Medway is a single labour market with four town centres in it, and that works in your favour. Rochester, Strood, Chatham and Gillingham sit close enough together that a worker from one will readily take a shift in another, and the rail network makes that practical without a car. The two things that genuinely constrain supply here are the river crossings at peak times, and the pull of London commuting on your more experienced people.
Talk to us about staffing your Medway site
Pickers, packers, FLT drivers, goods-in and yard staff supplied across Medway City Estate, Strood, Chatham, Gillingham and Lordswood.
- Tickets verified, not assumed
- Local, travel-ready staff
- Temp, temp-to-perm & permanent
One market, four towns, one river
The Medway towns function as a single travel-to-work area, which gives you a deeper pool than a town of Rochester’s size would suggest. Workers move readily between Strood, Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham, and the North Kent rail line makes that possible without a car.
The constraint is the River Medway. Most of the area’s warehouse capacity sits on Medway City Estate, on the Frindsbury peninsula on the Strood side — not in Rochester proper, despite how roles are usually advertised. At peak times the crossings are slow, which means a worker living in Chatham faces a materially different journey to a 7am start than one living in Strood.
In practice we screen for which side of the river a candidate lives on and match accordingly. It sounds minor and it is one of the better predictors of week-one attendance here.
What you are really competing with
London. High-speed rail from Strood and Rochester puts central London within commuting reach, and that pulls on exactly the experienced, reliable workers you want to keep. You are not only competing with the estate down the road; you are competing with a London wage.
That does not mean you have to match London rates. It means the non-pay parts of your offer have to be real: predictable shifts, a site that is easy to get to, and work that does not waste people. Plenty of workers will take less to avoid a two-hour round trip, but only if the local job is a decent one.
Smaller units. Medway has a higher proportion of small and medium units than a big-shed market does. For workers that often means more varied work, which some actively prefer. If that describes your site, say so in the brief — it is a genuine selling point rather than a limitation.
What we supply across Medway
- Warehouse operatives, pickers and packers — the volume roles across Medway City Estate and the Gillingham units.
- Counterbalance and reach drivers — tickets verified before placement. Reach is the harder of the two to fill locally.
- Goods-in and despatch clerks — particularly where paperwork accuracy matters on port-linked traffic.
- Loaders and yard staff — more common around the Chatham dock areas.
- Team leaders — usually temp-to-perm, and usually recruited from people who have already worked your floor.
Apply for warehouse jobs in Medway
Here for a job rather than for staff? Apply in minutes and we will match you to live roles across Rochester, Strood, Chatham and Gillingham.
- No experience needed
- Weekly PAYE pay
- Days, nights & weekends
Sites out towards Grain, and why they are a separate brief
If your operation is at Kingsnorth, on the Isle of Grain or at Thamesport, treat recruitment as a different exercise from a Medway City Estate requirement.
It is around fifteen miles east of Rochester on a peninsula with one main road and limited public transport, which restricts your pool to people who drive. Expect longer lead times, expect transport to be the deciding factor rather than rate, and consider whether a shuttle or a travel allowance would be cheaper than the vacancy.
We will tell you up front what is realistic for a Grain-based shift pattern rather than taking the booking and hoping.
How we work with Medway operators
We supply warehouse staff across Rochester, Strood, Chatham, Gillingham and Lordswood on temporary, temp-to-perm and permanent terms.
We screen for travel realism as well as for skills, because in Medway that is what determines whether someone is still with you in week three. To talk through a site and shift pattern, get in touch.