Trainee Depot Driver East Midlands Trains

Paul472426 · 14 Dec 2017

Nairbxeno said:
I was initially offered January but since then I have been refused release which is annoying to say the least. Just proves that being internal is actually a hinderance and not an advantage.
I believe January was nearly full from the remaining people from the talent pool from 18 months ago. (yes it can take that long to get on a course.)
However I am reliably informed that they need many more people this year so I am expecting the vast majority of us should be on the April course. I do believe a couple of people have been given January courses but I am not 100% sure.
they are starting the recruitment process again in January so there will be a batch of people through by March again.

There’s 9 of us presently scheduled for January, outside possibility of another joining us we’re told. We had a pre course gathering yesterday to get some Christmas homework.

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Nairbxeno · 14 Dec 2017

Paul472426 said:
There’s 9 of us presently scheduled for January, outside possibility of another joining us we’re told. We had a pre course gathering yesterday to get some Christmas homework.

yes initially that was me. However my department have refused to release me until a replacement has been recruited and trained.
Obviously not happy but hey ho onwards and upwards

Paul472426 · 14 Dec 2017

Nairbxeno said:
yes initially that was me. However my department have refused to release me until a replacement has been recruited and trained.
Obviously not happy but hey ho onwards and upwards

Wow, I’m surprised by that, I’m internal but I’ve had good support and I’ve only been held by an initial medical failure....somebody mentioned snoring, it’s a bit more complicated than that...that’s a shame, which department are you in?

Nairbxeno · 14 Dec 2017

Paul472426 said:
Wow, I’m surprised by that, I’m internal but I’ve had good support and I’ve only been held by an initial medical failure....somebody mentioned snoring, it’s a bit more complicated than that...that’s a shame, which department are you in?

I'm on platforms and its incredibly hard to get released
also maybe give us some tips on the medical. I have already heard about the issue with snorers. luckily I don't snore

Paul472426 · 14 Dec 2017

Nairbxeno said:
I'm on platforms and its incredibly hard to get released
also maybe give us some tips on the medical. I have already heard about the issue with snorers. luckily I don't snore

I’m a TM, in on HST today, 1B48, if you’re around give me a wave!

Dynamonic · 14 Dec 2017

Little things I reckon will help with the medical are:

Healthy eating and proper exercise (To keep BMI down and to help with blood pressure)
Maintaining a proper sleep pattern (To help with blood pressure)
Avoiding loud noise prior to the medical (Games, music, films, environment. These can cause a temporary short-term distortion to your hearing)
Avoiding caffeine prior to the medical (To assist with blood pressure)
Declare all drugs/medicines (Massive one here)
Not treating the medical as a test (This is a biggie for me as it can massively amplify your blood pressure if you're too nervous, as I once discovered with my police medical)

baz962 · 14 Dec 2017

Nairbxeno said:
I was initially offered January but since then I have been refused release which is annoying to say the least. Just proves that being internal is actually a hinderance and not an advantage.
I believe January was nearly full from the remaining people from the talent pool from 18 months ago. (yes it can take that long to get on a course.)
However I am reliably informed that they need many more people this year so I am expecting the vast majority of us should be on the April course. I do believe a couple of people have been given January courses but I am not 100% sure.
they are starting the recruitment process again in January so there will be a batch of people through by March again.

If you did not get past first sift do you have to wait 6 months or not do you know.

Dynamonic · 14 Dec 2017

baz962 said:
If you did not get past first sift do you have to wait 6 months or not do you know.

From memory, I believe it is a 6 month wait for EMT. There's nothing to stop you applying to other TOC's though.
I would imagine it will be a quite a while before EMT open recruitment for Depot Drivers again. There's another group of people who will be going through their assessments from January so I'd expect there'll be quite a few people in the Talent Pool shortly, who will be used to fill courses throughout 2018 and 2019.

baz962 · 14 Dec 2017

Dynamonic said:
From memory, I believe it is a 6 month wait for EMT. There's nothing to stop you applying to other TOC's though.
I would imagine it will be a quite a while before EMT open recruitment for Depot Drivers again. There's another group of people who will be going through their assessments from January so I'd expect there'll be quite a few people in the Talent Pool shortly, who will be used to fill courses throughout 2018 and 2019.

I know it is generally 6 months but the internal poster on here said they were opening recruitment in jan. I know i can go elsewhere i have all psychometrics and mmi to enhanced, failed dmi with gtr now i cant get past the pesky first sifts lol, thanks anyway.

