Truck Drivers in South Africa: Pay, Licences and Finding Work

There is a legal minimum wage for truck drivers in South Africa, it is set by the bargaining council, and it went up on 1 March 2026.

Most of the salary figures you will find online are guesses or averages from job adverts. This page uses the actual determination — the NBCRFLI industry circular covering 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027 — and explains the one thing that makes every other source disagree with itself.

Your licence does not set your wage

This is why “Code 14 driver salary” returns a different number everywhere you look.

Code 14 — now Code EC — is one licence covering everything above 16 000 kg GCM. A 17-tonne combination and a 56-tonne interlink need the same licence.

The bargaining council does not pay by licence. It pays by vehicle class. And the classes above 16 tonnes span three separate wage grades:

• Grade 4 — heavy and extra-heavy motor vehicle driver — R3 383.37 a week
• Grade 5 — ultra-heavy motor vehicle driver — R4 031.63 a week
• Grade 6 — abnormal load driver — R4 909.20 a week

Same licence. A 45% spread from bottom to top. So the honest answer to “what does a Code 14 driver earn” is a question back: which vehicle class are you driving? That is what your grade follows, and your grade is what the minimum follows.

The circular defines each class by reference to Schedule 2 of the Main Collective Agreement. Your grade should be stated in your contract or on your payslip — that is the number to check, not your licence code.

The current minimum wages: 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027

General freight and furniture removal sectors. These are weekly figures, which is how the determination states them.

Grade	Class	To 28 Feb 2026	From 1 Mar 2026
1	General worker · packer/loader I · security guard	R2 142.27	R2 270.81
2	Motorcycle and light motor vehicle driver · checker I	R2 353.80	R2 495.03
3	Medium motor vehicle driver (rigid and articulated)	R2 845.37	R3 016.09
4	Heavy and extra-heavy motor vehicle driver	R3 191.86	R3 383.37
5	Ultra-heavy motor vehicle driver	R3 803.42	R4 031.63
6	Abnormal load driver	R4 631.32	R4 909.20
6	Petroleum tanker driver	R3 879.87	R4 112.66

The abnormal load driver is the highest-paid grade in general freight — 45% above grade 4 and above even the petroleum tanker driver. That is the premium the industry puts on moving indivisible cargo under permit.

The 6% is also a separate entitlement

Two different things happen on 1 March 2026, and drivers routinely miss the second:

1. The minimum rises to the figures above.
2. An across-the-board increase of 6% on actual wages is awarded to everyone in grades 1 to 6 who was employed before 1 March 2026.

The circular is explicit that the across-the-board increase applies to current wages before the minimums are adjusted. So if you were already earning above the minimum, you are entitled to 6% on what you were actually being paid — not simply to be moved up to the new floor.

Allowances: where long-distance pay actually comes from

There is no “long distance” wage grade. A long-haul driver is paid the grade for the vehicle, plus allowances for being away — and on a full month those allowances are a large share of the total.

Allowance	To 28 Feb 2026	From 1 Mar 2026
Subsistence — each period of absence inside South Africa	R63.99	R67.83
Each of the three daily meal intervals during that absence	R55.28	R58.60
Total for a day away, plus three meals	R229.83	R243.63
Cross-border allowance, per month	R127.48	R135.13
Night shift, beyond one hour of night work	R17.67	R18.73
Each further hour of night work	R3.18	R3.37

Count your own nights. At R243.63 a day away, twenty nights in a month adds R4 872.60 on top of the wage. Ten nights adds R2 436.30. That is arithmetic you can do against your own trip sheet, and it is the part most salary comparisons leave out entirely.

Weekly to monthly, with the working shown

The determination is weekly; almost everyone asks monthly. There is no official monthly figure, so convert it yourself:

weekly × 52 ÷ 12 = monthly

• Grade 4 — R3 383.37 × 52 ÷ 12 = R14 661.27 a month
• Grade 6, abnormal load — R4 909.20 × 52 ÷ 12 = R21 273.20 a month

Some sources multiply by 4.33 instead, which gives a figure about R11 lower. Either is defensible; neither is the legally binding number, because the binding number is the weekly one. If you are checking whether you are underpaid, compare weekly against weekly.

