HGV class 1 driver jobs in Shetland Islands

Articulated work belongs to the freight transport by road industry. The 2024 Business Register and Employment Survey counted 150 employee jobs in it across Shetland Islands, 1.15% of the 13,000 employee jobs the survey records in the area.

Trunking and tramping routes are planned around operating centres rather than around towns, so the Shetland Islands figure describes where the vehicles are based, not where the drivers live. The survey also counts 200 warehousing and storage jobs in Shetland Islands, which is what sits at one end of most class 1 runs.

Median full-time pay for a job based in Shetland Islands was £46,290 a year in 2025, across every occupation in the area together. It is not a driving figure, and no local driving figure is published anywhere, because earnings are not broken down by occupation at this level.

UK Business Counts recorded 15 freight transport by road workplaces in Shetland Islands at the March 2025 reference date, 5 of them employing ten people or more. 10 of them, 66.7%, employ under ten, well below the usual shape of the trade. Artic work in Shetland Islands is concentrated in larger fleets, and larger fleets bring planners and set shifts.

Of the freight transport by road employee jobs the 2024 survey splits by hours in Shetland Islands, 45 are part time, 26.5% of the split. The middle across Scotland is 19.5%, so Shetland Islands sits above it, 9th of 32 areas on this measure. A part-time share that size usually reflects weekend trunking and relief cover counted alongside the permanent fleet.

Two further counts round out the Shetland Islands picture: 0 employee jobs in postal and courier activities, and 350 employee jobs across freight, warehousing and courier work.

Measured on employee jobs in freight transport by road, Shetland Islands ranks 25th of the 32 areas in Scotland. The middle across Scotland is 250, against 150 in Shetland Islands. Next to Shetland Islands in that order sit Na h-Eileanan Siar at 150 and North Ayrshire at 125.

On the separate business register count of freight transport by road workplaces, Shetland Islands ranks 30th of the 32 areas in Scotland. The middle across Scotland is 40, against 15 in Shetland Islands. Next to Shetland Islands in that order sit Orkney Islands at 15 and West Dunbartonshire at 15.

None of this counts adverts. It counts 150 jobs and 15 workplaces that already exist in Shetland Islands, which is a different thing from what is open to apply for today.