Gist is offering industry leading incentives of up to £5,000 for HGV drivers joining their business from August in order to boost capability and resources as it continues to deliver chilled foods and fresh produce for key customers including Marks & Spencer across the nation.

New drivers joining Gist now have the potential to receive a bonus worth up to £5,000 through a combination of a £2,000 sign-on bonus and up to three additional retention payments for continued service.

Gist employs more than 2,000 drivers, runs a modern, high-spec Euro 6 fleet, and offers drivers an excellent benefits package with generous pension scheme and sick pay, employee discounts, as well as progression and development opportunities.

Gist’s drivers are some of the best in the industry, having won a number of highly competitive data-driven Microlise awards, including winning the long distance driver of the year for two consecutive years, and the prestigious Driver of the Year 2020.

Gist is also addressing the nationwide driver shortage by training new drivers through its Driver Training Programme, offering industry-leading training at its bespoke training centre which opened in October 2019, and following COVID guidance will reopen in September. The centre features a static vehicle for training new drivers and a driver drop-in centre to support those re-training to become Class 1 HGV drivers.

Training is being undertaken by new employees through driver training apprenticeships as well as by existing Gist employees who are changing career from warehouse operative to HGV driver.

Agata Makowska, a recent graduate of Gist’s internal ‘Warehouse to Wheels’ apprenticeship scheme, has won Young Driver of the Year 2021.

Julian Bailey, Managing Director, Temperature Controlled Logistics, Gist, said: “By offering this substantial incentive, we’re hoping to entice experienced drivers who may have recently retired or moved to alternative careers back into the industry, and in the longer term, we’re hoping to encourage younger people to consider driving as an attractive career choice that offers great benefits.”