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C1 covers vehicles from 3.5 to 7.5 tonnes — bigger than a van, smaller than an HGV. If you passed your car test before 1 January 1997 you probably already hold it without realising. WSUK places C1 drivers on weekly PAYE pay, with no fee to you.
Category C1 allows you to drive a goods vehicle between 3.5 and 7.5 tonnes — the classic 7.5 tonne box or curtain-sider. Drivers who passed a car test before 1 January 1997 were granted C1 automatically under what the industry calls grandfather rights, so a large number of people hold it without knowing; check your photocard for C1 in the entitlement list. Commercial C1 driving still needs a Driver CPC and a digital tachograph card. WSUK places C1 drivers across the UK at £13.00—£15.00 an hour, paid weekly through PAYE.
WSUK operates from the Midlands Golden Triangle, framed by the M1, M6, M42 and A14 and home to mega distribution parks and rail-freight interchanges including DIRFT, Magna Park, East Midlands Gateway and Prologis Park Ryton. National retailers, parcel carriers and 3PLs run round-the-clock trunking, multi-drop and store-delivery operations from these sites, with driving demand that swings sharply through the year.
That is why employers need to fill temporary driving jobs at short notice — peak retail, contract wins, sickness and holidays. WSUK supplies Class 1, Class 2 and 7.5t HGV drivers plus van and multi-drop drivers, scaling teams up and down and managing vetting, DVLA licence and CPC checks, right-to-work, PAYE payroll and tachograph and working-time compliance.
C1 sits in a useful gap: enough capacity to be worth sending, small enough to get into places an HGV cannot. That shapes the work.
Urban and suburban rounds with more volume than a van can carry but access an artic could never manage. Tail-lift and cage work is normal.
Two-person furniture, appliance and home delivery work, plus removals. Customer-facing, physical, and usually daytime.
Exhibition and event logistics, trade counter deliveries and mobile plant. Variable hours, often short intense runs around build-up and breakdown.
From our Golden Triangle base we fill temporary driving jobs for employers UK-wide, reaching the major logistics parks — DIRFT, Magna Park, East Midlands Gateway, Fradley Park, i54 and Brackmills — via the M1, M6, M42, M69 and A14. From one shift to an ongoing run, we match vetted, licence-checked drivers to your vehicles and routes.
Look at the back of your photocard. If C1 appears in the list of categories, you can already drive a 7.5 tonne vehicle — and if you passed your car test before 1 January 1997 it is very likely to be there, alongside a restricted C1+E. Two things to note: those pre-1997 entitlements have to be renewed at 70 with a medical, and driving commercially still requires a Driver CPC and a tacho card even though the licence itself came free. If you are not sure, send us your DVLA check code and we will tell you what you hold.
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 |
|---|---|
| 7.5t (C1) Multi-Drop | £13.00–£14.50 / hr |
| 7.5t (C1) Home Delivery | £13.00–£14.50 / hr |
| 7.5t (C1) Nights | £13.75–£15.00 / hr |
| 7.5t (C1) Event & Trade | £13.00–£15.00 / hr |
| C1 with HIAB | £14.50–£16.50 / hr |
C1 suits drivers who want more than van work without taking an HGV test, and anyone with a pre-1997 licence who did not know they were already entitled.
A lot of people are entitled to C1 work and never use it. Checking takes us two minutes and can be worth a pound or two an hour.
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.
A goods vehicle between 3.5 and 7.5 tonnes — typically a 7.5 tonne box van or curtain-sider. C1+E extends that to a trailer, though pre-1997 holders usually have a restricted version of it with a combined weight limit.
If you passed your car test before 1 January 1997, very probably. Those drivers were granted C1 and a restricted C1+E automatically. Check the categories listed on the back of your photocard, or send us your DVLA check code and we will read it for you.
Yes, for commercial driving. The licence entitlement and the Driver CPC are separate things, so holding C1 through grandfather rights does not give you a CPC. You need 35 hours of periodic training every five years, plus a digital tachograph card.
Typically £13.00—£14.50 an hour on multi-drop and home delivery, £13.75—£15.00 on nights, and up to £16.50 with a HIAB ticket. It sits between van work and Class 2 in both pay and responsibility.
It stays with you, but it has to be renewed when you turn 70 and that renewal requires a medical. Some drivers lose it at that point simply by not renewing. If you are approaching 70 and want to keep driving 7.5 tonne vehicles, do the medical rather than letting the entitlement drop.
Beyond our Golden Triangle base, WSUK supplies temporary HGV and van drivers 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.
Not sure whether you hold C1? Send us your DVLA check code and we will tell you, then match you to live work. Reply within 2 working hours.