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Trainee train driver question

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Liddybird

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6 Feb 2014
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23
Just wondering what kind of hours trainee train drivers do in the classroom whilst training. Is there opportunity for overtime while training?
 
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Liddybird

Member
Joined
6 Feb 2014
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23
Thought it would be along those lines. Any idea if you get free train travel whilst training?
 

156441

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Joined
30 Aug 2011
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501
Location
Manchester
Northern give travel tickets for other operators if your route from Home Depot to the training school is more efficient on another operator.
 
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Pepperami

Member
Joined
6 Dec 2013
Messages
248
Location
West Sussex
I can only speak from experience

9-5 is the official time for training, and its a 5 day week, and no, no overtime is payable as a trainee.

When you do your front end turns, (for me I had 4 weeks in total in the first three months) then you are assigined a Driver, and cover his shift pattern to get you used to working all the different shifts, this becomes a four day week "Sort Of" as drivers work different days, we as trainees worked 4 days a week, and we had weekends off, again this was a pay thing for Sundays, and as trainees we were told to enjoy the weekends while we could :)

As a trainee, you get a staff travel pass, but the first one issued for us (Thameslink) only covered us on TL services, after the initial month pass we got a proper one, that we could use on several TOCs within the Brand of "First" and "Govia"

Hope this helps :)
 

A-driver

Established Member
Joined
9 May 2011
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4,482
To be pedantic most TOCs will be 9-4 as it makes an average 35hour week. And then when you go onto shift work for bits it transfers to an 8:45 4 day week.
 

Liddybird

Member
Joined
6 Feb 2014
Messages
23
I can only speak from experience

9-5 is the official time for training, and its a 5 day week, and no, no overtime is payable as a trainee.

When you do your front end turns, (for me I had 4 weeks in total in the first three months) then you are assigined a Driver, and cover his shift pattern to get you used to working all the different shifts, this becomes a four day week "Sort Of" as drivers work different days, we as trainees worked 4 days a week, and we had weekends off, again this was a pay thing for Sundays, and as trainees we were told to enjoy the weekends while we could :)

As a trainee, you get a staff travel pass, but the first one issued for us (Thameslink) only covered us on TL services, after the initial month pass we got a proper one, that we could use on several TOCs within the Brand of "First" and "Govia"

Hope this helps :)


Thanks that's very helpful :)
 

Johncleesefan

Member
Joined
4 Sep 2013
Messages
729
With my Toc I get travel time from home station paid as overtime to and from training school
 

redbutton

Member
Joined
5 Sep 2013
Messages
459
Can anyone tell me where the trainers centres are please ?

Locations and hours depend on the TOC.

Re: training hours, Southern are using a new e-learning based course called the Driver Learning Framework, which does away with much of the classroom hours and written exams in favour of simulator exercises, static traction, and practical driving. So there aren't set hours, you just get booked for practical activities on an ad-hoc basis and are expected to make up the remainder of 35 hours per week doing book learning on your own using the computer or iPad (with trainer support by phone, chat, and email). The main advantage to this is that you spend most of your instructor-led time learning by doing. The downside is that activities can be scheduled to take place at various locations and various times- earlies, lates, and Saturdays according to resource availability.

Re: overtime, Southern allows trainees to work Sundays (outside the working week) during their practical handling hours as long as their DI is booked to work the Sunday and he or she agrees to it. The company allows it because you only get to see certain diversionary routes or shunt moves during Sunday engineering works.

So the working hours and conditions for trainees definitely depend on the TOC; it's not always "M-F 8-4 in the classroom" anymore.
 

Liddybird

Member
Joined
6 Feb 2014
Messages
23
Locations and hours depend on the TOC.

Re: training hours, Southern are using a new e-learning based course called the Driver Learning Framework, which does away with much of the classroom hours and written exams in favour of simulator exercises, static traction, and practical driving. So there aren't set hours, you just get booked for practical activities on an ad-hoc basis and are expected to make up the remainder of 35 hours per week doing book learning on your own using the computer or iPad (with trainer support by phone, chat, and email). The main advantage to this is that you spend most of your instructor-led time learning by doing. The downside is that activities can be scheduled to take place at various locations and various times- earlies, lates, and Saturdays according to resource availability.

Re: overtime, Southern allows trainees to work Sundays (outside the working week) during their practical handling hours as long as their DI is booked to work
the Sunday and he or she agrees to it. The company allows it because you only get to see certain diversionary routes or shunt moves during Sunday engineering works.

So the working hours and conditions for trainees definitely depend on the TOC; it's not always "M-F 8-4 in the classroom" anymore.

That sounds like a pretty decent way to be to go through the training. Is that for around 9-12 months in duration?
 

dr1323

Member
Joined
1 Jun 2015
Messages
210
Location
Corby
Hi all,

Is anyone still waiting for a position to come up for Bedford?

Passed all tests and medical just now waiting for a start date told possibly July?

My friend mentioned they are due to change onto the iPads soon but had not as of May apperantly
 

redbutton

Member
Joined
5 Sep 2013
Messages
459
That sounds like a pretty decent way to be to go through the training. Is that for around 9-12 months in duration?

That's the initial training, about five months. Then you go out with a DI for 225 driving hours (about 4 months depending on the depot) followed by core route learning (several weeks depending on depot).

After all that, you take your initial competence assessment (ICA, formerly known as ICOC or Part 6) where they assess your rules, traction, and route knowledge over four or five days of driving.

If all goes well, the whole thing start-to-key takes about 12 months.
 

Polar

Member
Joined
10 Jan 2013
Messages
132
Locations and hours depend on the TOC.

