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. Includes newspaper delivery drivers.
U.S. Workers
417,420
Median Salary
$37,130
10-Year Growth
+8.8%
Annual Openings
51,300
Typical entry: High school diploma or equivalent
12 of 12 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Collect money from customers, make change, and record transactions on customer receipts.
AI: Fully automatable - Automated payment systems, mobile POS, and cash-handling machines can collect payments, make change, and print/record receipts without human intervention.
Write customer orders and sales contracts according to company guidelines.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can generate customer orders and contracts from templates and company rules accurately and at scale.
Inform regular customers of new products or services and price changes.
AI: Fully automatable - Marketing automation and AI-driven outreach can fully handle informing regular customers about new products and pricing via personalized channels.
Record sales or delivery information on daily sales or delivery record.
AI: Fully automatable - Sales and delivery records can be captured automatically by POS systems and delivery telematics with minimal human input.
Drive trucks to deliver such items as food, medical supplies, or newspapers.
AI: Partial - Autonomous driving technology can handle many long‑haul and geofenced deliveries, but full end-to-end unsupervised truck delivery in all conditions is not yet general-purpose.
Call on prospective customers to explain company services or to solicit new business.
AI: Partial - AI can perform outbound outreach and initial sales pitches at scale, but nuanced relationship-building and complex negotiations often need human salespeople.
Arrange merchandise and sales promotion displays or issue sales promotion materials to customers.
AI: Partial - AI can plan layouts and automate distribution of promotional materials digitally, but physical arrangement of merchandise in varied retail environments is only partly automatable.
Listen to and resolve customers' complaints regarding products or services.
AI: Partial - AI chatbots effectively resolve routine complaints, but complex, novel, or high-empathy disputes still require human intervention.
Maintain trucks and food-dispensing equipment and clean inside of machines that dispense food or beverages.
AI: Partial - AI can diagnose equipment issues, schedule maintenance, and give step‑by‑step cleaning instructions, but it cannot itself perform the hands‑on cleaning and mechanical repairs in most real‑world settings as of 2025.
Review lists of dealers, customers, or station drops and load trucks.
AI: Partial - AI can review, prioritize, and optimize dealer/customer lists and generate loading plans, but physically loading trucks remains a manual task except in limited robotic contexts.
Sell food specialties, such as sandwiches and beverages, to office workers and patrons of sports events.
AI: Partial - AI can power automated kiosks, take orders, and personalize offers, but fully replacing human mobile sales interactions and ad‑hoc on‑site selling across varied event contexts is not generally feasible by 2025.
Collect coins from vending machines, refill machines, and remove aged merchandise.
AI: Partial - AI can optimize routes, track inventory, and predict restocking needs, but the physical collection of coins and manual refilling/removal of merchandise still requires human or specialized robotic labor not widely deployed.