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Reach drivers are harder to find than counterbalance drivers around Crick, and the rate reflects it. WSUK places reach drivers at sites near Crick and tells you the aisle width and racking height before you accept, not after.
Reach truck jobs around Crick involve putting pallets away into high racking and letting them down to replenish the pick face, working aisles too narrow for a counterbalance. Sites near Crick want a current accredited reach certificate and normally real hours at height. WSUK places reach drivers around Crick at £13.50—£15.50 an hour, more on nights, paid weekly through PAYE, with no fee to you.
Crick sits at the beating heart of the Golden Triangle, right beside the M1 (Junction 18) where it meets the A5 and the A14 to the M6. Its defining feature is DIRFT — the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal — a rail-road intermodal hub and 430-acre warehousing estate whose occupiers read like a roll-call of national distribution: Tesco, Royal Mail, the Co-op/NHS supply chain, Dunelm, ITX and Kinaxia, with Marks & Spencer building a 1.3 million sq ft food distribution centre. The adjoining Crick Industrial Estate adds further units. Rail links carry containers straight to the deep-sea ports. With Rugby, Daventry, Lutterworth and Northampton all minutes away, Crick is one of the UK's most concentrated logistics locations.
DIRFT's mega-sheds run around the clock, and that scale makes flexible labour essential: rail arrivals, grocery and parcel peaks, contract launches and absence all demand extra hands at short notice to keep despatch on schedule. WSUK supplies temporary warehouse and forklift teams — pickers, packers, loaders, goods-in/out operatives and counterbalance, reach and PPT drivers — inducted for the terminal's high-volume operations. We manage vetting, right-to-work checks, PAYE payroll and working-time compliance, so labour arrives cleared and lawful. As volumes surge for a peak and ease afterwards, we flex headcount to match, giving Crick operators dependable cover without permanent overhead.
Reach is a precision job more than a heavy one. Most of the difficulty is height, aisle discipline and working cleanly around pickers on foot.
Taking pallets from the goods-in marshalling area up into the racking, and bringing them back down to replenish the pick face. The bulk of most reach shifts.
Working at height in racking that commonly runs 8—12m and beyond. Placing a pallet cleanly on a top beam is the skill sites are actually paying for.
Narrow aisles mean working close to people on foot. Sites run strict segregation rules and will induct you on theirs before you drive.
WSUK covers Crick and DIRFT, plus the Crick Industrial Estate and neighbouring Rugby, Daventry, Lutterworth and Northampton. From a single counterbalance driver for a shift to a full multi-shift picking and loading crew for a rail-fed distribution centre, we mobilise vetted temporary warehouse and forklift staff fast across the M1 J18 catchment.
A current accredited reach certificate is the baseline. Beyond that, most sites want evidence that you have real hours on a reach rather than a ticket taken years ago and never used, because placing a pallet on a top beam is a skill that fades. Expect a short practical assessment on your first shift and a familiarisation on the site layout, aisle widths and racking heights. If your ticket has lapsed we can usually sort a refresher.
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 |
|---|---|
| Reach Truck Driver (days) | £13.50–£15.00 / hr |
| Reach Truck Driver (nights) | £14.00–£15.50 / hr |
| Reach & Counterbalance (dual) | £14.00–£16.00 / hr |
| VNA / High-Level Driver | £14.00–£16.50 / hr |
| Warehouse Team Leader | £14.50–£18.00 / hr |
Reach work suits experienced forklift drivers who are comfortable at height and want the better end of warehouse rates without moving into transport.
Reach drivers get asked to cover counterbalance work at the counterbalance rate all the time. We book you as a reach driver and pay you as one.
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.
It varies a lot. Modern distribution sheds near Crick commonly run somewhere around 8—12m, while older units are lower. Because beam height changes the job considerably, we give you the actual figure for a specific site before you accept the shift.
Some. Chilled and frozen sites around Crick run reach trucks the same way ambient sites do, but the conditions and the PPE are different and the rate usually reflects it. We always flag whether a role is ambient, chilled or frozen before you accept.
Putting pallets away into high racking and bringing them down again, in aisles too narrow for a counterbalance. The mast reaches forward over the stabilising legs, which is what lets the truck work aisles of roughly 2.7—3.2m and lift well above the height a counterbalance manages.
Typically £13.50—£15.00 an hour on days and £14.00—£15.50 on nights. Drivers who hold reach and counterbalance and can be used on both usually sit at £14.00—£16.00, and VNA work pays more again.
Yes. Forklift training is truck-specific, so a counterbalance certificate does not cover you for reach. You need an accredited reach certificate from a body such as RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT or NPORS, plus a familiarisation on the site's own trucks.
WSUK serves employers across the Golden Triangle. Explore our other locations.
Tell us your ticket and the heights you have worked around Crick. We will reply within 2 working hours.