Experienced Removals Driver

Experienced Removals Crew / Van Lead - Burnley (covering East Lancs, Greater Manchester, UK-wide & soon Europe)

Experienced removals: £14.30/hour from day one, £15.00/hour once signed off as senior crew.
Transferable skills: £13.30/hour while we train you, £14.30/hour once signed off.

Right, let's be straight with you.

If you've done removals before, you already know there are two kinds of firm. The ones that throw it in the back, skip the wrapping and race home. And the ones that do it properly.

We're the second kind, and we're looking for someone who already knows the difference.

Every day you're walking into someone's home on what's often one of the most stressful days of their life. Moving house, downsizing after a death, relocating a business they've spent 20 years building. They're paying us a lot of money to get it right, and they remember the people who did.

Where we're heading

Over the next 12 months we're going after large commercial relocations and European removals. Bigger jobs, export work, more travel. We want people who can do the job properly now and help us build that side of the business, not just keep up with it.

The honest truth about working here

We're a small team: 5 vans and a truck, a tight crew, plus me (Craig) and my wife Jodie in the office. That means there's nowhere to hide, but it also means you're not a number. Everyone matters, everyone's involved, and everyone has a say.

It's not a "do as I say, not as I do" kind of place. Most days I'm running the business and our ops manager Andy is coordinating the jobs. But when it gets tough, we're both on the vans, lifting alongside you. Short-staffed day, awkward job, someone off sick, peak season chaos: we get stuck in. We don't expect anyone to do something we wouldn't do ourselves.

Some afternoons we all sit down together before clocking off and work out tomorrow. Who's going where, what's going to be tricky, what we can do better. If you've got years in the trade and a smarter way to load a job, we want to hear it. Your experience isn't just welcome here, it's the reason we're hiring.

It can also be a bit chaotic. Sometimes the keys don't turn up until 5pm. Sometimes the customer's added half a garage of stuff they forgot to mention. Sometimes the lift in a tower block breaks down on the third floor. We deal with it as a team, without losing our heads.

That means we need people who can actually communicate. Not just "yeah, alright", but real communication. Telling your mate the sofa's coming round the corner. Flagging early when something's not going to plan. Speaking up if you've got a better idea.

You're also the face of the business. Every five-star review we get is earned by the crew, not by me. We've got over 1,000 of them because the team gives a damn.

What a day actually looks like

• 7.30am: in the yard, brews, chat about yesterday's jobs
• 8am: vans prepped and checked, addresses loaded, off you go
• 9am-1pm: on site. Walk round, plan the load, wrap, protect floors, dismantle beds, wardrobes and dining tables, load properly
• 1pm-3pm: lunch and waiting for keys (paid time, sat in the van with the lads)
• 3pm-8pm: unload, reassemble everything you took apart that morning, everything in the room of choice, customer happy
• 8pm-ish: back to base, vans cleaned out, clock off

Some days finish at 6, some at 9. Winter days are tough: cold, wet, dark, still smiling at the customer. Commercial jobs often run evenings and weekends. European trips can mean several days away, with hotels and expenses covered.

Who we're looking for

Proper removals men, ideally with:

• Solid experience at a firm that did it right
• Export wrapping: paper, bubble, cardboard and cartons to a standard that survives a container or a long haul. This puts you at the top of the pile
• Commercial or office move experience
• The ability to plan a load, run a job on site and keep the crew moving

Or transferable skills. Joiners, furniture and kitchen fitters, HGV/C1 drivers, warehouse and logistics people who've handled high-value goods. If you're handy, careful and quick-thinking, we'll teach you the removals side.

Either way, you'll need to be:

• Full UK licence holder: 3.5T vans. C1 or HGV is a big bonus
• Physically fit: 15+ heavy lifts a day, stairs, awkward angles, sofas that don't want to go through doors
• Handy with tools: if you can't take an IKEA wardrobe apart and put it back together without the instructions, this isn't the job
• A thinker on your feet: when a wardrobe won't fit through the door, you work out the answer
• Reliable and trustworthy: we're in people's homes, lifting their valuables, often unsupervised
• Up for travel: overnights, and multi-day European trips once we're running them. A valid passport, or willingness to get one

This isn't for you if

• Your experience is speed over care
• You don't wrap things because "it's only going round the corner"
• You want to keep your head down and not engage with anyone
• You don't care whether the customer's happy
• You can't handle a bit of chaos
• You can't do evenings, weekends or time away when the job needs it
• You need someone to tell you what to do every five minutes
• You've got 10 years' experience but stopped learning after the first one

What you actually get out of this

The job itself

• £14.30/hour from day one if you're experienced, £15.00/hour as senior crew
• £13.30/hour while training on the transferable route, £14.30/hour once signed off
• Paid overtime, occasional bonuses
• Uniform provided, hotels and expenses covered for overnights
• Plenty of hours available, including Saturdays

The stuff money can't buy

• You'll see parts of the country most people never will. The Highlands of Scotland, little islands off the west coast, the depths of Cornwall, the Isle of Wight, central London. And over the next year, Europe. One week you're loading a flat in Burnley, the next you're watching the sunrise over a loch
• Real camaraderie. A tight crew that actually likes each other: banter on the vans, brews in the morning, having each other's backs on tough jobs
• Customer tips. £20, sometimes £50, occasionally £100+ on the big jobs, straight to the crew
• The buzz of finishing a hard day knowing you nailed it

Where it can lead

• HGV licence training
• Export wrapping and packing qualifications
• Surveying training: quoting jobs and dealing with customers at the front end
• Team leader, ops or surveying roles as we grow into commercial and European work
• The chance to be one of the people we lean on as the business expands

To apply

Hit apply on Indeed and we'll send you a short Google Form. It takes 5-10 minutes. If your answers look right, we'll have a proper chat over the phone, and we'll get the right people in for a face-to-face.

We're going to take our time on this one. We'd rather wait for the right person than rush in the wrong one.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Craig

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Permanent

Pay: From £13.30 per hour

Benefits:

• Free parking
• On-site parking

Application question(s):

• if on your trial day you was tasked with dismantling a 4 door ikea wardrobe with sliding doors, would you be confident you could take it down and put it back up within 2/3 hours with no instructions ?
• Are you available for a trial day if so when ?
• Have you a good work history ? If so how many jobs have you had in the previous 5 years ?
• Due to the nature of the job, a 5pm finish isn’t guaranteed and it’s difficult to know in advance, do you have any commitments that you need to be finished by a certain time daily?

Work Location: In person