Dynamonic · 14 Dec 2017

baz962 said:
I know it is generally 6 months but the internal poster on here said they were opening recruitment in jan. I know i can go elsewhere i have all psychometrics and mmi to enhanced, failed dmi with gtr now i cant get past the pesky first sifts lol, thanks anyway.

Ah yes, you are right. The video towards the start of the thread suggests that EMT may open recruitment for Leeds Depot Drivers in January.

baz962 · 14 Dec 2017

Dynamonic said:
Ah yes, you are right. The video towards the start of the thread suggests that EMT may open recruitment for Leeds Depot Drivers in January.

Ah well leeds a bit far to re locate for a depot job and my 6 months won't be up, thanks for the help and hope you do well in the role.

Spankthemonkey · 14 Dec 2017

Nairbxeno said:
I was initially offered January but since then I have been refused release which is annoying to say the least. Just proves that being internal is actually a hinderance and not an advantage.
I believe January was nearly full from the remaining people from the talent pool from 18 months ago. (yes it can take that long to get on a course.)
However I am reliably informed that they need many more people this year so I am expecting the vast majority of us should be on the April course. I do believe a couple of people have been given January courses but I am not 100% sure.
they are starting the recruitment process again in January so there will be a batch of people through by March again.

So that would leave about 20 in the pool, ten each for April and the course after (summer?) depending on how fast people are promoted to mainline etc.

EMT take from the pool in the order your assessments run out, so as the pool gets fuller in March after the January assessments, those candidates won't jump the December passes unless they have shorter time to run on already achieved OPC passes.

As has been mentioned before, people waiting in the talent pool nearly two years was caused by redundant freight drivers jumping the queue so to speak. That is unlikely to happen again.

The only cloud on the horizon now as I see it is the franchise end in 2019. To be in a talent pool at this point could be a risky business. I know of people who were simply booted from talent pools when Thameslink became Great Northern and there are people sh*tting it at West Mids trains now for the same reason. I have no real confidence Stagecoach will keep EMT post 2019. Don't get me wrong, they have done a very good job, but equally they did at SWT. The way franchises are dished out now, the dft don't really care how things have gone previously, it's more which bidder promises DOO and increased public purse payments. To further muddy the 2019 waters, in 2019 the EMT and XC franchises expire together and there will almost certainly be a reallocation of routes and resources, the turbostar routes BHM-NOT and BHM-LEI-SSD will possibly become part of EMT so get ready to sign 170s.

Dynamonic · 16 Dec 2017

Looks like there's some Depot Driver to Mainline movement beginning to happen now.
I've just noticed that East Midlands Trains have opened recruitment for 'Trainee Mainline Drivers' for Derby, open to serving Depot Drivers only.

Exciting times for both us who have just entered the Talent Pool for the Depot Driver roles, and of course active Depot Drivers who want to go mainline!

Good luck to any Depot Drivers on here who go for the mainline roles!

EastMidsMatt · 19 Dec 2017

Are EMT going to be sticking to the time frame for the medicals? It was supposed to be week the commencing 2/1/18 so just wondering if anyone has any information??

I would have expected to hear something this week what with Christmas and New year in the way.

Raul_Duke · 19 Dec 2017

MattVick said:
Are EMT going to be sticking to the time frame for the medicals? It was supposed to be week the commencing 2/1/18 so just wondering if anyone has any information??

I would have expected to hear something this week what with Christmas and New year in the way.

You won’t get a medical until you get a place on a course.

EastMidsMatt · 19 Dec 2017

Ok. When will they allocate places? Will they wait for the Jan course to be up and running before sorting out the next course due in April?

Raul_Duke · 19 Dec 2017

MattVick said:
Ok. When will they allocate places? Will they wait for the Jan course to be up and running before sorting out the next course due in April?

Who knows? You could be in four months or two years.

Spankthemonkey · 19 Dec 2017

MattVick said:
Ok. When will they allocate places? Will they wait for the Jan course to be up and running before sorting out the next course due in April?

It was mentioned at stage 2 that emt can run 4 courses annually depending on business needs. The people I have spoken to say the turnover of depot drivers to mainline&freight is such that the April course will run. There are a shed load of vacancies on the links and they are advertising for mainline drivers from the depot at the moment

As there are 20 of us in the pool I guess we have a 1 in 2 chance of getting on in April, though I suspect people who passed the assessments 6 months ago (eg that chap from Liverpool) might get priority as their passes have less time to run.

