The driver, who posts on YouTube as HGV Meta, said the figure was what reached his bank account, not gross pay or an advertised salary. He said he wanted to show “real numbers after tax”.
The catch sits inside the same number. Some weeks went above £1,300 or £1,400, the driver said. Others came in at around £173, £193 or £275. Several brought no work at all. Shifts were cancelled. Contracts changed. The same year that produced a £54k after-tax total also produced weekly pay worth less than some single London night shifts.
That is the trade-off at the centre of agency driving: the hourly rate can beat most permanent jobs when shifts are available, and the driver can work the pattern. The risk sits with the driver when a depot is quiet, a contract dries up or a shift is pulled.
How he got to the number
Much of the early year was spent at Iceland in Enfield, which the driver described as a strong site for newer Class 1 drivers chasing hours: consistent agency shifts, overtime and competitive rates, set against difficult store deliveries and tight reversing.
He later moved through a lower-paid contract and a short permanent role before switching to Sainsbury’s agency nights for the final three months. That was the strongest stretch: the site was closer to home, fuel and fatigue dropped, and night rates pushed weekly take-home pay up.
Travel is the line that does not appear on the payslip. The Iceland site was around 25 miles each way, meaning 50 miles of commuting per shift. Fuel and time on the road, he said, eat into the headline rate when a site is far away.
What current UK rates look like
The £20-an-hour HGV job is real. So is the £173 week. Current job adverts confirm the upper end. Jobsite listings for Class 1 drivers in and around London show £20.44–£32.65 per hour at a Hatfield role and £18.15–£34.25 per hour for agency work across the capital and the South East. Tilbury fridge work is advertised at £20.70–£24.65 per hour on consolidated rates.
The pattern across adverts is the same: the strongest money comes from nights, weekends, overtime and specialist work.
A Reed advert for a Class 1 tanker driver in Bridgwater listed £16.63–£28.51 per hour, depending on shift pattern.
Why high pay still does not solve retention
The RHA’s 2026 Pay Report says long hours and stress still put people off the job. The same report notes that ASHE data showed median pay for full-time HGV/LGV drivers rose just 0.7% in the November 2025 release, against 5.8% the year before.
The association has also said the shortage has not gone away. Its refreshed analysis found around 110,000 HGV drivers did not renew their Driver Qualification Cards in December 2024.
The driver’s own version of the year was simpler. Six shifts in a good week. One or two in a bad one. Sometimes none. Thirty-eight days off. Zero nights in the cab. £54,267 in the bank.
