Car haulers are Class A CDL drivers who load, strap and deliver the vehicles themselves, and United Road advertises $102,000 to $141,000 a year on average for its experienced regional company drivers, against a $58,640 BLS median for all heavy truck drivers. Getting hired is the hard part: of the two big fleets we checked, one wants a year of car haul experience and the other takes school graduates who can drive a manual transmission.

Pay figures below come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and from carriers' own recruiting pages, as of September 2026.

What car haulers earn

The federal government does not publish a car hauler wage. BLS counts car haulers inside "heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers" (occupation code 53-3032), and O*NET's sample job titles for that code do not list car hauling at all. Use the BLS numbers as a comparison point for trucking in general.

For that whole occupation, BLS reports a median annual wage of $58,640 in May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $40,140 and the top 10 percent more than $79,380. In the truck transportation industry the median was $60,320.

Carrier job postings are the only car haul pay numbers we found. They are recruiting claims, and we could not check them against payroll data. United Road's regional company driver page (opened September 2026) says experienced drivers average $102,000 to $141,000 a year, the top 25 percent earn $140,000 or more, and drivers "earn 25% of the load," settled every two weeks. Its OTR page advertises $140,000 or more for top company drivers, with drivers typically out 10 to 15 days at a time.

Cassens Transport does not publish a dollar figure on its site. Its careers page says it pays under the Teamsters National Master Automobile Transporters Agreement, that its average trip is 300 miles, and that drivers are usually away from home one or two days at a time.

Percentage pay means your check follows what you haul. Before you sign on, ask the terminal what a first year driver on your assignment actually grossed, because the advertised range describes experienced drivers.

Owner-operators

United Road's owner-operator page advertises average gross revenue of $300,000 or more a year and says contractors receive 85 percent of OEM transport revenue. That is gross. Fuel, the truck and trailer payments, insurance, tires and maintenance all come out of it, and we found no published cost data reliable enough to turn it into a take-home number.

How to become a car hauler

The steps, in order:

  • Get a Class A CDL. Federal rules (49 CFR 383.91) put any combination with a gross combination weight rating of 26,001 pounds or more, towing a unit rated over 10,000 pounds, in Group A. If it is your first Class A, you must finish entry-level driver training from a provider on FMCSA's Training Provider Registry before testing (49 CFR 380.609).
  • Take the skills test in a manual transmission truck if you can. A driver who tests in an automatic gets a restriction from operating a CMV with a manual transmission (49 CFR 383.95(c)), and Cassens lists the ability to drive a manual as a requirement.
  • Get your DOT medical certificate (49 CFR 391.41) and expect a drug screen.
  • Apply where your experience level is accepted (see below).

No endorsement is required to pull a single car haul trailer. The federal endorsements cover doubles and triples, passenger vehicles, tank vehicles, hazardous materials and school buses (49 CFR 383.93), and a car hauler is none of those.

Experience requirements differ sharply by carrier. Cassens asks for one year of tractor-trailer experience or graduation from an accredited truck driving school, plus a high school diploma or GED. New Cassens drivers get hands-on training in handling, loading and unloading vehicles, along with Smith System and log training, and are paired with a mentor.

United Road's current regional and OTR company postings ask for at least one year of CDL-A driving and at least 12 months of recent stinger car haul experience. Its owner-operator program asks for one year of verifiable car haul experience, prior owner-operator experience and a 2010 or newer truck. For a new driver, that makes a carrier that trains school graduates the realistic way in.

Stinger or high-mount

The two rig types differ in where the trailer hitches. Trailer builder Cottrell describes a high-mount as a trailer pulled by a tractor with a conventional fifth wheel above the drive tires, typically 45 to 48 inches off the ground. A stinger uses a much lower fifth wheel behind the drive tires, typically 12 to 18 inches off the ground. Federal rules define a stinger-steered combination the same way: the fifth wheel sits on a drop frame behind and below the rearmost axle of the power unit (23 CFR 658.5).

Capacity depends on the trailer and the vehicle mix. Cottrell's CX-09LSFA stinger, built to the 80 foot length limit described below, carries nine to ten vehicles depending on the combination. Its CX-5307LS high-mount is a 53 foot trailer built to carry seven. United Road's postings describe its company drivers running stinger trailers.

Cottrell's current stinger and high-mount models come with soft tie systems, and on the CX-5307LS the soft tie-downs can be reached from ground level.

Length, overhang and height limits

Federal length rules for car haulers apply on the National Network of highways and reasonable access routes. Off that network, the state sets the limit, so check each state on your route.

For a traditional automobile transporter, with the fifth wheel on the tractor frame over the drive axles, a state may not set an overall length limit below 65 feet. Cargo overhang is not counted in that length: a state must allow at least 3 feet in front and 4 feet in the rear (23 CFR 658.13(e)(1)).

