UK Courier Driver Turnover Statistics 2026

Quick Answer: There is no single published set of UK courier driver turnover statistics. Employed depot drivers and self-employed parcel couriers are not in the same official series, and CIPD does not publish a courier rate. The figures below are CIPD and Office for National Statistics numbers you can cite, each with its year and its limit.

Last updated: 25 September 2026.

A depot that copies a percentage from a blog, then treats it as the cost of the next leaver, is budgeting against someone else's workforce. Use the sources in the table. Put your own leavers, cover and lost drops into the driver turnover cost calculator.

• There is no single UK courier turnover rate
• Recruitment cost you can cite
• What sits outside the median
• Early leaving
• Pay pressure
• What to measure on the rota this month
• Frequently asked questions
  • What is the UK courier driver turnover rate?
  • What does it cost to replace a driver?
  • Why do Zerity's old pages disagree?
  • Does recognition halve turnover?
  • Should I quote the 4.1% median?

# There is no single UK courier turnover rate

Courier driver turnover statistics fail when one percentage is asked to describe two jobs. An employed depot driver who resigns is labour turnover. A self-employed courier who stops taking a round may never appear on a payroll report. The Office for National Statistics Annual Population Survey, which CIPD uses for its national benchmark, follows employees. It is not a census of parcel couriers.

CIPD's labour market economist James Cockett, writing on 11 June 2024, put average UK employee turnover at 34% for January 2022 to December 2023. That splits into 27.4% who moved to another employer and 6.6% who were not working a year later, for example because of study, retirement or long-term sickness. About two-thirds of employees stayed with the same organisation. By industry, CIPD's chart for the same period runs from 25% in public administration and defence to 52% in hospitality. Transport and courier work is not given its own line on that page.

The CIPD Resourcing and talent planning report 2026, published in September 2026 with Omni RMS, reports a different kind of number. Among 310 employers who gave a complete turnover figure, the median labour turnover rate for 2025 was 4.1%, down from 5.4% in the 2023 reading of the same survey. CIPD says a disproportionate share of those replies came from very small organisations with no turnover or very low turnover, and that variation is large, so the median needs caution. It is not a courier rate, and it is not comparable with the 34% household-survey figure. One counts people moving over a year in a national sample. The other is the middle value of employer forms, pulled down by firms that barely hired.

| Figure | What it counts | Period | Source | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 34% | UK employees who were not with the same organisation a year later (27.4% joined another employer, 6.6% were not working) | Jan 2022 to Dec 2023 | CIPD analysis of the ONS Annual Population Survey, 11 June 2024 | | 25% to 52% | Lowest and highest industry turnover on that CIPD chart (public administration and defence, hospitality) | 2022 to 2023 | Same CIPD article | | 4.1% | Median labour turnover among 310 employers who supplied a full figure. CIPD warns the sample is skewed to very small organisations | 2025, published Sept 2026 | CIPD Resourcing and talent planning report 2026 | | £2,000 | Median cost per hire for other employees, not senior managers. Estimates said to be accurate within 20%. Includes technology, in-house time, advertising, agency fees, tests, vetting and onboarding | 2026 survey, 223 organisations | CIPD 2026 report, table 1 | | £1,500 | Previous survey's median for other employees. The 2024 table counted in-house time, advertising and agency or search fees | 2024 survey, 207 organisations | CIPD Resourcing and talent planning report 2024 | | 41% | Share of organisations that had selected candidates and said new recruits always, mostly or sometimes resigned within 12 weeks. Not the share of people who leave | 2024 survey | CIPD 2024 report | | 24% | Share of organisations that know their turnover and say they calculate its cost | 2026 survey | CIPD 2026 report |

None of these rows is a Zerity benchmark. Zerity does not publish a courier churn rate.

# Recruitment cost you can cite

The number to cite for hiring, and only for hiring, is CIPD's median. In the 2026 report the median cost of recruiting "other employees" is £2,000. The base is 223 organisations whose estimates were accurate to within 20%. Senior managers and directors are a separate line, at £3,500 in the same survey. In the private sector, which is where courier companies sit, the 2026 median for other employees is also £2,000, on a base of 151. CIPD says sector comparisons need caution because some cells are small and because organisations do not all include the same costs.

The 2024 report's median for other employees was £1,500, on a base of 207. The private-sector median that year was £1,750, on a base of 159. Do not describe £2,000 as a simple rise on an identical definition. The 2024 table header limited the cost to in-house resourcing time, advertising, and agency or search fees. The 2026 note says the cost should also include resourcing technology, psychometric and selection tests, vetting, and onboarding. Part of the gap can be a wider shopping list, not only a more expensive advert.

Both figures are medians of what HR respondents said they spend to recruit. They are not the cost of a courier leaver, and they are not an average inflated by a few agency searches. CIPD also says this subsample may not represent the full survey of more than 1,000 people professionals.

Of the organisations that were aware of their turnover data, 24% said they calculate the cost of labour turnover. The rest are deciding retention spend without that sum. That is from the 2026 report, not from a courier study.

