Multi-drop delivery driver
A van, a route and a number of drops. The easiest driving job to get in this country and the one where the terms vary most, so read them twice.
Also called: Van driver, parcel driver, last mile driver, 3.5 tonne driver
What it pays
£24,000 to £32,000 a year, or £12.21 to £15 an hour. Some routes are paid per drop or per route rather than per hour, which can look better and work out worse on a bad day.
The hours
Usually 9 to 11 hours, five or six days. The round is finished when it is finished, which is the part nobody puts in the advert.
How you get in
- A full car licence, usually held two years
- Under 3.5 tonnes needs no HGV licence and no CPC
- Most operators want you over 21 for insurance
The tickets and qualifications employers ask for
Full category B licence A clean-ish licence: six points is where insurers start refusing Nothing else is legally required under 3.5 tonnes
What you should not be paying for
Nothing to fund, which is why the work is easy to get. Be careful with anyone who wants YOU to pay: for a van rental deducted from your pay, for a uniform, or for an application. That is a warning sign, not an industry norm.
What people like about it
- You can start this week with an ordinary car licence
- Home every night, and the route is usually local
- A real way into the trade while you fund a Class 2
What is genuinely hard
- Self-employed and pay per drop are common, and they shift the risk of a bad day onto you. Check whether the job is genuinely self-employed or whether you are a worker being called something else
- The drop count goes up in December and does not always come down
- The handheld. Scan, sign, photograph, upload, at every drop. Ask how many taps per delivery before you take the job, because on a 90 drop round it is the difference between finishing at four and finishing at seven
- Van damage deductions, which have to be lawful and often are not
Where it leads
- HGV Class 2 driver
- Warehouse and forklift
- Transport office and route planning
- Owner driver, with your eyes open
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