Cover booked by the shift, invoiced by the week
Transport Temps is an employment business. We supply temporary drivers and warehouse staff to UK operators, check them before they are confirmed and bill the whole week on one invoice.
An employment business, not an employment agency
The two are different things in law and the difference decides who carries the risk. An employment agency introduces a worker to you and you employ them. An employment business supplies a worker who remains engaged by the business and works under your direction. Transport Temps is an employment business. The driver in your yard is paid by us, contracted through us and covered by our obligations as the supplier — you get the labour and the timesheet, not the payroll.
That is also why the pages on this site talk about cover, shifts and assignments rather than vacancies. If you want to employ someone permanently, that is a different transaction with a different brand behind it and we will say so rather than quietly turning a temporary booking into a hiring fee.
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.
The seats we cover
Class 1 (C+E) drivers
Trunking, tramping, container and store delivery work, on the hardest seat in the industry to fill at short notice.
Class 2 (Cat C) drivers
Multi-drop, trade counter, tipper and municipal work, where the drops matter as much as the driving.
7.5 tonne (C1) drivers
Multi-drop, home delivery and event logistics, with the C1 entitlement and CPC position checked properly.
Van and multi-drop drivers
Parcel, courier and last-mile routes on a standard Category B licence.
Forklift drivers
Counterbalance, reach and VNA, with the certificate checked against the truck the work actually uses.
Warehouse staff
Operatives, pickers, packers and goods-in cover, in the head count the site needs on the morning.
Drivers' mates
Second crew for two-person deliveries, installations and heavy handball.
Transport office staff
Planners, traffic clerks and transport administrators for absence and peak cover.
Alongside those, twelve qualification-led desks run nationally, where the certificate has to be read against the work rather than taken on trust.
How a booking runs
A booking needs five things and nothing else: the class or role, how many, the dates, the shift times and the site postcode. Anything you add beyond that — the vehicle, the run, the gate contact, the PPE — makes the match better, but it is not what holds a booking up.
- You send the booking, by form or by phone. It carries a reference from that moment and every timesheet and invoice line hangs off that reference.
- We come back with what we can actually cover and what we cannot. Same-day is possible where availability allows; next day is the realistic standard.
- The worker is named to you before the shift, with the checks already done rather than done afterwards.
- The site brief goes out to the worker in writing — start time, address, gate contact, vehicle, what the run looks like.
- Hours are logged against the booking reference as a digital timesheet, not on a paper slip that goes missing.
- You approve or reject each timesheet and a rejection carries a reason rather than a silence.
- Approved timesheets roll into one consolidated weekly invoice for every booking you ran that week.
The ten steps are set out in full on how it works.
Workers are sourced against your specific booking rather than pulled from a standing list, then checked and confirmed to you by name before the shift. Matching the person to the seat is what makes cover actually hold. Where we cannot cover a shift we say so rather than confirming it and failing you on the morning.
One approval, one invoice
The single most common complaint about agency labour is not the worker. It is the paperwork — a stack of paper timesheets, four invoices for four bookings and a query that takes two weeks to resolve because nobody can prove what hours were worked.
Hours are logged against the booking reference and presented to you as a digital timesheet. You approve it or you reject it with a reason. Only approved timesheets can be invoiced, so an invoice line can always be traced back to an approval you gave, on a date, against a reference. One invoice covers the week across every booking you ran and each line names the worker, the site, the date and the hours.
Where a booking runs long enough to cross the twelve-week Agency Workers Regulations threshold, we count it from the first shift and tell you before it lands rather than after. That is explained on the Agency Workers Regulations page.
What is checked before anyone is confirmed
- Licence entitlement confirmed from a DVLA check code the driver generates, with points and disqualifications visible on the record and re-run every 90 days for as long as the driver is on our books.
- Driver CPC card in date for anyone driving a lorry professionally.
- Digital tachograph driver card present and readable.
- Right to work in the UK verified before the first shift, by original documents or by a Home Office online check where the worker can provide a share code.
- Two work-related references, taken before a first shift rather than chased afterwards.
- Forklift certificates checked as issued by an accredited body and read against the truck type the work actually uses.
- ADR, lorry-loader, Moffett and PCV qualifications checked against the specific work, because the categories on a card do not all cover the same thing.
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.
The full standard, including what each check proves and what it does not, is on compliance and vetting.
What we will not do
We will not confirm a booking we cannot fill. An unfilled shift you knew about at 16:00 yesterday is a problem; one you find out about at 05:55 is a crisis and the difference is entirely down to whether the agency was willing to say no.
We will not send a worker whose paperwork we have not seen. A licence category taken on trust, or an expired CPC card, is your exposure as much as ours.
We will not quote a rate on a web page. Rates move by region, class, shift pattern and how much notice there is. A published figure that is stale by a month is worse than no figure at all. Every charge rate is quoted against the actual booking, in writing, before the worker is confirmed.
We will not take a permanent hiring brief and dress it up as temporary supply. Permanent roles go to Freight Talent, the permanent-only sister brand. Both are trading names of the same company, Maine Couriers Ltd. A route from temporary cover into a permanent contract is a different, legitimate thing and it is handled under temp to perm with the fee basis agreed in the terms of business before the assignment starts.
Questions from employers
How quickly can you cover a shift?
Same-day cover is possible where availability allows it and next day is the realistic standard. We would rather decline a booking than confirm one and leave you short on the morning, so the answer you get is about that specific shift rather than a blanket promise.
What does an agency driver cost?
Charge rates are quoted per booking, in writing, before anyone is confirmed. They move with the class, the region, the shift pattern, the notice given and whether the work is ongoing. A single published figure would be wrong in most places it was read, which is why the quote is written against your actual booking rather than lifted off a list.
Who employs the worker while they are on our site?
We do. Transport Temps is an employment business, so the worker is engaged and paid through us and works under your direction on site. You get the labour and the timesheet; the payroll, the deductions and the holiday accrual sit with us.
What happens after twelve weeks?
After 12 calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, an agency worker qualifies for equal treatment on pay and basic working conditions under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010. We count that from the first shift and flag it before the threshold lands, so it is a planned cost rather than a surprise on an invoice.
Do you supply nationally or only near Birmingham?
Nationally. The registered office is in Birmingham because that is Maine Couriers Ltd's registered office, not because we run a branch network. Workers are sourced against your booking and travel to your site.
Can we take a temporary worker on permanently?
Yes. The basis is set out in the terms of business before the assignment starts rather than raised afterwards. Under the Conduct Regulations 2003 a transfer fee is only chargeable where the terms also give you the alternative of an extended period of hire and where the employment starts within the period those regulations define.
What if the worker does not turn up?
Tell us immediately and we work the replacement while you are still on the phone. A no-show is not billable and a worker who repeatedly fails to attend comes off the books rather than being quietly moved to another client.
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.