Re: training hours, Southern are using a new e-learning based course called the Driver Learning Framework, which does away with much of the classroom hours and written exams in favour of simulator exercises, static traction, and practical driving. So there aren't set hours, you just get booked for practical activities on an ad-hoc basis and are expected to make up the remainder of 35 hours per week doing book learning on your own using the computer or iPad (with trainer support by phone, chat, and email). The main advantage to this is that you spend most of your instructor-led time learning by doing. The downside is that activities can be scheduled to take place at various locations and various times- earlies, lates, and Saturdays according to resource availability.

Re: overtime, Southern allows trainees to work Sundays (outside the working week) during their practical handling hours as long as their DI is booked to work the Sunday and he or she agrees to it. The company allows it because you only get to see certain diversionary routes or shunt moves during Sunday engineering works.

So the working hours and conditions for trainees definitely depend on the TOC; it's not always "M-F 8-4 in the classroom" anymore.

Gtr are moving over to this type of training very shortly
 

TDK

Established Member
Joined
19 Apr 2008
Messages
4,155
Location
Crewe
That's the initial training, about five months. Then you go out with a DI for 225 driving hours (about 4 months depending on the depot) followed by core route learning (several weeks depending on depot).

After all that, you take your initial competence assessment (ICA, formerly known as ICOC or Part 6) where they assess your rules, traction, and route knowledge over four or five days of driving.

If all goes well, the whole thing start-to-key takes about 12 months.

You will find that some companies if not all have increased the hours with a DI to 265 this is down to the increase in the amount of incidents new drivers are having.
 

trickytrucker

Member
Joined
17 Apr 2015
Messages
14
You will find that some companies if not all have increased the hours with a DI to 265 this is down to the increase in the amount of incidents new drivers are having.

We were informed last week we will complete a minimum of 260 hours....it's a shame they don't enforce this for HGV drivers too!!
 

jamjam0021

New Member
Joined
8 Jun 2015
Messages
1
I sat my trainee driver assessment and was told i failed on the written communication test (WTC), however when i researched the RSSB WEBSITE,
it states that the WTC SHOULD NOT be used as a pass / fail measure.
it is only to identify the strengths and weaknesses of candidates as to those that might need support to develop these skills during training

http://www.rssb.co.uk/Library/group...ral-information-briefing-new-ris-3751-tom.pdf

What do i do now? as i believe doing nothing is a waste of one of my two limited attempts.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I sat my trainee driver assessment and was told i failed on the written communication test (WTC), however when i researched the RSSB WEBSITE,
it states that the WTC SHOULD NOT be used as a pass / fail measure.
it is only to identify the strengths and weaknesses of candidates as to those that might need support to develop these skills during training

http://www.rssb.co.uk/Library/group...ral-information-briefing-new-ris-3751-tom.pdf

What do i do now? as i believe doing nothing is a waste of one of my two limited attempts.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I sat my trainee driver assessment and was told i failed on the written communication test (WTC), however when i researched the RSSB WEBSITE,
it states that the WTC SHOULD NOT be used as a pass / fail measure.
it is only to identify the strengths and weaknesses of candidates as to those that might need support to develop these skills during training

http://www.rssb.co.uk/Library/group...ral-information-briefing-new-ris-3751-tom.pdf

What do i do now? as i believe doing nothing is a waste of one of my two limited attempts.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I sat my trainee driver assessment and was told i failed on the written communication test (WTC), however when i researched the RSSB WEBSITE,
it states that the WTC SHOULD NOT be used as a pass / fail measure.
it is only to identify the strengths and weaknesses of candidates as to those that might need support to develop these skills during training

http://www.rssb.co.uk/Library/group...ral-information-briefing-new-ris-3751-tom.pdf

What do i do now? as i believe doing nothing is a waste of one of my two limited attempts.
 

redbutton

Member
Joined
5 Sep 2013
Messages
459
Companies do use the WCT as a tool to decide whom to hire. It's not pass/fail per se, but someone else's score was better than yours, so they chose to hire him or her instead.

You should ask them (or OPC) whether there's a limit on attempts at the WCT since it's not pass/fail.

Also, remember that next time you won't have to retake any of the assessments you passed, just the ones you didn't.
 

455driver

Veteran Member
Joined
10 May 2010
Messages
11,332
Companies do use the WCT as a tool to decide whom to hire. It's not pass/fail per se, but someone else's score was better than yours, so they chose to hire him or her instead.

You should ask them (or OPC) whether there's a limit on attempts at the WCT since it's not pass/fail.

Also, remember that next time you won't have to retake any of the assessments you passed, just the ones you didn't.

Really?
When did that change?
 

redron

Member
Joined
23 Feb 2014
Messages
35
It is up to the TOC whether or not you retake passed assessments.

They may decide to accept your previous scores or they may ask you to do the whole thing again from the start.

I don't think there is any strict rule regarding this.
 
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387star

On Moderation
Joined
16 Nov 2009
Messages
6,653
Companies do use the WCT as a tool to decide whom to hire. It's not pass/fail per se, but someone else's score was better than yours, so they chose to hire him or her instead.

You should ask them (or OPC) whether there's a limit on attempts at the WCT since it's not pass/fail.

Also, remember that next time you won't have to retake any of the assessments you passed, just the ones you didn't.

Surely it depends how well you did in the test

If there are loads of spelling errors it is ungrammatical the handwriting is appalling or you have not followed the instructions then it is understandable
 

redbutton

Member
Joined
5 Sep 2013
Messages
459
Surely it depends how well you did in the test

If there are loads of spelling errors it is ungrammatical the handwriting is appalling or you have not followed the instructions then it is understandable

They are very clear about it in the instructions the proctor reads out before you take the test. It is not pass/fail.

However, if a candidate's performance is very poor compared to the other candidates in that TOC's hiring list, he or she will simply get placed at the bottom of the list, which means he or she won't get hired. The result is the same.
 
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