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Reach drivers are harder to find than counterbalance drivers around Brackley, and the rate reflects it. WSUK places reach drivers at sites near Brackley and tells you the aisle width and racking height before you accept, not after.
Reach truck jobs around Brackley 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 Brackley want a current accredited reach certificate and normally real hours at height. WSUK places reach drivers around Brackley at £13.50—£15.50 an hour, more on nights, paid weekly through PAYE, with no fee to you.
Brackley sits on the A43 between the M40 (Junction 10) and the M1 (Junction 15a), at the heart of England's 'Motorsport Valley'. The town is best known as the home of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One team, whose 60,000 sq m technology campus drives a cluster of precision-engineering and motorsport suppliers. The Buckingham Road Industrial Estate and Boundary Park off Boundary Road provide the town's core warehouse and light-industrial units, while nearby Silverstone Park — anchored by the famous circuit — hosts high-tech occupiers such as Ducati, Porsche, Hexagon and Lotus. With Towcester, Buckingham, Northampton and Silverstone all within a short drive, Brackley combines specialist manufacturing storage with straightforward distribution access across the South Midlands.
Brackley's motorsport, engineering and light-manufacturing base creates demand for storage and handling that flexes with build schedules, event calendars and production runs — and any absence or spike can stall a line. WSUK supplies temporary warehouse and forklift teams — pickers, packers, loaders, goods-in/out operatives and counterbalance and reach truck drivers — inducted for local sites and ready at short notice. We manage vetting, right-to-work checks, PAYE payroll and working-time compliance, so labour arrives cleared and legal. As workloads rise for a build push or seasonal peak and ease afterwards, we scale teams up and down, giving Brackley employers a flexible workforce that matches real output.
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 Brackley and its estates — Buckingham Road Industrial Estate, Boundary Park and Silverstone Park — plus Towcester, Buckingham, Northampton and the Silverstone cluster. From a single counterbalance driver for a shift to a full goods-in and picking crew, we mobilise vetted temporary warehouse and forklift staff quickly across the M40 J10 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 Brackley 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 Brackley 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 Brackley. We will reply within 2 working hours.