Hiring a professional driver is not like hiring for an office role. The licensing, compliance and assessment requirements are specific; the candidate market behaves differently; and the consequences of getting it wrong sit on your O-licence as well as your P&L. This guide walks through a permanent driver hire end to end, in the order it should happen. It is written for operators recruiting on a permanent basis — which is the only way Freight Talent works.
"Class 1 driver" is not a job description. Two roles with that title can be entirely different jobs with entirely different candidate pools. Before anything else, write down:
A structured hiring brief captures all of this in about ten minutes and is the fastest way to make sure everyone is recruiting for the same job.
Advertising below market and hoping is the most common self-inflicted wound in HGV recruitment. Benchmark the whole package: base rate or salary, night and weekend premiums, overtime thresholds, whether breaks are paid, holiday entitlement, pension contribution above statutory, and any night-out allowance. Then compare with what comparable operators within a sensible commuting radius are offering. Our salary checker gives an indicative starting point and our logistics salary guide sets out the wider picture across logistics disciplines.
Decide before you advertise whether the rate is fixed or negotiable, and who signs off an exception. Losing a good candidate because approval took four days is avoidable.
Lead with what the job gives, not what it demands. The first three lines should tell a driver the work type, start time, home time and pay. Then the shift pattern, then the equipment, then the requirements. Be specific: "Trunking, Mon–Fri, 05:00 starts, home every night, 2024-plate units, paid breaks" outperforms a paragraph of generic copy every time.
Avoid unnecessary barriers. Requiring five years' experience, a spotless licence and a specific ticket may feel prudent, but each condition removes candidates. Be clear about which requirements are genuinely non-negotiable and which are preferences you would train for.
Advertising reaches drivers who are actively looking. The strongest candidates in a driving recruitment agency's market are usually not. A serious sourcing approach in 2026 combines:
Where we add value as driver recruitment specialists is the direct-approach layer: our driving recruitment desk maps and works the permanent driver market in a given area rather than waiting for inbound applications, alongside our driver recruitment and haulage recruitment teams.
This step protects your operator's licence and is not optional. As a minimum, verify:
Record the checks and set diary reminders for expiries. A driver whose CPC lapses is a driver who cannot work.
Compliance checking is not a formality at the end of the process. Done early, it prevents you investing three weeks in a candidate who cannot legally do the job.
A driver interview should cover attitude to safety and compliance, decision-making under pressure, customer interaction, and honesty about record and history. It should not be an interrogation — experienced drivers have options, and an adversarial interview loses them. We set out a practical question set in 10 interview questions every transport manager should ask, and what to look for in what makes a great HGV driver.
Pair the conversation with a practical driving assessment on the vehicle type they will actually operate, ideally including a proper walk-round check. The walk-round tells you more about a driver's professionalism than almost anything else.
Make the offer verbally the same day you decide, follow it with written terms within twenty-four hours, and be explicit about start date, rate, shift, holiday and notice. Then stay in contact through the notice period. Drivers with in-demand licences are frequently counter-offered, and silence between offer and start date is where placements are lost.
Plan the first week: site induction, systems and paperwork, an introduction to the planners and workshop by name, and at least one day running the routes with an experienced colleague. Then check in at week one, month one and month three. This is where retention is won or lost, as we explain in how to reduce driver turnover.
Employers: if you would rather run this process with a permanent-only specialist alongside you, submit your vacancy and we will map the driver market around your depot and manage the search end to end. Candidates: if you hold an HGV licence and want a permanent role that matches the life you want, not just the licence you hold, upload your CV and we will talk it through properly.
Market mapping, direct approach, full compliance checking and honest briefing — so the driver you offer is the driver who starts.