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Reach drivers are harder to find than counterbalance drivers around Portbury, and the rate reflects it. WSUK places reach drivers at sites near Portbury and tells you the aisle width and racking height before you accept, not after.
Reach truck jobs around Portbury 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 Portbury want a current accredited reach certificate and normally real hours at height. WSUK places reach drivers around Portbury at £13.50—£15.50 an hour, more on nights, paid weekly through PAYE, with no fee to you.
Portbury lies on the southern bank of the Avon in North Somerset, where Royal Portbury Dock was built between 1972 and 1977 with the largest entrance lock of any UK port. The dock is one of the country's main gateways for imported cars, with huge vehicle storage compounds visible from the Avonmouth Bridge, and it also handles forest products, bulk cargoes, aviation fuel through the Bristol Aviation Fuel Terminal, and it has shipped Airbus aircraft wings. A rail line to the dock was reopened between 2000 and 2002. Junction 19 of the M5 sits right beside the dock, alongside Gordano Services, and the A369 connects Portbury with Portishead and Bristol. Around Royal Portbury Dock Road, Garanor Way, Marsh Lane and Royal Portbury Park at Portbury West, warehouses serve food, building materials and vehicle processing.
Car shipments arriving in large batches, and the processing and onward delivery that follows, cause sudden spikes in work around Royal Portbury Dock that can ease just as quickly. Every one of those swings opens gaps that must be filled quickly. WSUK supplies temporary warehouse and forklift teams — pickers, packers, loaders, goods-in/out operatives and counterbalance, reach and PPT truck drivers — inducted and ready for Portbury sites. We manage vetting, right-to-work verification, PAYE payroll and working-time compliance, and flex headcount up for peaks and back down afterwards.
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 Portbury and North Somerset, from Royal Portbury Dock, Garanor Way and Royal Portbury Park to workers drawn from Portishead, Pill, Easton-in-Gordano and Shirehampton. From a single counterbalance driver for a night shift to a full multi-shift picking operation, we mobilise vetted temporary warehouse and forklift staff quickly.
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 Portbury 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 Portbury 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 supplies temporary warehouse and forklift staff across the UK's major regional distribution hubs. Choose 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.
Tell us your ticket and the heights you have worked around Portbury. We will reply within 2 working hours.