Film Career · Transportation
Head Driver
Transportation · Teamsters
- Union
- Teamsters
- Day rate
- ~$450–$750/day
- Experience
- 8–18+ yrs
What does a Head Driver do?
The head driver is a leadership chair in the transportation department, responsible for crew, planning, and the department's delivery to the production.
On union productions the position falls under Teamsters, which sets the rates, hours, and conditions the role works within. Like every transportation role, the job is hired production by production, and repeat work comes from department heads who trust the name on the call sheet.
What does a Head Driver make?
- This is a department-head chair, toward the top of its department's range.
- Teamster transportation is paid hourly with heavy guaranteed overtime: drivers run an effective $450-$750 a day, and coordinators and captains far more.
- Steady work is roughly $70K-$300K+ a year across the department (Teamsters Local 399 in Los Angeles).
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can drive well and manage transport logistics
Soft skills
- You make decisions calmly and own the results
- You can lead a crew, hold a budget, and answer for the department
Career progression
The role advances the way most transportation careers do: repeat hires from the same department heads, growing responsibility within the craft, and a reputation that travels between productions faster than any resume.
How do you become a Head Driver?
Nobody is hired into this chair from outside: it is a promotion earned inside the transportation department, from the people who watched you hold the junior versions of the job. The route in starts at the department's entry positions and runs through years of trusted work.
On covered productions, rates, hours, and conditions for the role are set by Teamsters contracts.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.
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