Ask what a driver costs and you will usually hear the salary. Divide it by 30 and you have a daily figure that goes into the quote, the budget and the margin.
The real figure is about 28% higher, and the reason is not the extras people expect. This article builds the real figure in three steps, with the arithmetic, so you can run it on your own payroll.
The short answer
For a driver on a 21,000 baht monthly salary, a real figure from a Thai transportation company's cost table:
- Salary over 30 days: 700 baht a day. The number most people use.
- All in, per day the driver can actually drive: about 899 baht. 28% higher.
- Employer contributions explain only 5 points of that. The calendar explains the rest.
Step 1: what you pay in a year
Start with the pay base, because Thai law pays different days depending on how the driver is paid.
- Monthly salary. The weekly rest day is paid, because Section 56 pays it to everyone except those paid by the day, by the hour or by output in units.
- Daily wage. The weekly rest day is not paid. Traditional holidays and annual leave are paid either way.
So the same annual money looks different. 21,000 baht a month is 252,000 a year, which is 805 baht a day on a daily-wage slip (over the 313 days that are not weekly rest days) and 700 on a monthly one. When two people quote a driver "per day", check which basis they used.
Floors, so you know what is lawful
- General minimum wage. 400 baht a day in Bangkok, Chonburi and Rayong, 372 in Samut Prakan, 357 in Khon Kaen, down to 337 in the three southern border provinces. That is the notification in force since 1 July 2025. We found no newer one.
- Skill-standard rate. The Wage Committee has also set the occupation of truck driver at level 1 at not less than 485 baht a day, in force from about mid-September 2025. It is a separate rate for an assessed skill level, not the general minimum.
The driver in the study was on 21,000 a month, around 700 a day, which sits above both.
Step 2: what the employer adds
Two contributions, both on wages paid.
Social security. The employer pays 5% of wages: 1.5% for injury, sickness, disability, death and maternity, 3% for child benefit and old age, and 0.5% for unemployment. It stops at a ceiling. From 1 January 2026 the monthly wage base is capped at 17,500 baht, so the employer's cost is never more than 875 baht a month. The ceiling rises to 20,000 from 2029 and to 23,000 from 2032.
The cap changes the percentage a lot. On 21,000 baht, 875 is 4.2% of salary, not 5%. The study's cost table shows the same effect: its social security line of 45,000 baht for five drivers is exactly 750 a month each, the old 15,000 ceiling.
Workmen's compensation. The employer pays a percentage of wages, set by type of business. For general road freight the rate is 0.75% of wages, adjusted up or down by your claims record. A new notification lowers it to 0.40% from 1 January 2027. On 252,000 baht of wages that is 1,890 baht a year now and 1,008 baht after.
On 21,000 baht a month, one driver costs:
| Item | Baht a year |
|---|---|
| Salary, 12 months | 252,000 |
| Social security, employer, 875 x 12 | 10,500 |
| Workmen's compensation, 0.75% | 1,890 |
| Total | 264,390 |
The contributions add 12,390 baht, or 4.9%. That is the part everybody remembers. It is not the big part.
Step 3: divide by the days that can be driven
A salary pays for the whole year, but the driver can be on the road for only part of it. From how much capacity to commit: 313 days that are not weekly rest, less 13 traditional holidays, less 6 days of annual leave, leaves 294 days on which a driver can be on the road.
The same 264,390 baht gives very different daily numbers:
| Divided by | Baht a day | What it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days of salary | 700 | Nothing useful for pricing |
| 365 calendar days | 724 | What a calendar day costs |
| 313 non-rest days | 845 | Counts holidays and leave as days worked |
| 294 available days | 899 | What a day the truck can run costs |
Walk the 899 from the salary to see where it comes from.
| Step | Baht a day |
|---|---|
| Salary over 294 days (252,000 / 294) | 857 |
| Add social security (10,500 / 294) | +36 |
| Add workmen's compensation (1,890 / 294) | +6 |
| All in | 899 |
Most of the gap from 700 to 899 is the move from 30 to 294 days. It happens before you add a single contribution.
Absence moves it again
Sick leave is paid up to 30 working days a year under Section 57, and every day taken is a day the driver is paid and not available. Each sick day taken lifts the daily figure by about 3 baht (902 at 293 days, 915 at 289). Cost per available day is the number to track, because it moves when absence moves.
A truck that runs six days a week also needs relief cover, which is why ten trucks need eleven drivers. Each relief driver is paid at the same all-in day cost, so the figure per day driven stays near 899.
The hourly number misleads
A monthly wage turned into an hourly rate, 21,000 over 30 days over 8 hours, gives 87.5 baht. It is the right rate for working out overtime. It is the wrong rate for pricing a driver's time.
All in over the 8 normal hours of an available day, the figure is about 112 baht an hour, and that is before a truck waits at a dock. The driver is paid for every hour on that day whether it is moving or not, which is why what a unit of transport really costs is best measured per vehicle-day. Use the hourly rate for overtime and nothing else.
What sits outside the 899
Overtime. Land transport overtime is paid at one times the hourly rate unless you have agreed a higher one, up to two hours a day with written consent. On this salary that is 87.5 baht an hour, 175 for a two hour day. The limits and the windows are in structuring a small transport team.
Severance. Not a yearly cost, but a liability that grows with each year of service and falls due when you end the job without one of the six Section 119 reasons. It is counted in days of last wage:
| Continuous service | Days of last wage | At 700 a day |
|---|---|---|
| 120 days to under 1 year | 30 | 21,000 |
| 1 to under 3 years | 90 | 63,000 |
| 3 to under 6 years | 180 | 126,000 |
| 6 to under 10 years | 240 | 168,000 |
| 10 to under 20 years | 300 | 210,000 |
| 20 years or more | 400 | 280,000 |
The 300 and 400 day bands were added by a 2019 amendment, and many older summaries still stop at 300 days. Retirement under an agreed or set age counts as ending the job for this purpose. Unused annual leave is also paid out when the employee leaves, under Section 67.
Not priced here. Trip allowances, per diems, meal and accommodation payments, uniforms, medical checks, licence and training costs. This article had no primary source for what Thai operators typically pay on these, so none is invented. Add your own actuals.
What to do this week
- List each driver's real pay for the last twelve months, including everything paid on top of salary
- Add employer social security at 5% of wages up to 875 baht a month
- Add workmen's compensation at your current rate, and note the change on 1 January 2027
- Count the days each driver was actually available, starting from 294 and subtracting sick and other leave taken
- Divide cost by available days and compare with the figure in your quotes and budget
- Check the pay basis of any outside driver figure before comparing it with yours: monthly or daily slips differ by about 15%
- Keep a severance schedule by driver so the liability is a known number
Done once, this puts a real figure under every vehicle-day in your plan.