Warehouse Staff Agency in Ivybridge

Ivybridge is a long way from the national distribution centres, so most goods arrive on a regional leg and are re-handled locally before they go anywhere.

The freight geography around Ivybridge runs on the M5 south of Exeter, the A30, the A38 Devon Expressway, the A390 and A361, Cornwall Airport Newquay and the ports at Plymouth, Falmouth and Fowey. Operators draw on Skypark at Clyst Honiton, beside Exeter Airport and the employers booking temporary staff here are typically regional foodservice and drinks distributors supplying hospitality across the peninsula.

Hospitality across the peninsula orders more often and in smaller quantities in season, which raises the drop count and the driver requirement more than the tonnage suggests.

Early AM foodservice and drinks deliveries into hotels, pubs and holiday parks, finished before the roads fill up.

Warehouse cover runs around the clock on large sites — mornings, afternoons, twilight and nights, with 4-on-4-off and weekend blocks. Peak brings additional twilight and weekend shifts.

Chilled and frozen are a different job under the same job title. There is issued PPE, a different break structure, limits on time spent in the chamber and a physical reality that nobody enjoys on their first afternoon. Somebody who was told they were picking ambient and finds themselves in a freezer does not come back after lunch.

Twilight, night and weekend blocks are priced as blocks and agreed before anybody starts, so a rota that moves people between shift patterns does not produce different arithmetic every week. Where a site pays its own staff a shift premium, that is a conversation for the booking rather than for week twelve.

Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, a worker reaches parity on pay and basic conditions after 12 weeks in the same role. Breaks in service affect the count, which is exactly why it needs tracking rather than estimating.