HGV class 1 driver jobs in Sunderland

Articulated work belongs to the freight transport by road industry. The 2024 Business Register and Employment Survey counted 1,500 employee jobs in it across Sunderland, 1.28% of the 117,000 employee jobs the survey records in the area.

Trunking and tramping routes are planned around operating centres rather than around towns, so the Sunderland figure describes where the vehicles are based, not where the drivers live. The survey also counts 2,500 warehousing and storage jobs in Sunderland, which is what sits at one end of most class 1 runs.

Median full-time pay for a job based in Sunderland was £32,015 a year in 2025, across every occupation in the area together. It is not a driving figure, and no local driving figure is published anywhere, because earnings are not broken down by occupation at this level.

UK Business Counts recorded 95 freight transport by road workplaces in Sunderland at the March 2025 reference date, 20 of them employing ten people or more. 75 of them, 78.9%, employ under ten, a lower share than most areas, so more artic work sits with medium fleets running planned trunks.

Of the freight transport by road employee jobs the 2024 survey splits by hours in Sunderland, 225 are part time, 15.3% of the split. The middle across the North East is 23%, so Sunderland sits below it, 9th of 12 areas on this measure. That is the shape most artic drivers would expect: full-time work with part-time hours around the edges.

Two further counts round out the Sunderland picture: 175 employee jobs in postal and courier activities, and 4,175 employee jobs across freight, warehousing and courier work.

Measured on employee jobs in freight transport by road, Sunderland ranks 4th of the 12 areas in the North East. The middle across the North East is 850, against 1,500 in Sunderland. Across the 153 areas in England the middle is 900. Next to Sunderland in that order sit Northumberland at 1,500 and Gateshead at 1,250.

On the separate business register count of freight transport by road workplaces, Sunderland ranks 3rd of the 12 areas in the North East. The middle across the North East is 58, against 95 in Sunderland. Across the 153 areas in England the middle is 200. Next to Sunderland in that order sit Northumberland at 130 and Darlington at 80.

None of this counts adverts. It counts 1,500 jobs and 95 workplaces that already exist in Sunderland, which is a different thing from what is open to apply for today.