Van Driver Agency in Knaresborough

Operators near Knaresborough run large sites on long shift patterns and a four-on four-off rota that loses one person loses a quarter of that team's cover for the week.

The freight geography around Knaresborough runs on the M62, M1, M18, A1(M) and A63, the rail freight terminals at iPort Doncaster and Wakefield Europort and the ABP Humber ports at Hull, Goole and Immingham. Operators draw on iPort at Rossington near Doncaster, off M18 junction 3 and the employers booking temporary staff here are typically retail and e-commerce distribution centres serving the whole of the North.

Trans-Pennine trunking is exposed to weather on the M62 more than most routes and a bad week pushes work into overtime hours the permanent staff have already used.

Nights on the M62 trunk routes, running between the northern distribution centres and back before morning.

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.

Start times on parcel work are set against the sort, not the route. A driver booked an hour before the load is ready stands in a yard being paid to wait and a driver booked an hour after it is ready leaves late and loses the first window. Setting the start against when the cages are actually built is worth more than any amount of chasing later.

Rescues and add-on work are the usual source of argument on parcel and grocery rounds. If a driver is asked to collect a second load, take on failed drops from another round or wait for a late sort, that is agreed as paid time at the point it is asked for, not reconstructed at the end of the week.

Twelve weeks in the same role with the same hirer triggers equal treatment on pay and basic conditions under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010. Most agencies notice this after the fact. We count it from shift one and flag it in advance.