Burton Mail

Sought-after truckers can earn £300 a day

- By JENNY MOODY jennifer.moody@reachplc.com

A SHORTAGE of HGV drivers is causing problems across the country – and Burton is to exception.

As bosses desperatel­y try to hire people to fill the positions, some are paying salaries of more than £80,000.

Other recruiters are offering pay packets of more than £300 a day, plus extra bonuses for continued work in a bid to entice HGV drivers to the company.

Across Staffordsh­ire, there are plenty of jobs on offer and some come with a big payday. Burton also has a lot of choice for drivers looking for work.

Agency Staffline is offering up to £337.35 a day for nine-hour shifts, with work available across the entire week for DHL based in Fradley Park, Lichfield.

Drivers, who can start immediatel­y, can even earn overtime each day, with no deductions for breaks taken. The recruitmen­t agency is also looking for drivers in Tamworth to deliver food across the UK, with a £28.02 bonus for every sixth shift worked.

Drivers could see potential earnings of up to £1,596.68 per week – more than £83,000 a year. It comes after supermarke­ts have started advertisin­g lorry driver jobs with salaries of about £56,000 as the nationwide shortage leaves empty shelves at stores.

Gist, a logistics company delivering for Tesco, M&S, Aldi, Morrisons and Ocado, is offering annual pay of up to £56,674 for LGV drivers.

Waitrose has joined the national plea for delivery drivers by advertisin­g salaries of up to £53,780 – more than the £45,000 being offered to senior executives in other recruitmen­t ads.

The supermarke­t chain, which is also offering a £1,000 joining bonus, says it has increased the pay for truckers by an average of £7,000 in the past 18 months.

A Waitrose lorry driver earning £53,780 a year would be making more than the average salary for secondary school teachers (£40,880), solicitors (£43,190) and architects (£42,930), the Times reported.

The Road Haulage Associatio­n estimates there is a shortage of more than 100,000 drivers in the UK, out of a pre-pandemic total of about 600,000.

It has been blamed on post-brexit EU immigratio­n rules causing many drivers to leave the UK, along with Covid-19 restrictio­ns and self-isolation guidance.

The health crisis has also brought DVLA testing centres to a standstill, creating a huge backlog of drivers waiting to take their HGV test.

The Government is considerin­g bringing forward a review of its Shortage of Occupation list to tackle the issue, the PA news agency understand­s.

With that in mind, we took a look on jobs website Indeed.com to find out what jobs are on offer in Burton for lorry drivers.

This is what we found:

■ Alstons (Upholstery) Ltd is looking for a Class C+E driver, based in Tutbury. It offers a salary of £680 a week.

■ Sciensus is in need of Class 2 HGV night drivers. It comes with a salary of £30,600.

■ Maurice Hill Transport Limited is a family-owned and run road haulage company in Burton and it is after HGV Class 1 driver for a salary of £12.50 an hour.

■ Pertemps is after HGV2 drivers for a client in Burton and it comes with a salary of £14.50 an hour.

■ Menzies Distributi­on is after HGV drivers that hold a C+E licence and previous tanker driving experience to join the Burton team. It comes with a salary of £35,000 a year.

■ A.M.C Transport Solutions, in Burton, is after Class 1 drivers required for days, nights and tramping. It is offering a salary of £140 to £160 a day.

■ Road and Rail Limited is looking for a HGV Class 1 tipper driver required for a daywork position in Burton.

 ??  ?? In-demand lorry drivers can earn hundreds of pounds aday. Waitrose is among supermarke­ts offering big pay packets
In-demand lorry drivers can earn hundreds of pounds aday. Waitrose is among supermarke­ts offering big pay packets

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