thousand · 2025 |
| Poland | 5.6% · 960 thousand · 2025 |
| Greece | 5.4% · 234 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovakia | 5.4% · 140 thousand · 2025 |
| Hungary | 5.3% · 250 thousand · 2025 |
| Spain | 5.0% · 1,102 thousand · 2025 |
| Lithuania | 4.8% · 70 thousand · 2025 |
| Finland | 4.6% · 119 thousand · 2025 |
| Slovenia | 4.1% · 41 thousand · 2025 |
| Malta | 4.0% · 13 thousand · 2025 |
| Portugal | 4.0% · 209 thousand · 2025 |
| Cyprus | 3.9% · 20 thousand · 2025 |
| Norway | 3.9% · 112 thousand · 2025 |
| Sweden | 3.7% · 194 thousand · 2025 |
| France | 3.7% · 1,078 thousand · 2025 |
| Iceland | 3.6% · 8 thousand · 2025 |
| Austria | 3.5% · 156 thousand · 2025 |
| United Kingdom | 3.3% · 1,113 thousand · 2025 |
| Germany | 3.2% · 1,333 thousand · 2025 |
| Belgium | 3.1% · 161 thousand · 2025 |
| Luxembourg | 3.1% · 10 thousand · 2025 |
| Italy | 3.0% · 712 thousand · 2025 |
| Ireland | 2.9% · 81 thousand · 2025 |
| Netherlands | 2.9% · 281 thousand · 2025 |
| Denmark | 2.5% · 76 thousand · 2025 |
| Switzerland | 2.1% · 103 thousand · 2025 |
What do they earn?
Mean gross monthly earnings in the major occupational group (Plant and machine operators and assemblers). Eurostat's earnings survey only publishes pay by occupation at 1 digit, so this is the job's broader group. Enterprises with 10+ employees, 2022.
By country, at purchasing power parity (PPS/month), so countries with different price levels can be compared.
- Switzerland3,902
- Denmark3,581
- Norway3,391
- Iceland3,272
- Ireland3,013
- Belgium3,003
- Luxembourg2,848
- Finland2,711
- Austria2,708
- Netherlands2,689
- Germany2,646
- Sweden2,578
- Italy2,397
- EU272,188
- Spain2,169
- France2,125
- Slovenia1,961
- Poland1,931
- Lithuania1,895
- Cyprus1,832
- Malta1,828
- Greece1,726
- Estonia1,653
- Romania1,652
- Hungary1,630
- Croatia1,623
- Czechia1,621
- Latvia1,590
- Slovakia1,571
- Portugal1,289
- Bulgaria1,106
Source: Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey (earn_ses22_21), every four years. The United Kingdom is not covered by the survey.
Outlook to 2035
Employment in the Drivers and mobile plant operators group according to Cedefop's 2026 forecast.
thousand · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · 2026–2035: projection
Replacement demand is the jobs left by people retiring or changing careers — even a shrinking occupation can have many openings.
According to the WEF
Light Truck or Delivery Services Drivers — among the FASTEST-GROWING jobs (rank 9)
Future 2035 →Related occupations
Sources: ILO WP140 (2025) · Eurostat lfsa_egai2d · Cedefop Skills Forecast 2026 · WEF Future of Jobs 2025 · ESCO. The exposure score measures how much of an occupation's tasks generative AI could perform — not whether the job disappears. For information only, not career advice. How do we calculate this?