What we check before anyone is confirmed
Seven checks, each one evidenced on a file rather than asserted on a page. This is the standard we commit to and it is deliberately limited to things that can actually be proved.
Why this list is short
Agency compliance pages tend to grow until they list everything that sounds reassuring. This one lists what can be evidenced: a DVLA check result, a card with a date on it, a certificate from a named accreditation body, a signed reference, a right-to-work record. If a check cannot be put on a file and produced when a hirer audits us, it is not on this page.
Two things follow from that. First, Transport Temps holds no trade-body membership, no ISO certification and no licence from a labour market regulator. It does not display badges for any of them. Second, everything below is a commitment we have to operationally honour on every single booking, not a description of an aspiration.
These are service commitments, not marketing. Every check listed here is one that can actually be evidenced on a file — a share code result, a card, a certificate, a signed reference. Nothing on this page depends on an accreditation Transport Temps does not hold.
Driving licence, by DVLA check code, every 90 days
The driver generates a check code themselves on the GOV.UK service for viewing or sharing driving licence information. That code lets us see the licence record — the categories held, the penalty points and any disqualifications — from the source rather than from a photocard that may not reflect the current position. A check code is valid for 21 days from the day it is created.
We re-run that check every 90 days for as long as a driver is on our books, which means a fresh code each time. Entitlements and endorsements change between assignments and a hirer relying on a check from six months ago is relying on nothing at all. The 90-day cycle is our own policy, not a legal period.
Driver CPC
Anyone driving a lorry, bus or coach professionally must hold Driver CPC. It is kept current by 35 hours of periodic training every five years and the card evidencing it — the Driver CPC card, known across the industry as the DQC — has an expiry date on its face. Driving professionally without Driver CPC can carry a fine of up to £1,000.
We check the card is in date before a first shift and we track the expiry alongside the driver's file so it is flagged before it lapses rather than discovered on the morning of a booking it invalidates. On 7.5 tonne work in particular, whether Driver CPC is actually required is a question about the specific work and the specific entitlement. It is settled at registration rather than assumed either way.
Digital tachograph driver card
Present, in date and readable. A card that is lost, stolen or faulty is a problem to raise before the shift rather than at the gate and drivers are told that explicitly at registration. On any booking where drivers' hours rules apply, this is checked as a condition of confirmation rather than as an afterthought.
Right to work in the UK
Verified before the first shift, never after it. Depending on the worker, that is either a manual check of original documents with the worker present, or a Home Office online check using a share code the worker generates. British and Irish citizens cannot generate a share code and are checked on documents. Where a worker's permission to work is time-limited, the expiry is recorded and re-checked before it falls due.
An employer who employs someone without the right to work and has not carried out a correct check can face a civil penalty. As the employment business, that duty sits with us for the workers we supply and it is one of the reasons this check is never delegated to a hirer or waived for speed.
References
Two work-related references, taken before a first shift rather than chased afterwards. A reference that cannot be reached is not a reference, so the referee list is treated as part of the registration rather than a formality at the end of it. For transport planning and traffic office cover, at least one reference should come from a transport operation rather than a general office — a planner who has never held a live network is a very different proposition from one who has.
Forklift and equipment certificates
Forklift accreditation is the most commonly overstated qualification in warehousing and it is overstated in two distinct ways: a certificate from a provider with no accreditation behind it and a genuine certificate for the wrong truck. A counterbalance ticket presented for reach truck work is not a paperwork error, it is a safety exposure on a live warehouse floor.
So we look at the certificate itself, we look at which accreditation body issued it — RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT or an equivalent recognised body — and we read the truck category on it against the truck the work actually uses. Naming those bodies is a statement about whose certificates we accept. It is not a claim that Transport Temps is accredited by any of them, because it is not.
Specialist qualifications, read against the work
- ADR is checked against the classes the load actually carries. An ADR qualification covering packages does not cover tanks and the two are routinely conflated.
- Lorry loader work needs a current accredited card and the card is read against the crane fitted to the vehicle rather than against the job title.
- Moffett work needs two separate things — the driving entitlement and an accredited truck-mounted forklift qualification. Holding one is not holding both.
- Tanker work carries product-specific training and site passports on top of ADR in tanks and each is checked separately.
- PCV work needs Category D or D1 plus a PCV Driver CPC, which is a separate qualification from the lorry one.
- Where a hirer requires a basic DBS check for the work — commonly on deliveries into private homes — it is arranged rather than assumed.
The limits of this page
Vetting reduces risk. It does not eliminate it and any agency implying otherwise is selling something. A check confirms a position on the day it is run, which is exactly why the licence check is repeated on a cycle rather than done once at registration.
Transport Temps is not a member of a trade association, holds no ISO certification and is not licensed by a labour market regulator. Where a hirer's own compliance regime requires something beyond the list above, tell us at booking stage. We would rather decline a booking on a requirement we cannot meet than meet it on paper.
Transport Temps is a trading name of Maine Couriers Ltd, a courier operator that runs its own fleet, its own drivers and its own compliance. The standards described on this page are the ones an operator applies to its own vehicles, applied to agency supply.
Questions about vetting
Is the 90-day licence re-check a legal requirement?
No. It is our own policy. The law does not set a re-check interval for an employment business, so a stated cycle is a commitment rather than a compliance minimum — which is precisely why it is worth stating and worth holding to.
Can we audit your compliance files?
Yes. Every check on this page is designed to be evidenced on a file: a check result, a card with a date, a certificate with an issuing body, a signed reference. Ask at booking stage what your audit needs to see and we will confirm before the assignment starts whether we can meet it.
Do you carry out DBS checks?
Basic DBS checks are arranged where the hirer requires them for the work, most commonly on deliveries into private homes. They are not run as standard on every worker, because a check nobody has asked for and nobody reads is not compliance.
Which forklift accreditations do you accept?
Certificates issued by a recognised accreditation body — RTITB, ITSSAR, AITT or an equivalent — with the truck category on the certificate matching the truck the work uses. Naming those bodies says whose certificates we accept; it is not a claim that we are accredited by them.
What happens if a worker's document expires mid-assignment?
Expiries are tracked alongside the worker's file and flagged before they fall due. If a document lapses, the worker comes off work that requires it until it is back in date and you are told rather than left to find out.
Are you a member of the REC or licensed by the GLAA?
No to both. There is no badge for either anywhere on this site. Transport Temps holds no trade-body membership and no ISO certification. If a compliance requirement of yours depends on one of those, say so before the booking rather than after.
Tell us who you need
Give us the class, the count, the dates and the shift. We confirm what we can cover and say plainly when we cannot.