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Counterbalance is the most useful forklift ticket to hold, because almost every site that receives or despatches a vehicle needs one. WSUK places counterbalance drivers into loading, container and yard work across the Golden Triangle and the UK at £13.00—£15.00 an hour, paid weekly through PAYE.
Counterbalance forklifts carry the load out front, balanced by a weight at the rear, with no outrigger legs — which is what lets them drive straight into a trailer or a container. The work is loading and unloading vehicles, devanning containers, block stacking and moving pallets around a yard. It is the most common and most transferable forklift ticket in the UK. Sites want a current accredited certificate (RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT or NPORS). WSUK places counterbalance drivers across the UK at £13.00—£15.00 an hour, paid weekly through PAYE, with no fee to you.
WSUK operates from the heart of the Midlands Golden Triangle — the UK's densest concentration of warehousing, framed by the M1, M6, M42 and A14 and home to Europe's largest distribution and fulfilment parks including DIRFT, Magna Park, East Midlands Gateway, Prologis Park Ryton and Brackmills. E-commerce, parcel, retail and 3PL operators run round-the-clock picking, packing and dispatch here, with volumes that rise and fall sharply through the year.
That volatility is why employers need to fill temporary warehouse and forklift jobs at short notice — peak retail, promotions, product launches, sickness and holidays. WSUK supplies pickers, packers, loaders, goods-in/out operatives and counterbalance, reach and PPT forklift drivers, scaling teams up and down and managing vetting, right-to-work, PAYE payroll and working-time compliance, so operations stay covered without the fixed cost or admin.
Counterbalance work is the movement of goods in and out of the building rather than up into the racking. It is more varied than reach work and more of it is outdoors.
Driving into trailers and curtainsiders to load and unload, building and breaking down pallets on the bay, and working to a vehicle departure time.
Unloading shipping containers, often hand-balled onto pallets at the door and then moved by truck. Physical, and busiest at import-heavy sites and the ports.
Moving stock around a yard, block stacking where there is no racking, and feeding production or waste lines. Outdoor work in all weather, so sites provide the kit.
From our Golden Triangle base we fill temporary warehouse and forklift jobs for employers UK-wide, near the major distribution and fulfilment parks — DIRFT, Magna Park, East Midlands Gateway, Fradley Park, i54 and Brackmills — served by the M1, M6, M42, M69 and A14. From one shift-filler to a full seasonal team, we match trained, inducted staff to your site and shift pattern.
A current accredited counterbalance certificate, refreshed within the last three years for most sites, plus a familiarisation on their own trucks and traffic routes. Beyond that, counterbalance roles are the easiest forklift work to get into with modest hours behind you, which makes it the sensible first ticket if you are moving up from operative work. A lot of counterbalance shifts also include some manual handling, and we will tell you when that is the case.
Indicative PAYE rates as a guide — actual pay varies by shift, experience and site, with premiums for nights, weekends and bank holidays. Every rate we advertise is at or above the National Living Wage.
| Role | Indicative pay |
|---|---|
| Counterbalance FLT Driver (days) | £13.00–£14.50 / hr |
| Counterbalance FLT Driver (nights) | £13.75–£15.00 / hr |
| Container Devanning & FLT | £13.00–£14.75 / hr |
| Counterbalance & Reach (dual) | £14.00–£16.00 / hr |
| Warehouse Team Leader | £14.50–£18.00 / hr |
Counterbalance suits operatives taking their first step up, and experienced drivers who would rather be on the loading bay and in the yard than in a narrow aisle all shift.
Counterbalance is the ticket most often used as a lever to pay someone the operative rate for forklift work. We book and pay it properly.
From application to your first shift, with the checks and the payroll handled for you.
Tell us your licence, tickets and which shifts you can actually work.
A named consultant calls within 2 working hours to talk through what fits.
Right-to-work, references and the site induction handled before you start.
Start on shift, then paid weekly through PAYE with holiday accrued.
A forklift that carries the load on forks out front, balanced by a counterweight at the rear, with no outrigger legs. That design is what lets it drive directly into trailers and containers, which is why it is the truck used for loading, unloading and yard work.
For most people, yes. It is the most widely asked-for ticket because nearly every site loads or unloads vehicles, and it is the easiest forklift work to get into without a long history of hours. Reach and VNA pay more but sites are stricter about demonstrable experience.
Usually £13.00—£14.50 an hour on days and £13.75—£15.00 on nights. Drivers who also hold reach and can be used on both typically sit at £14.00—£16.00.
Often some, and container devanning in particular can involve a lot of hand-balling before the pallet is built. It varies by site and we will always tell you what the split between driving and handling is likely to be before you accept a shift.
Sometimes. Yard work, block stacking and external loading are all counterbalance jobs and happen in all weather, though plenty of counterbalance work is entirely indoors on a loading bay. We will tell you which a particular role is, and what kit the site issues.
Beyond our Golden Triangle base, WSUK supplies temporary warehouse and forklift staff to employers at the UK's major regional logistics hubs. Choose a region, then an area for local information.
Greater Manchester is the North West's main logistics hub, where the M60, M62 and M56 meet the Manchester Ship Canal, rail freight terminals at Trafford Park and Port Salford, and Manchester Airport's cargo operation.
Bristol and Severnside combine two deep-sea docks, the M4/M5 crossroads and one of the largest concentrations of big-box warehousing in the South West, from Avonmouth and Portbury to the aerospace cluster around Filton.
Stretching from London Stansted and the M11 along the A120 and A12 corridors to the ferry port at Harwich, this part of Essex and east Hertfordshire links air freight, sea freight and busy industrial estates.
Medway and north Kent line the Thames and Medway estuaries between the M25 and the Swale, combining working ports at Sheerness, Thamesport and Tilbury with M2, A2 and A249 industrial estates serving London and the South East.
The south bank of the Humber combines the UK's busiest port complex by tonnage at Grimsby and Immingham with refineries, Freeport land, food processing and steel, all tied together by the M180 and A180.
We serve employers across the UK's Golden Triangle and beyond. Choose your area for local information.
Tell us your ticket, your last refresher and whether you are happy with yard work. We will reply within 2 working hours.