What this table is not

It is a floor, not a market rate. Many operators pay above it, particularly for cross-border work, tankers and abnormal loads, and particularly for drivers with a clean record who stay. If someone quotes you the minimum as though it were the going rate, those are two different claims.

It also covers the general freight and furniture removal sectors. Courier and cash-in-transit have their own tables in the same circular, with different numbers.

For the full earnings picture — what operators actually advertise, what hiring a driver costs, and specialised rates — see our truck driver salary guide.

Being findable

A driver’s problem is rarely that the work does not exist. It is that the transporter with the work has no way to know you exist, so the job goes to whoever someone already knows.

Kweli Driver Registry is a free profile — licence codes, endorsements, experience, the corridors you have run — so a transporter looking for a driver can find one. It costs nothing and it is yours; your record travels with you rather than staying with one employer.

Questions people ask

What is the minimum wage for a truck driver in South Africa?
From 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027 it depends on your grade: R3 383.37 a week for a heavy or extra-heavy vehicle driver, R4 031.63 for ultra-heavy, and R4 909.20 for an abnormal load driver. These are NBCRFLI minimums for the general freight sector.

How much does a Code 14 driver earn per month?
There is no single figure, because one Code 14 licence covers three wage grades. The minimum runs from R3 383.37 to R4 909.20 a week depending on the vehicle class you drive — roughly R14 661 to R21 273 a month at 52 weeks ÷ 12. Your grade, not your licence, sets the number.

What does a long-distance truck driver earn per month?
The grade wage for the vehicle, plus a subsistence allowance of R243.63 for each day away including three meals. Twenty nights away adds R4 872.60 to the month. There is no separate “long distance” grade.

What are the bargaining council rates for truck drivers in 2026?
The NBCRFLI Year Two determination, effective 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027, raised every grade by exactly 6%. Grade 1 is R2 270.81 a week and grade 6 abnormal load is R4 909.20 a week, with grades 2 to 5 in between.

What does an abnormal load driver earn?
R4 909.20 a week from 1 March 2026 — the highest grade in general freight, 45% above a grade 4 heavy vehicle driver and above the petroleum tanker driver’s R4 112.66.

Did truck driver wages go up in 2026?
Yes. On 1 March 2026 the minimums rose by 6%, and separately an across-the-board increase of 6% on actual wages was awarded to everyone in grades 1 to 6 employed before that date. The second applies to what you were actually earning, not just to the new floor.

Where these numbers come from

• Wages and allowances — National Bargaining Council for the Road Freight and Logistics Industry, industry circular of 12 February 2025, Table Two A (Year Two) and the allowance schedules, covering 1 March 2026 to 28 February 2027.
• Licence codes and mass thresholds — National Road Traffic Act 93 of 1996 and the National Road Traffic Regulations 2000.
• The monthly figures — our own arithmetic, weekly × 52 ÷ 12, shown above so you can check it.

The determination is the authority, and it changes. These rates run to 28 February 2027. Confirm against the council’s own published circular before relying on them in a dispute.

Driver guides

Pay, licences and qualifications

• Truck driver salary in South Africa — the full earnings picture
• The NBCRFLI wage table — every grade, in full
• Driving licence codes — Code 14, Code 10 and EC explained
• SADC driver certificate — how to get it, cost and requirements

Finding work, and being found

• Truck driver jobs — where the work is advertised
• Kweli Driver Registry — a free profile transporters can search
• For transporters: finding drivers

Next

• Trucks and what they carry — the vehicle classes your grade follows
• Abnormal, bulk and special loads — what the highest-paid grade actually moves
• Border posts — if you run cross-border
• The trucking business — if you are thinking of buying your own truck