Foodservice Distribution Across the UK

A kitchen orders to a service, not to a day. The chef needs produce before prep starts, and a delivery that arrives during lunch service is a delivery nobody can receive — the kitchen is busy, the walk-in is being used, and the pallet ends up in a corridor.

T&C Logistics distributes for foodservice wholesalers, fresh produce suppliers, catering distributors and specialist food producers into restaurants, pubs, hotels, schools, care homes and contract caterers. Companies House records over 500 active UK companies in foodservice, produce and catering supply. We have run temperature-controlled transport since 2020 with more than 3,000 vetted driver-partners nationwide. Quotes from £50 (ex VAT), quoted in full upfront before you book.

How are multi-temperature loads handled?

Separated rather than averaged. A load containing frozen, chilled and ambient product cannot travel at one temperature — the frozen thaws, the ambient freezes, or both.

The practical options are a multi-temperature vehicle with separate compartments, validated packaging for the smaller stream, or two runs. Which is right depends on volume: a small frozen element inside a chilled load usually travels better in insulated packaging than by allocating a second vehicle.

What does not work is loading everything into one chilled space and hoping. Frozen product that partially thaws and refreezes degrades in ways the receiving kitchen sees but the supplier does not. See our multi-temperature vehicle and frozen and chilled courier pages.

Who sets the temperature requirement?

The food business, not us. Chilled and frozen specifications come from the supplier's own food safety arrangements, and a carrier's job is to meet the stated requirement and evidence it.

UK food hygiene law places duties on food business operators to control conditions including transport, and to have procedures based on HACCP principles. Those duties belong to the producer and the receiver. A carrier that starts inventing temperature specifications has misunderstood the relationship.

What we provide is the specified temperature, a record of it where the arrangement requires one, and vehicles kept clean and free of cross-contamination with non-food loads. Tell us the specification and any recording requirement at the outset. See our temperature-controlled service.

Why are kitchen deliveries so early?

Because prep starts before service and receiving takes staff away from it. A delivery at six is unpacked before the kitchen is busy; a delivery at noon competes with lunch.

Sequencing follows the windows rather than the map, which is what makes these rounds worth designing properly.

Can you handle school and public sector delivery?

Yes, and education sites bring their own rules. Deliveries during term time have to fit around pupil movement, and many schools will not accept vehicles on site while children are present.

That usually means early delivery before the gates open, which suits kitchen timing anyway. School catering also runs to a rigid calendar — term dates, half-terms and holidays create a demand pattern with no smoothing, and the summer break removes the volume entirely for six weeks.

Sites usually require sign-in and sometimes an escort. Where a delivery reaches a kitchen through a corridor used by pupils, that route is closed during the day regardless of what the schedule says. Give us the access arrangement per site rather than a general note.

How are produce and short-life items different?

They have no buffer. Fresh produce arrives from a supplier with days rather than weeks of life, and every hour warm reduces what the kitchen can use.

Produce is also physically vulnerable in ways packaged goods are not: crushing, bruising and ethylene sensitivity all matter. Salad crushed under a case of potatoes arrives technically on time and commercially useless, and the complaint lands on the supplier rather than the carrier.

The practical rules are ordinary and effective: heavy at the bottom, produce not under anything, chilled maintained, and short-life items delivered first in the round rather than last. Where a supplier has specific handling requirements, they are worth stating rather than assuming a carrier knows.

Do you collect returns and crates?

Yes, and returnable equipment is a real cost in this trade. Crates, dollies, cages and pallets circulate between supplier and customer, and a delivery-only round loses them steadily.

Exchange on the same visit is the efficient arrangement: full out, empties back, counted at each stop. It costs a little handling time per drop and saves the replacement cost of equipment that otherwise accumulates in customers' yards.

Genuine food waste is a different stream and needs a destination rather than a corner of a vehicle. T&C Logistics holds Environment Agency upper tier registration CBDU654368 as a waste carrier, broker and dealer where a waste leg is genuinely required.

Can you cover peak periods and absence?

Yes, and both are common in this sector. Christmas, summer events and school terms create volume spikes that a supplier's own fleet cannot flex to, and driver absence hits an overnight round hardest.

Peak cover works best when it is planned rather than reactive. A wholesaler who knows December volumes will exceed fleet capacity can arrange additional rounds in October at a sensible price; the same request on 15 December competes with every other food business in the country.

Absence cover depends on documentation, exactly as in bakery work. A round that exists only in a driver's head cannot be covered at short notice; one written down as a customer list with windows and access notes can. See our same-day courier service.

What records do you provide?

Delivery times and locations against your own references, temperature records where the arrangement requires them, and GPS tracking on every vehicle throughout.

Temperature recording is the one that matters for a food business's own due diligence. Where a supplier's HACCP arrangements call for evidence that the cold chain held, that evidence needs to exist rather than be asserted — and a supplier being audited will be asked for it.

Reporting is per drop against your references rather than ours, which keeps your delivery records and ours aligned without reconciliation. See our food industry hub.

Can you handle ambient dry goods alongside chilled?

Yes, and most foodservice rounds do. Dry goods, packaging, disposables and cleaning products travel alongside chilled product, and the constraint is separation rather than temperature.

Cleaning chemicals are the item that needs attention. Many are classified for road transport, and a routine delivery of catering chemicals alongside food is a mixed load that a general carrier may be handling incorrectly. Our drivers hold ADR certification directly rather than through partners.

Food and chemicals also should not travel in contact regardless of classification. Loading discipline handles that — chemicals low and separated, food above and apart — and it costs nothing once the pattern is set. See our hazardous goods service.

What happens when a delivery is refused?

It comes back, and the reason matters more than the return. A refused chilled delivery is usually a temperature or a damage issue, and both need recording rather than resolving on the doorstep.

The common causes are a receiving kitchen with no space, a temperature reading outside the customer's specification, or damage discovered on opening. The first is a scheduling problem, the second a cold chain question, and the third belongs to whoever packed it.

What we do is record the refusal with the reason given, return the product, and tell the supplier the same day rather than at the end of the round. Returned chilled product is a food safety decision for the supplier, not something a carrier should judge — but it needs to get back cold enough for that decision to be available.

Do you deliver to farm shops, delis and independents?

Yes, and they are frequently the customers a large distributor serves worst. Small independents order less, are geographically scattered, and fall below the drop size a national network wants.

They also have the tightest windows. A deli opening at nine with one member of staff cannot receive at nine, and a farm shop on a single-track lane is not on anybody's efficient route. Those constraints are real rather than fussy.

Where a supplier has a cluster of independents in a region, a dedicated round frequently serves them better and cheaper than forcing them onto a network designed for larger drops. It is worth measuring rather than assuming they are unprofitable.

What does foodservice distribution cost?

Priced per round rather than per drop, quoted upfront, with fuel and goods-in-transit insurance included.

From £50 (ex VAT). Final price depends on distance, vehicle, urgency and time — quoted in full upfront. Related: bakery distribution and frozen and chilled courier. Call 0121 720 3841 or use our contact page.