Van and multi-drop driver jobs in Sunderland

Multi-drop van work sits squarely inside postal and courier activities, counted at 175 employee jobs in Sunderland, 0.15% of the 117,000 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, Sunderland records 4,175 employee jobs, 3.57% of everything counted locally.

UK Business Counts recorded 210 postal and courier activities workplaces in Sunderland at the March 2025 reference date, 0 of them employing ten people or more. Business counts are rounded one cell at a time, so the bands sit loosely against the total. 205 of them, 97.6%, 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 Sunderland, 75 are part time, 42.9% of the split. The middle across the North East is 71.8%, so Sunderland sits below it, 9th of 12 areas on this measure. A part-time share this size is normal in multi-drop, where evening and weekend rounds are a large part of the work.

Two further counts round out the Sunderland picture: 2,500 employee jobs in warehousing and storage, and 1,500 employee jobs in freight transport by road.

Measured on postal and courier activities, share of all employee jobs, Sunderland ranks 6th of the 12 areas in the North East. The middle across the North East is 0.13%, against 0.15% in Sunderland. Across the 153 areas in England the middle is 0.19%. Next to Sunderland in that order sit Darlington at 0.19% and North Tyneside at 0.1%.

On the separate business register count of postal and courier workplaces employing under 10, Sunderland ranks 2nd of the 12 areas in the North East. The middle across the North East is 93, against 205 in Sunderland. Across the 153 areas in England the middle is 145. Next to Sunderland in that order sit County Durham at 255 and Newcastle upon Tyne at 130.

That is the size of the courier trade in Sunderland, 175 jobs across 210 workplaces, not a count of rounds going spare. Live adverts are listed above and nowhere else on the page.