[1][2] A recently released convict takes a driver's job at a haulage company and encounters violence and corruption.

Saying that he has returned from time abroad, Tom Yately seeks work as a truck driver with Hawletts, a haulage company.

Mr. Cartley, the depot manager, informs Tom that his drivers convey their ten-ton loads of gravel fast over bad roads.

His mother refuses to accept money from Tom, blaming him for Jimmy's life-changing leg injury that requires him to use crutches.

Gleeful, Red informs Tom his wages were docked to replace equipment damaged as a result of the drivers' bullying.

While they wait outside Gino's room, Lucy says that Cartley and Red have been scamming money by hiring five fewer drivers than the company pays for and pocketing the difference.

It provided early appearances for Jill Ireland and David McCallum, who met and married during the film's production.

Sid James was a regular supporting actor in British films at the time and appeared in most of the Carry On series.

Herbert Lom starred in the ABC Weekend TV series The Human Jungle before playing the hapless Commissioner Dreyfus in The Pink Panther film franchise.

Others including Robin Bailey, Charles Lamb, John Horsley and Wensley Pithey featured regularly in British films and television thereafter.

Footage of a Hawlett's lorry going over the edge of a quarry was reused in "The Heiress" episode of the Rank Organisation television series Interpol Calling.

There are some good individual acting performances, but the film, though produced with efficiency and assurance, is disagreeable and occasionally vicious.

"[7] Leslie Halliwell opined: "Absurd, violent, hilarious and constantly surprising melodrama with the silliest of premises backed by a good cast and well-handled thrill sequences".

[9] Reviewing for Empire, Kim Newman said "Hell Drivers is a rare British crime film with the blazing excitement and working-class grit of the best American hardboiled thrillers.

"[10] In The New York Times Dave Kehr said the film "achieves an intensity of action and an existential resonance comparable to The Wages of Fear.

The DVD featured commentary by sound assistant Harry Fairbairn and journalist Andrew Robertson, and extras including Look in on Hell Drivers.