Most UK logistics companies start on Indeed when a depot needs drivers. Many drivers already look there, and posting is quick. The reasons operators give for looking elsewhere are usually the same: applications pile up faster than anyone can read them, most applicants lack the licence or the right to work the route needs, and the ones who look right do not answer the phone.
The alternatives for hiring delivery drivers in the UK each charge for a different part of that process. Which one suits you depends on the part you would most like to stop doing in house.
How Indeed charges employers
Indeed's UK pricing page sets out the model. Posting can be free, but "free postings may lose visibility over time". To keep a job in front of candidates you sponsor it, and sponsored jobs are charged per job seeker interaction, such as a click or a started application, billed monthly or when your spending reaches £500.
You are paying to put your advert in front of a lot of people, and Indeed is good at that. It does not know whether the person who clicked holds a category B licence, lives within reach of your depot or has the right to work in the UK, and it charges the same whether they do or not.
For a delivery operation, then, an Indeed hire has two costs: what you paid Indeed, and the hours your team spent turning a stack of applications into one driver who started. The second is usually the larger.
The alternatives, side by side
| Option | What you pay for | Who screens and checks | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indeed, sponsored | clicks or started applications | you | you need volume and have the team to sift it |
| Reed, Totaljobs, CV-Library | adverts, plus optional CV database access | you | you want a second audience, or to search CVs yourself |
| Find a job (DWP) | nothing | you | you want a free channel alongside a paid one |
| Driver recruitment agencies | a fee per placement, or a margin on hours worked | the agency, then you | you need temporary cover fast |
| Referrals from your own drivers | a referral bonus, if you pay one | you, but on better candidates | you already have drivers who stay |
| A vetted driver marketplace | an intro call with a hire-ready driver | the platform, before you meet them | the sifting and the no-shows are the problem |
Reed, Totaljobs and CV-Library
The other large UK job boards work on a similar principle with different pricing. Each sells job adverts, with an entry price published on its own recruiter pages, and each offers access to a CV database you can search yourself. Reed also sells pay-per-application campaigns alongside single adverts.
Their audiences overlap with Indeed's without being identical, so a second board can widen the pool for a hard-to-fill depot. Once an application lands, though, the screening, the calling, the document collection and the checks are your team's job, exactly as they are on Indeed.
Find a job
The Department for Work and Pensions runs Find a job, where employers advertise vacancies for free and reach jobseekers working with Jobcentre Plus. It is worth running alongside any paid channel. Like any board it does no screening, so its applicants are as ready, or as unready, as anyone else's.
Driver recruitment agencies
Agencies either place a driver on your payroll for a fee or supply one on their own books for a margin on every hour worked. They are the fastest way to cover a route next week, and the agency does the first round of checks. In return you pay the margin on temporary drivers for as long as the driver works through the agency, and the agency keeps a share of the relationship with the driver.
Referrals
Drivers referred by a colleague tend to know what the job involves before they start, and a driver who knew what they were signing up for is less likely to leave in the first month. A referral bonus, paid once the new driver has been with you for a set period, is usually the cheapest source of good drivers a depot has, though it only reaches as far as your existing team.
A vetted driver marketplace
Here you pay for an intro call with a hire-ready driver: someone who already meets the role's requirements and has been checked before you meet them. The filtering a job board leaves to you happens before the call.
That is how Service Club ® works, through Service Club Jobs. We find drivers in the cities you operate in, collect and check their documents against the licence, the right to work and the vehicle your routes need, and book the ones who qualify onto an intro call with you. Each intro call with a hire-ready driver is paid upfront, the platform fee is waived during Q4 2026, and if a driver does not turn up, we introduce someone else at no extra cost. You still run the interview, make the offer and decide who to hire. The Service Club Jobs page sets out the model and the pricing.
The legal checks you run, whichever channel you use
Two legal duties belong to the business that engages the driver, however that driver was found, so moving away from Indeed changes neither of them.
The first is the right to work check, and the penalties for getting it wrong are yours: up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach and up to £60,000 for a repeat within three years. From 1 October 2026 the scheme also reaches self-employed couriers and sub-contractors, which our guide to right to work checks for self-employed couriers covers in detail. A marketplace that collects and verifies the documents shortens the work, but the legal obligation is still in your name.
The second is the licence. A DVLA check code shows the categories a driver holds, their penalty points and any disqualification, and checking it takes seconds once the driver has generated the code. Your insurer will want it done.
No channel does the work that decides whether a new driver stays either: the induction, the first rounds, the first payslip. Our guide to recruiting delivery drivers covers the whole process from the vacancy to the first month.
How to choose between them
Take your last ten vacancies and count, for each one, the applications received, the candidates who met the requirements, the ones who turned up to speak to you, and the ones who started. Set side by side, those numbers show where your hires are lost.
- If the first number is low, you have a reach problem. Add a second board and Find a job.
- If the drop comes between applications and hire-ready drivers, you have a screening problem, and more applicants will make it worse.
- If it comes between hire-ready drivers and the ones who turn up, you have an engagement problem, and of the three it costs the most team time per hire.
The recruitment funnel post goes stage by stage through why drivers drop out between applying and starting.
Frequently asked questions
Is Indeed free for employers in the UK?
Posting a job on Indeed can be free, but Indeed's own pricing page says free postings may lose visibility over time. Sponsored jobs are charged per job seeker interaction, such as a click or a started application, and billed monthly or when spending reaches £500, whichever comes first.
What is the best alternative to Indeed for hiring drivers?
If you need more applicants, another job board or the free Find a job service widens the pool. If the problem is that most applicants never qualify or never turn up, a service that checks drivers before you meet them fixes more than a second board does.
Are there free alternatives to Indeed in the UK?
Yes. The Department for Work and Pensions runs Find a job, where employers can advertise vacancies for free and reach jobseekers working with Jobcentre Plus. Referrals from your existing drivers cost only whatever bonus you choose to pay.
Does a job board check a driver's licence or right to work?
No. A job board passes you the application and nothing more. The right to work check is a legal duty of the business that engages the driver, with civil penalties of up to £45,000 per illegal worker for a first breach, and the DVLA licence check is yours to run as well.
Why do so many driver applicants from job boards never show up?
Because applying costs a candidate one click, so a single advert collects people who are applying to many jobs at once, who lack the licence or the vehicle the route needs, or who have already taken another offer by the time you call. A long list of applicants says little about how many of them want your job.
Help with the sifting and the no-shows
If your count of the last ten vacancies points at screening or no-shows, get in touch with the roles, the cities and the volume you need. We will tell you which drivers we can put in front of you and how quickly.