Van and multi-drop driver jobs in Manchester

Multi-drop van work sits squarely inside postal and courier activities, counted at 825 employee jobs in Manchester, 0.18% of the 453,000 employee jobs in the area.

Parcel volume follows population and depot placement rather than local industry, so an area with a sorting hub in it carries a count well above its size. Taking freight, warehousing and courier work together, Manchester records 4,125 employee jobs, 0.91% of everything counted locally.

UK Business Counts recorded 295 postal and courier activities workplaces in Manchester at the March 2025 reference date, 10 of them employing ten people or more. 285 of them, 96.6%, employ under ten. A one-person courier operation is usually an owner-driver, and an owner-driver round is a contract, not a job.

Of the postal and courier activities employee jobs the 2024 survey splits by hours in Manchester, 45 are part time, 5.3% of the split. The middle across the North West is 7.1%, so Manchester sits below it, 16th of 24 areas on this measure. Almost all of the split is full time, which is unusual in parcel work and generally means employed rounds rather than self-employed ones.

Two further counts round out the Manchester picture: 2,500 employee jobs in warehousing and storage, and 800 employee jobs in freight transport by road.

Measured on postal and courier activities, share of all employee jobs, Manchester ranks 20th of the 24 areas in the North West. The middle across the North West is 0.28%, against 0.18% in Manchester. Across the 153 areas in England the middle is 0.19%. Next to Manchester in that order sit Stockport at 0.19% and Westmorland and Furness at 0.14%.

On the separate business register count of postal and courier workplaces employing under 10, Manchester ranks 2nd of the 24 areas in the North West. The middle across the North West is 113, against 285 in Manchester. Across the 153 areas in England the middle is 145. Next to Manchester in that order sit Lancashire at 500 and Cumberland at 260.

That is the size of the courier trade in Manchester, 825 jobs across 295 workplaces, not a count of rounds going spare. Live adverts are listed above and nowhere else on the page.