The 4.85 Million Yen Annual Income of a Truck Driver Was the Price of Long Working Hours

The gross salary isn't bad. But even this month, I was hardly ever home.

A truck driver's salary may seem like it's determined by the amount, but in reality, you are being paid for the 'length of time you are confined.' Behind that gross figure, that much time is attached.

'Trucking pays well,' people often say. In fact, the average annual income for a heavy-duty truck driver is 4.85 million yen (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 2023). It's roughly the same as the average across all industries.

However, when you place working hours next to that, the perspective changes.
Before the regulations, heavy-duty drivers worked 2,544 hours a year (FY2021). The all-industry average is 2,136 hours. They were working 400 hours more per year, or over 30 hours more per month.
Broken down to every day, that's one hour. Every day, they were handing over one hour that should have been spent with their family to the steering wheel and its surroundings.

And with the 2024 problem, a cap was placed on that 'working long.' The method of maintaining annual income through time was sealed off.

Why was 'extending time' the only option for logistics?

In IT work, if you use tools, you can increase your earnings in the same amount of time. Recently, those tools have become smarter, and productivity is rising steadily.

But driving doesn't work that way.
A truck cannot drive on the road at 200 km/h. Even with home delivery, one person cannot deliver ten times as much as another person.
Productivity is bound by 'human physical speed.'

That is why this industry had no choice but to 'extend time' to increase earnings.
A cap was placed on that sole means by the 2024 problem. Autonomous driving is still a story for the future.

You can't drive faster. So, cut the time spent on things other than driving.

There is one thing that is often overlooked here.
A driver's confinement time is not all 'driving.'

Roll calls. Inspection records. Daily reports. Invoices. Waiting for cargo. Organizing expenses after returning.
—All of these are necessary. But none of them are 'driving.'
And unlike driving, these can be shortened. Because they are not bound by human physical speed.

If you can strip away the parts other than driving from the 'confinement time' that generates the 4.85 million yen annual income, the confinement time itself will shorten while keeping the same take-home pay.
In terms of hourly wage, it goes up. The time you can spend at home increases.

The first step you can take starting Monday

First, write down a driver's day, separating it into 'driving' and 'non-driving.'
Roll calls, daily reports, invoices, expenses, ordering materials—draw a line under 'this is not driving.'

Divide what is on the other side of the line into two categories.
One is things that can be handed over to existing office staff or part-timers. There is probably no need for someone who has been driving until late at night to organize receipts at the end of the month.
The other is things that will remain but can be made easier. For example, just recording handwritten daily reports via voice memo.

You don't need an elaborate system. The order should be reassigning people first. Tools can come last.

I have been involved in operational reform on the front lines at a prime-listed logistics company.
What I saw there repeatedly was the sight of administrative tasks other than driving quietly eating away at the drivers' time.

Driving time can no longer be increased. There is a cap.
So the next thing we can do is see how much of the non-driving time we can return to driving—and to home.
That is all there is. That is why I am writing this.