Sought-after truckers can earn £300 a day
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.