HGV class 1 driver jobs in Southampton

Articulated work belongs to the freight transport by road industry. The 2024 Business Register and Employment Survey counted 1,250 employee jobs in it across Southampton, 1.1% of the 114,000 employee jobs the survey records in the area.

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

Median full-time pay for a job based in Southampton was £39,464 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 345 freight transport by road workplaces in Southampton at the March 2025 reference date, 10 of them employing ten people or more. Business counts are rounded one cell at a time, so the bands sit loosely against the total. 330 of them, 95.7%, employ under ten. Artic work here comes from small yards rather than network depots.

Of the freight transport by road employee jobs the 2024 survey splits by hours in Southampton, 225 are part time, 18.4% of the split. The middle across the South East is 23.1%, so Southampton sits below it, 16th of 19 areas on this measure. A part-time share that size usually reflects weekend trunking and relief cover counted alongside the permanent fleet.

Two further counts round out the Southampton picture: 650 employee jobs in postal and courier activities, and 2,400 employee jobs across freight, warehousing and courier work.

Measured on employee jobs in freight transport by road, Southampton ranks 8th of the 19 areas in the South East. The middle across the South East is 1,000, against 1,250 in Southampton. Across the 153 areas in England the middle is 900. Next to Southampton in that order sit Slough at 1,250 and Buckinghamshire at 1,000.

On the separate business register count of freight transport by road workplaces, Southampton ranks 4th of the 19 areas in the South East. The middle across the South East is 225, against 345 in Southampton. Across the 153 areas in England the middle is 200. Next to Southampton in that order sit Surrey at 475 and Slough at 335.

None of this counts adverts. It counts 1,250 jobs and 345 workplaces that already exist in Southampton, which is a different thing from what is open to apply for today.