# What sits outside the median

CIPD's June 2024 turnover article lists the costs that a full leaver usually involves: administration of the resignation, recruitment and selection, cover while the job is vacant, and induction and training for the new person. The 2026 recruitment median already asks respondents to include onboarding. Cover and the work that does not get done are still outside it.

For a multi-drop depot those extra lines are concrete. Someone else runs the round, or the round is dropped. A van sits. A customer account is shared across the remaining drivers. Training on the patch, the scanner and the safe-place rules takes days that a recruitment invoice does not show. Add those from your rota. Do not replace them with a round total from another website. Published blogs often stack those days into one figure and then present the stack as if a survey had measured it. CIPD has not published that stack for couriers. If your old notes quote a single replacement cost with no source and no year, retire the note.

The driver turnover cost calculator takes your recruitment spend, your cover and your lost drops. It does not insert a national courier average.

An example of the arithmetic, not a benchmark: a depot with 40 people at the start of the month and 42 at the end has an average headcount of 41. Two leavers is 2 divided by 41, about 4.9% for that month. That percentage describes that depot in that month. It is not the UK courier rate, and a quiet month does not prove the year.

# Early leaving

The useful early-leaving figure is about employers, not about a 90-day fate for drivers. In the 2024 CIPD report, 41% of organisations that selected candidates in the previous 12 months said new recruits always, mostly or sometimes resigned within the first 12 weeks. That is the share of employers who see early resignation at least sometimes. It is not "41% of new drivers leave in 12 weeks".

The 2026 report says selected candidates were less likely than in 2024 to renege on an offer, miss the first day, or resign within 12 weeks. It does not replace the 41% with a new combined percentage in the summary. Count your own starters. Of the people who began in the last 12 weeks, how many have already stopped taking work? Keep employees and self-employed couriers in separate columns. A contractor who was never an employee will not show up in a CIPD-style labour turnover rate, and can still empty a Monday round.

# Pay pressure

Pay is one reason rounds are handed back. It is not a turnover percentage, and it should not be averaged into one. BBC News reported on 15 December 2025 that Evri pays couriers as little as 35p for a parcel in its small-packet size, and that couriers are paid when the parcel is delivered and photographed. The BBC said couriers are not paid an extra amount for scanning and loading at the depot, while Evri says that time is built into the parcel rates. Evri's own statement, dated 15 December 2025, says average courier earnings exceed £20 an hour and that it introduced the small-packet rate in February 2025. The BBC reported that Evri had told them the size was introduced in January. Use Evri's statement for Evri's claim about the month, and the BBC report for the 35p figure. The two descriptions are not the same sum: one is a minimum piece rate for one size of parcel, the other is a company average hourly claim.

A dense block of flats and a village round do not produce the same hourly result from the same pence per drop. That is why a retention conversation that starts with "the rate" and never counts the miles will misread why people leave. Work a real round through the courier rate per drop calculator. How gross pay becomes take-home pay is set out in courier driver earnings in the UK.

# What to measure on the rota this month

1. Split the workforce. Employees in one list, self-employed couriers in another. A single percentage that mixes them cannot be compared with CIPD or with last year.
2. For each list, divide leavers in the month by the average of the headcount at the start and at the end. Record voluntary leavers separately from people you removed.
3. Of everyone who started in the last 12 weeks, record how many have already stopped. That is your early-leaving count. Do not label it with the CIPD 41% figure.
4. Write four cost lines, matching the split CIPD describes: resignation admin, recruitment, cover, and training that is not already inside the recruitment invoice. The £2,000 median is a reference for the recruitment line only, and only if your definition matches the 2026 note.
5. Repeat next month. A stat page goes stale when the next CIPD report lands. Replace the £2,000 row when CIPD publishes a new median. Do not keep a superseded year because it is the number already in a slide.

When the count is real, the operating response belongs in a courier driver retention guide. Use your own leavers, not a national rate. Depots that run onboarding, documents and pay in one place can compare that file with self-serve pricing and with driver management for courier businesses. The price is £6 per active driver per month. It is not a finding about turnover.

# Frequently asked questions

# What is the UK courier driver turnover rate?

Nobody publishes one figure that covers employed depot drivers and self-employed parcel couriers. Divide your leavers by average headcount, and keep the two groups separate.

# What does it cost to replace a driver?

CIPD's 2026 median recruitment cost for other employees, not senior managers, was £2,000, compared with £1,500 in the 2024 survey. Cover, lost rounds and training you have not already counted are extra, so calculate them on your own numbers.

# Why do Zerity's old pages disagree?

They should not. Those averages are being removed. The driver turnover cost calculator uses your inputs.

# Does recognition halve turnover?

Zerity does not claim that. Count leavers before and after any change in pay, recognition or the rota, and do not borrow a percentage from a case study.

# Should I quote the 4.1% median?

Only with the method attached. CIPD's 2026 employer survey median is 4.1% for 2025, and CIPD says the replies are skewed toward very small organisations. It is not a courier driver turnover rate.