Truck Driver Pay in New Jersey (2026)

Key numbers at a glance

Truck driver pay in New Jersey: the numbers

Figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, May 2025 release. New Jersey employs about 47,980 of them — roughly 11.2 of every 1,000 jobs — and pays them the highest wages of any state profiled in this series. Annual figures assume 2,080 hours.

New Jersey tops every cut BLS publishes among this site's ten featured states: a $32.10 mean hourly, a $47,950 tenth-percentile entry floor, and a 90th percentile at $90,310 — the only state in the series where the top decile approaches six figures. The driver of that curve is structural: port drayage at scale, strong union heritage in local cartage, overtime-heavy hourly work, and a cost of doing business that forces carriers to bid wages up. BLS does not track CPM; Northeast regional roles commonly advertise roughly $0.62–$0.82/mile, while drayage often pays per-move plus hourly detention — confirm with carriers.

How miles and freight shape pay in New Jersey

New Jersey sits on the inlet of the East Coast's biggest import machine. Port Newark–Elizabeth, the container core of the Port of New York and New Jersey, is the largest port complex on the East Coast, and every box that lands needs a truck within hours — that drayage pool alone supports thousands of driver jobs paying by the move, the hour, or a hybrid. Inland, the Turnpike corridor (I-95) with I-78, I-80 and I-287 is one of the densest warehouse belts in the country: e-commerce fulfillment, grocery, retail and pharma distribution feeding a New York metro consumer market of over 20 million people, most of it reachable in a day's work. Turnpike tolls are a genuine cost of doing business here — an owner-operator running the full length can spend real money per trip, and congestion pricing-era traffic means hours matter as much as miles.

Structurally this is a local-and-regional market: drayage (hourly or per-move), metro distribution relays (hourly with overtime after 40 — and New Jersey drivers actually collect it), and regional runs down I-95 toward Baltimore and out I-78/I-80 toward Pennsylvania and the Midwest. True coast-to-coast OTR exists but is a minority taste; the money is in staying close to the port and the warehouses. Owner-operators should run every offer through the load profit calculator with tolls and congestion-time priced in, and on drayage verify how the fuel surcharge is calculated — short moves punish surcharges pegged to long-haul baselines. Compare other states on the truck driver pay by state hub.

The tax angle in New Jersey

New Jersey is the expensive end of this series' tax story: graduated rates start at 1.4% and climb to a 10.75% top rate, with typical driver wages commonly landing in the 5.525% bracket zone — meaning a $66,770 mean wage sends roughly $3,300–$3,900 to Trenton depending on filing status. Add Turnpike tolls and metro housing costs, and New Jersey's $7,100 nominal lead over the national mean shrinks considerably on a cost-adjusted basis — Pennsylvania and New Hampshire residents routinely work New Jersey freight while sleeping in cheaper, lighter-tax states. Owner-operators should work the trucking tax deductions hard here. Verify current rates with the New Jersey Division of Taxation.