The quickest job to start on this site. Watch for the versions where you pay for the van, the fuel and the insurance.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$42,000
Starting or casual
$31,000
Senior at a courier or grocery fleet
$61,000
Job Bank's national median is $20 an hour, about $42,000 a year full time. The top of the range is mostly unionized courier and grocery work. App-based delivery usually pays per drop, and after fuel and vehicle wear it often lands below the bottom of this range.
$31,000 to $38,000
Minimum wage to a few dollars above it
Job Bank's low end is $15 an hour, which is the provincial minimum wage in much of the country. Most first jobs sit close to it.
$55,000 to $61,000
Courier and grocery fleets with seniority
Large courier companies and grocery chains pay well above the median, with overtime and benefits. These seats are usually filled from inside after time as a casual or part-time driver.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a driving abstract and a criminal record check, assuming you already hold an ordinary car licence, which is all most delivery jobs require. The high end is the same two documents at the pricier end, with a fresh abstract each time an employer asks for one. A vehicle is not counted here because it is not a cost of entering the job, but if the work is app or contractor based you should subtract fuel, insurance, maintenance and the value the vehicle loses before you compare the pay. Company vehicle jobs almost always pay better once you do that.
If a job needs your own vehicle, subtract fuel, insurance, maintenance and the value the vehicle loses before you compare the pay. Company vehicle jobs almost always pay better in real terms.
Benefits at the larger employers
Job Bank reports only about 57% of delivery drivers get any non-wage benefit, the lowest rate in this category.
Overtime in peak season
November and December are busy everywhere.
Union coverage
At the big courier companies and grocery chains.
Flexible hours on app work
Though flexibility is often what you get paid in instead of money.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Shorter than any other path on this site.
Get a full driver's licence
Before you start
A regular car licence covers most delivery vans. Most employers want you to be 18 or older.
Build a year of clean driving
About 1 year
Job Bank notes that employers usually want about a year of safe driving experience.
Apply directly
Weeks
Courier companies, grocery chains, pharmacies, food distributors and auto parts suppliers all hire delivery drivers.
Company training
Days
Route software, handheld scanners, safe lifting and the company's delivery rules. Usually a few days on the job.
Move up if you want to
1 to 3 years
From here: a bigger licence class and trucking, a dispatcher desk, or a supervisor role in the depot.
Geography
Knowing the city saves you hours every week.
Math
Counting stock and handling payments.
Physical education
Lifting parcels all day is real work.
English
Customers, paperwork and scanners.
Delivery driving is not regulated in Canada and needs no certificate, just a licence matching the vehicle you drive. What matters instead is your employment status. Some delivery work is a regular job with a company vehicle, minimum wage protection, overtime and benefits. Some is contractor work through an app, where you supply the vehicle, pay the costs and have almost none of those protections. The pay figures on this card come from the first kind.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Get onto a company vehicle fleet
Grocery, pharmacy, parts and courier fleets pay well above app work.
Dangerous goods training
Needed for fuel, chemicals and some medical deliveries, and it raises your rate.
Upgrade your licence class
A truck licence opens far better paid driving.
Forklift ticket
Lets you work the warehouse side as well as the road.
Bondability
Job Bank notes some delivery jobs require you to be eligible for bonding, which means a clean record.
Customer service
You are the only person from the company the customer ever sees.
Winter driving skill
Half the Canadian year is ice, snow and early dark.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Start at the depot before the traffic: scan and load your van in stop order, then run a route of anywhere from 40 to 150 stops. You are in and out of the vehicle constantly, carrying boxes up stairs, finding buzzers and parking wherever you can. December adds hours and stops to every route. If you drive your own car for an app, the day looks the same but you also pay for the fuel and absorb the wear.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank reports that only about 57% of Canadian delivery drivers receive any non-wage benefit, compared with about 95% of letter carriers and about 77% of bus operators.
Job Bank's provincial medians for delivery drivers cluster tightly, from about $17 an hour in Saskatchewan to about $22 in Yukon. There is no province where this job suddenly pays much better.
A delivery job needs only a car licence, which makes it one of the most common first steps into trucking, dispatch and warehouse supervision, all of which pay considerably more.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.