Drivers' Mate Agency in Felixstowe
Drivers' mates and second crew for two-person deliveries, installations and heavy handball, supplied to operators in Felixstowe and the East of England as temporary cover.
What Felixstowe sites get from us
Agriculture still sets the calendar around Felixstowe. Harvest, packing and the run-up to Christmas land on the same warehouses and the same drivers and none of it arrives smoothly.
The freight geography around Felixstowe runs on the A14 and the Port of Felixstowe, the UK's largest container port. Operators draw on the Port of Felixstowe estates and the A14 container corridor and the employers booking temporary staff here are typically e-commerce and retail fulfilment sites along the A1 and M11.
Poultry, brassica and root-crop processing run to hard seasonal windows, so goods-in, yard and chilled picking work appears in blocks measured in weeks.
Transport Temps covers Felixstowe as a national agency. Drivers and warehouse staff are sourced against your specific booking, checked before they are confirmed and travel to your site for the shift. You get the person who fits the seat rather than whoever happened to be nearest.
Roles we fill
Almost nothing that decides whether a mate is any good appears on a document. There is no licence and no card. Reliability, lifting capability and how somebody conducts themselves in a customer's hallway are established through references and a direct conversation about the actual work, which takes longer than checking a certificate.
A crew that has worked together before finishes earlier than the same two people meeting at the gate. They have a method for the stairs, they know who takes the weight on the turn and neither of them has to explain the plan at every drop. Continuity of pairing is worth more on this work than anything written on paper.
Shifts and start times
Early starts in the packhouses and cold stores, typically from 04:00, with the day ending when the order is out rather than when the clock says.
Mates work the driver's shift — typically early loading with the crew away by mid-morning and evening slots on home delivery. Weekend work is common on retail installation.
Delivering an appliance and installing it are different jobs. Taking a door off its hinges, disconnecting a supply, managing a turn on a staircase and making good afterwards is skilled work a straight delivery crew may not do. The booking has to say which it is, because a crew that arrived to deliver and is asked to install will decline and will be right to.
The checks we run
Cover that turns up — Checked before the shift, not after the incident. Each item below is verified at registration and the licence checks repeat on a 90-day cycle.
- Right to work verified from original documents.
- References taken.
- Manual handling capability confirmed against the actual work.
- Where deliveries are into private homes, a basic DBS check where the client requires one.
Rates and payment
PAYE hourly, paid weekly, at the rate agreed on the booking, with overtime confirmed up front. Holiday accrues under the Working Time Regulations. After 12 weeks in the same role, Agency Workers Regulations parity applies. There is no standing rate card; the figure is agreed against the actual work when the booking is taken.
Long-running cover crosses the 12-week Agency Workers Regulations threshold, at which point equal treatment on pay and basic conditions applies. It is a planning question, not a surprise, so we show you the week count as it builds.
Open shifts
Shifts appear here once they are booked and confirmed. We would rather show you an empty board than an invented one — register your availability and we will match you against what comes in.
Questions, answered
How quickly can you cover a drivers' mate shift in Felixstowe?
It depends entirely on notice. A booking placed the afternoon before is usually fillable; one placed at 05:00 for an 06:00 start rarely is, whatever any agency tells you. We will always give you a straight answer on the call rather than a maybe.
What do you check before a drivers' mate starts work in Felixstowe?
Right to work verified from original documents. References taken. Manual handling capability confirmed against the actual work. Where deliveries are into private homes, a basic DBS check where the client requires one. All of it is completed before the assignment is confirmed. A worker who fails any part of it does not get offered the shift, which occasionally means we hand a booking back.
How does invoicing work for temporary staff in Felixstowe?
Weekly, consolidated and itemised by shift. If a line is wrong you reject the timesheet with a reason before it is billed, rather than paying it and reclaiming afterwards.
Related pages
Other cover we supply in Felixstowe
Drivers' Mates cover elsewhere in East of England
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.