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A forklift ticket is the single biggest pay rise available on a warehouse floor, and the shortage of ticket holders means the work is steady. WSUK places counterbalance, reach, PPT and VNA drivers across the Golden Triangle and the UK on £13.00—£16.50 an hour, paid weekly through PAYE.
FLT jobs cover the four truck types most UK warehouses run: counterbalance, reach, powered pallet truck (PPT) and very narrow aisle (VNA). There is no government forklift licence — under HSE guidance your employer must make sure you are adequately trained, so sites ask for a current accredited certificate (RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT or NPORS) and usually want a refresher taken within the last three years. WSUK places FLT drivers across the Golden Triangle and the UK at £13.00—£16.50 an hour depending on truck and shift, 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.
The four trucks pay differently because they are not equally easy to find people for. Here is what each one is actually used for and where it sits on the pay ladder.
The classic forklift with forks out front and no outrigger legs. Used for loading and unloading trailers and containers, yard work and block stacking. The most common and most transferable ticket.
Reach trucks work narrow aisles and lift into high racking, with the mast reaching forward. PPTs are powered pallet trucks for ground-level movement and order picking. Reach pays a premium.
Very narrow aisle trucks, often man-up, working wire- or rail-guided aisles at height. The smallest pool of drivers, so the best-paid, and sites will want demonstrable hours.
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.
There is no such thing as a government-issued forklift licence in the UK. What exists is accredited training: your employer has a legal duty to ensure you are adequately trained for the truck you operate, and in practice that means a certificate from a recognised body — RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT or NPORS. Certificates do not expire by law, but almost every site wants a refresher within the last three years, and will give you a short familiarisation on their own trucks and layout regardless. If your ticket has lapsed, tell us — it is usually a one-day refresher rather than starting again.
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 |
|---|---|
| PPT / LLOP Driver | £12.71–£14.00 / hr |
| Counterbalance FLT Driver | £13.00–£15.00 / hr |
| Reach FLT Driver | £13.50–£15.50 / hr |
| VNA / High-Level Driver | £14.00–£16.50 / hr |
| FLT Team Leader | £14.50–£18.00 / hr |
FLT work suits people who already hold a ticket and want to be paid properly for it, and warehouse operatives who want the clearest available route to a higher rate.
We place a lot of forklift drivers, so we know which sites run which trucks and which ones will actually pay the reach rate rather than the operative rate.
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.
Not a government licence — there is no such thing. Under HSE guidance your employer must ensure you are adequately trained for the truck you operate, so sites ask for a current accredited certificate from a body such as RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT or NPORS, plus a familiarisation on their own equipment.
There is no legal expiry date on a certificate, but the widely followed guidance is a refresher every three to five years, and most sites will not take you on with a ticket older than three years. A refresher is usually a single day rather than a full course.
VNA, because the pool of drivers is smallest — typically £14.00—£16.50 an hour. Reach follows at around £13.50—£15.50, then counterbalance at £13.00—£15.00. Holding more than one ticket widens what you can be booked for and usually lifts the rate.
With a current ticket, yes, though some sites want demonstrable hours on the specific truck, particularly for reach and VNA. If you have the ticket but few hours, counterbalance and PPT roles are the easier way in and we will tell you which sites are realistic.
We do not charge you for anything, and we never take money from a work-seeker. Where a client funds training for a role we are filling we will tell you. Otherwise we can point you at accredited local providers and let you know which ticket is worth having for the work in your area.
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 which trucks you are ticketed on and when you last had a refresher. We will match you to live roles and reply within 2 working hours.