For a stinger-steered automobile transporter, the FAST Act of 2015 raised the floor to 80 feet (49 U.S.C. 31111(b)(1)(G)). FHWA's guidance says the 4 foot front and 6 foot rear overhang allowances come on top of the 80 feet. The text of 23 CFR 658.13 has not been updated and still shows the pre-2015 limits of 75 feet with 3 and 4 foot overhangs. FHWA applies the statute's 80 feet. Ramps or flippers used to reach the overhang are excluded from length, but they must be retracted when they are not supporting a vehicle.

These allowances only cover an automobile transporter in the federal sense, meaning the whole combination is built to haul vehicles and the power unit has a rack to carry them too. FHWA says a tractor pulling a trailer that carries cars only on the trailer is not specialized equipment, so it gets the ordinary tractor-semitrailer rules and no car hauler overhang allowance.

Height is a state limit. There is no federal height limit for trucks. FHWA says most state limits run from 13 feet 6 inches to 14 feet, with lower clearances posted on particular roads. A pickup or tall SUV on the top deck decides your real height, so measure the loaded rig and compare it with the limit in every state you will cross.

The FAST Act also lets an automobile transporter haul general freight on a backhaul, as long as it stays within the weight limits for a truck tractor and semitrailer (49 U.S.C. 31111(a)(1)).

Securing the vehicles

FMCSA's cargo securement rule for cars, light trucks and vans weighing 10,000 pounds or less is 49 CFR 393.128. Each vehicle must be restrained at the front and the rear against lateral, forward, rearward and vertical movement with at least two tiedowns. Tiedowns attached to the vehicle's structure must use the mounting points built for that purpose, and straps that go over or around the wheels must restrain the vehicle in all three directions. Edge protectors are not required where synthetic webbing touches the tires. Vehicles over 10,000 pounds fall under the heavy vehicle rule in 393.130.

Loading also counts against your hours. Under 49 CFR 395.2, time spent loading or unloading, or waiting with the truck while it is loaded, is on-duty time. It runs inside the 14 hour window that starts when you come on duty (49 CFR 395.3), so a slow load at a port or auction leaves less of the 11 driving hours you can actually use.

Insurance and authority for owner-operators

A for-hire carrier hauling vehicles across state lines with equipment rated 10,001 pounds or more must carry at least $750,000 in public liability coverage (49 CFR 387.9 and 387.303(b)(2), current as of September 2026). A carrier with operating authority whose fleet is made up only of vehicles rated under 10,001 pounds needs $300,000 (387.303(b)(1)). FMCSA keeps your operating authority active only while that insurance filing is on record (387.301).

The only cargo insurance requirement in Part 387 is for household goods movers (387.301(b) and 387.303(c)). For car haulers, the cargo limit comes from contracts: the shipper, the broker, or the carrier you lease onto sets it. Get that number in writing before you price a policy.

Pickup and wedge trailer car hauling

A pickup pulling a two or three car wedge or gooseneck trailer is still regulated once it crosses certain weights. Federal rules use the rating or the actual weight, whichever is greater.

  • At 10,001 pounds or more gross vehicle or combination weight rating in interstate commerce, the rig is a commercial motor vehicle (49 CFR 390.5). You need a USDOT number (390.201), a DOT medical card (391.41) and, if you haul for hire, the $750,000 liability minimum above.
  • At 26,001 pounds or more gross combination weight rating, with a trailer rated over 10,000 pounds, you need a Class A CDL (383.91). Check the weight ratings on the truck's door sticker and the trailer's certification label before you call your setup non-CDL.

There is one more trap for drivers who plan to move up to a semi car hauler. If you take your Class A skills test with a pintle hook or any other hitch that is not a fifth wheel, your CDL is restricted from tractor-trailers connected by a fifth wheel (49 CFR 383.95(d)). A gooseneck ball is not a fifth wheel. Intrastate-only operations follow state rules, which vary.

Carriers to know

Cassens Transport has hauled vehicles since 1933 and is based in Edwardsville, Illinois. It says its fleet delivers up to 10,000 vehicles a day for 15 manufacturers, mostly in the Midwest, along the Atlantic seaboard and in Ontario. Its terminals are in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Ontario.

United Road is based in Plymouth, Michigan, and calls itself one of the largest automotive transport carriers in North America. Its recruiting site lists 28 terminals in the United States and Canada, hiring for local, regional, OTR and owner-operator seats.

Hansen & Adkins is based in Los Alamitos, California. Its site says it has more than 30 years in vehicle transport and serves nearly every major auto manufacturer in the United States and Canada.

Jack Cooper, founded in Kansas City in 1928 and still listed as an employer in older career guides, filed for Chapter 11 on August 6, 2019, and exited on November 4, 2019, when lenders led by Solus Alternative Asset Management took over its assets. In February 2025, Trucking Dive reported it was shutting down after losing its Ford and General Motors contracts.

If you are coming out of CDL school, start with carriers that accept school graduates, such as Cassens, and ask the terminal what transmission its trucks run before you book your skills test.