Aldi follows Tesco in raising drivers’ wages to fend off labour shortage

Aldi has followed Tesco in boosting its drivers' pay as the UK’s chronic shortage of HGV drivers continues.

The supermarket chain confirmed this week it has increased wages but declined to say by how much. On its website’s careers page they are listed at between £14.15 and £15.34 per hour for day shifts, and £16.98 and £18.41 per hour for night shifts.

The move follows Tesco offering drivers a £1,000 bonus for drivers who join before 30 September.

Asda is now also offering a £1,000 signing-on fee to HGV drivers.

Other supermarkets are using a variety of tactics to tackle the driver shortage. Morrisons said it was aiming to boost driver numbers via its driver training scheme. A spokeswoman told MT: “We do not have incentives for new joiners like Tesco has announced but we are working on a number of internal initiatives such as training our own colleagues to become HGV drivers.

“We will pay for all the training costs and because the opportunities are with our partners we will protect continuous employment.”

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Sainsbury’s declined to say if it had raised its driver rates for “commercial and competitive” reasons. Last month it followed Tesco in hiking its primary distribution charges in response to rising haulier rates driven by the HGV driver shortage.

The 2.9% increase was revealed in a letter to the supermarket’s primary suppliers. The additional charge is on the cost of the third party haulage service used to collect goods from supplier depots and deliver them to distribution centres. Suppliers were given 12 weeks’ notice of the additional surcharge.

The rate hike, which starts in October, was announced after a similar increase by Culina subsidiary Warrens Group, which is a Sainsbury’s primary haulier distribution partner.

Sainsbury’s decision follows that of Tesco earlier this month, which saw the supermarket giant hike rates for some suppliers by 14%.

Waitrose and Lidl have yet to confirm whether they have also raised their drivers’ wages.