How to hire HGV drivers and warehouse staff for a flat fee

What the data says

Median 36.5 days, against 42 across all the sectors we publish. The Driver search is the useful one: 21 candidates worked, three presented, two hired, because the distributor needed two drivers and said so in the brief. That is the pattern for volume logistics hiring — one honest advert, one screen, several hires.

Why driver adverts fail

Licence holders are not scarce. What is scarce is a driver willing to take your job over the three others open in the same postcode, and drivers decide that on a handful of facts that adverts routinely hide:

1. The hourly rate, and the overtime rate. Not "competitive". A number. Drivers know the local rates to the pound.
2. Guaranteed hours. A driver with a mortgage needs a predictable week. "Flexible" reads as "unpredictable".
3. The shift pattern and start times. 4am starts, tramping, nights out — say it in the first three lines. Anyone who will not do it is a wasted interview.
4. The vehicle and the work. Multi-drop, pallet, hazardous goods, temperature-controlled, handball or tail-lift. Drivers pick jobs by the work as much as the money.
5. What you pay for. Driver CPC renewals, medicals, uniform, parking. Employers who fund these say so and win the tie-breaks.

The honest summary: driver advertising rarely fails because the market is empty. It fails because the offer is vague and the driver has a clearer one open in another tab.

The compliance screen, by phone, before anyone comes in

For drivers, the screen is short and it is non-negotiable:

• Licence category and expiry, checked against the card, not the CV.
• Driver CPC — the periodic training every professional lorry and bus driver must hold. Ask for the card and the expiry date.
• Digital tachograph card, current.
• Points and convictions, declared and checked; your insurer will ask.
• Right to work, before the start date, not after.

For warehouse roles: forklift licence type and date if the role needs one, physical demands stated plainly, and shift availability confirmed against the rota you actually run.

Do this on the phone in ten minutes. It removes the candidates who cannot start and saves the transport manager a day of interviews.

Planners, transport managers and specialist drivers: a search

Not everything in logistics is volume hiring. A transport manager with an operator's licence qualification, a planner who can run a fleet's routing, or a driver with ADR and a clean record for a hazardous-goods contract — these people are in post and are not browsing adverts. They move for a better-run operation, a fleet that is not falling apart, and a manager who does not ring them on their day off.

Those roles are a search, and they are where a managed fee earns its keep.

What it costs

On a £30,000 driver, a contingency agency at 20% bills £6,000, and on a £40,000 transport manager it bills £8,000. For volume operative hiring that is the wrong model entirely: the work is an advert and a phone screen.

Two routes that fit the sector:

• Advertise it yourself, once, everywhere. Our job advertising puts the vacancy on every major board for a single fee from £399 +VAT, and you run the screen above in-house. For drivers and warehouse operatives this is usually the right buy, and it produces the two-hires-from-one-search result above.
• A managed search on a flat fee. Our Guaranteed Hire is £1,500 +VAT for roles up to £30,000 and £2,000 +VAT in the £30,000 to £44,999 band, with a 100% refund if the role is not filled. Use it for the planner, the manager and the specialist driver, where the search is the work.

What shortens the timeline

• Put the rate, the hours and the start time in the advert title. "HGV Class 2 Driver — £15.50/hr, days, Mon–Fri" outperforms "HGV Driver required" every time.
• Screen by phone the same day someone applies. Drivers take the first decent offer that rings them back.
• Say how many you need. The Driver search above produced two hires because the brief asked for two.
• Do not repost an unchanged advert. If a fortnight produced nothing, the rate or the hours are the problem.

Transport and logistics roles are covered by Guaranteed Hire on the same flat fee by salary band, or you can advertise the role yourself on every major board for a single fee and run the screen in-house.

Frequently asked questions