Truck Driver Pay in North Dakota (2026)

Key numbers at a glance

Truck driver pay in North Dakota: the numbers

Figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS survey for heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, May 2025 release. North Dakota employs only about 11,870 of them — a small pool — and pays a mean of $30.45 an hour, roughly $3,620 a year ahead of the $59,710 national mean. Annual figures assume 2,080 hours.

The number that should jump out is the tenth percentile: $47,990, one of the highest entry floors of any state in this series and nearly $8,000 above the national $40,140. That is scarcity economics at work — in a state of well under a million people, every employer from the Williston oilfield haulers to Fargo grocery distributors is competing for the same thin pool of CDL holders, and the Bakken's appetite for crude, produced-water and sand drivers sets a wage floor the rest of the market has to match. BLS does not track CPM; regional positions commonly advertise roughly $0.60-$0.80 per mile, while oilfield work typically pays hourly or by the load at higher effective rates — confirm with carriers.

How miles and freight shape pay in North Dakota

North Dakota runs on two freight engines. The first is the Bakken: the Williston Basin's oil fields generate relentless demand for crude haulers moving to pipeline and rail terminals, produced-water trucks running disposal rounds the clock, and frac sand and equipment moves — work that pays premiums precisely because it demands oilfield hours, winter hardship and clean drug screens. The second is agriculture: the Red River Valley along I-29 is prime grain country, and harvest season turns Fargo, Grand Forks and the western elevator towns into hubs of hopper and shuttle work, much of it seasonal, hourly and overtime-friendly. Between them sit distribution runs out of Fargo and Bismarck, cross-border traffic to Canada, and a steady drumbeat of oversize energy and wind-turbine components. The road network is simple — I-94 east-west, I-29 north-south — but distances are long, services are sparse, and winter closures are a planning fact, not an exception.

Structurally this is a regional and oilfield state first (hedged): the premium jobs keep drivers in or near the basin on hourly or percentage pay, often with week-on/week-off or home-daily schedules; grain runs radiate to regional terminals; and true coast-to-coast OTR is a smaller slice than in big-population states. For owner-operators, energy lanes pay but beat equipment hard — price maintenance honestly in the load profit calculator, and on long empty western legs the fuel surcharge and deadhead math decide whether a headline rate survives. Compare other states on the truck driver pay by state hub.

The tax angle in North Dakota

North Dakota is one of the lightest income-tax states in the country: a two-bracket system with a 1.95% rate and a 2.5% top rate (per the Tax Foundation's 2026 state rate table). On a $63,330 mean wage, the state take is measured in hundreds of dollars, not thousands — a real, bankable premium over drivers in 9%-plus states. There is no local income tax on wages. The trade-offs live elsewhere: winters, distances from major metros, and the fact that oilfield boom-bust cycles can swing demand hard. Owner-operators should still work the trucking tax deductions list — per diem alone matters on basin schedules — and verify current rates with the North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner.