Van Driver Agency in Daventry

Operators around Daventry compete for the same pool of shift-experienced warehouse staff, which is why rates here start moving earlier in peak than they do in most regions.

The freight geography around Daventry runs on the M1, A14, A42, A46, A50 and A5, East Midlands Airport — the UK's largest pure-freight airport — and the rail freight terminals at DIRFT and SEGRO Logistics Park East Midlands Gateway. Operators draw on Dove Valley Park at Foston and the A50 corridor between Derby and Stoke and the employers booking temporary staff here are typically rail-connected intermodal operators and the road legs that feed them.

Intermodal work rises and falls with container volumes at the coastal ports, so the road legs out of the rail terminals need cover that flexes week to week.

Nights in the distribution sheds on a fixed four-night pattern, with the fifth night covered by agency when it runs.

Sortation and load-out start before dawn, with routes out by mid-morning. Grocery and evening delivery slots run through to late evening, including weekends.

Before an agency driver takes a company van, somebody has to confirm the insurance covers them, that the licence check is current and that the walkaround defect check has been done and signed. It is a five-minute question that stops a shift dead at six in the morning if nobody asked it the night before, so it gets asked when the booking is taken.

A route rate does not remove the National Minimum Wage floor. Hours are recorded on every assignment whether the shift is priced by the hour or by the route, so when a round takes far longer than the route was built for, the arithmetic is visible instead of being absorbed quietly by the driver.

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 give an agency worker equal treatment on pay and basic conditions after 12 weeks in the same role with the same hirer. That clock starts on the first shift and we surface the count so it is never a surprise on the invoice.