Patience will be a virtue I reckon.

Spankthemonkey · 19 Dec 2017

Also, if emt plan to add another twenty to the pool in the next three months, consider this, it is their aim to have all 40 in the pool on courses within two years before their opc passes become invalid. Therefore, for those of us who have been successful in December, I would be very suprised if we are not all on a course by end of the summer.

EastMidsMatt · 19 Dec 2017

Spankthemonkey said:
Also, if emt plan to add another twenty to the pool in the next three months, consider this, it is their aim to have all 40 in the pool on courses within two years before their opc passes become invalid. Therefore, for those of us who have been successful in December, I would be very suprised if we are not all on a course by end of the summer.

How do you know there's 20 of us in the pool at the moment? And won't the numbers placed in the pool from the next course be subject to the quality of the candidates, if there are only 10 suitable they'll only put 10 through??
I'm not doubting your info I'm just curious!!

PotentialTrain · 19 Dec 2017

EMT seem to have been spot on with their time management and timelines so far.
On the time lines they mentioned medicals staking place from Jan 2nd 2017 so it makes me think that have been preparing courses for our group from the off set.

As Raul_Duke said though, we could be waiting a lot longer for the go ahead. I’m just pleased to now be in the pool and I am confident that we will hear something sooner rather than later with how EMT have dealt with us and the process so far.

Spankthemonkey · 19 Dec 2017

MattVick said:
How do you know there's 20 of us in the pool at the moment? And won't the numbers placed in the pool from the next course be subject to the quality of the candidates, if there are only 10 suitable they'll only put 10 through??
I'm not doubting your info I'm just curious!!

Yes, that's a fair point, it will naturally be subject to suitability. I'm guessing that they're after 20, purely guesswork. I reckon they'll want 20 purely to make the whole recruitment process economically viable.

We know that there are roughly 20 in the pool at the moment. The January course has emptied all old candidates from the 2016 spring tests and someone above mentioned they tried to get him on that Jan course from just passing the MMI two weeks ago. We know 24 people took those stage 4 tests/mmi and we know of at least 3 failures at that stage.

MisterWhippy · 20 Dec 2017

To anyone who may lost any hope. I jut received an email inviting me to the first stage interview for this on January 5th. Unfortunately, for my sake I can no longer attend.

Email can through today at 3pm, so look out!

Dynamonic · 20 Dec 2017

MisterWhippy said:
To anyone who may lost any hope. I jut received an email inviting me to the first stage interview for this on January 5th. Unfortunately, for my sake I can no longer attend.

Email can through today at 3pm, so look out!

Oh no, I'm sorry to hear that MisterWhippy.

Just to clarify for those who have been invited, the Stage 1 Assessments will consist of paper exercises only. There are no interviews at this stage, despite the response link perhaps mentioning an invite to interview.
Pages 1-40 of your practice material (if you've had it yet) will cover everything you need for Stage 1. (Unless, of course the recruitment process totally changed a week ago :lol:

)

Good luck with your preparation, everyone!

stjimmy87 · 20 Dec 2017

Got my invite for Jan 5th, bring it on!! Shame I've got to do the tests again after passing them before but way I see it I passed them once I can do it again! Good luck to anyone else coming on the 5th

mekneedown · 20 Dec 2017

Wow got the email for next lot of interviews. 3rd Jan, feeing a little nervous now

Spankthemonkey · 20 Dec 2017

stjimmy87 said:
Got my invite for Jan 5th, bring it on!! Shame I've got to do the tests again after passing them before but way I see it I passed them once I can do it again! Good luck to anyone else coming on the 5th

This.

EastMidsMatt · 20 Dec 2017

Don't worry about the psychometric tests, remember that it's both speed and accuracy that's required, don't be that overbearing idiot in the group assessment and research for the dmi interview. If you get to stage 4 then you've got what they're looking for so relax and be confident!
Good luck all! And a merry Christmas to all of you and to my fellow talent pool champions!

stjimmy87 · 20 Dec 2017

This?

Spankthemonkey said:
This.

Spankthemonkey · 20 Dec 2017

stjimmy87 said:
This?

I was agreeing with you. Passing it twice would be a fine achievement.

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