Evolution
Member
I second this. What you will find is the TOC’s with the more favourable t&c’s tend to pay £55-£60k and your Avanti’s and LNER’s have sold out something to reach the higher salary. Therefore they aren’t necessarily the BEST TOCs like people seem to think.Highest pay isn’t the be all and end all. Higher salary = higher tax and national insurance. Terms and conditions matter also. Many TOCS have sold the better t&c’s in order to achieve the higher pay. Often the higher pay is offered for a reason as they need something to keep people. Not saying that ‘Avanti’ is a bad TOC as I don’t work for them to know. But the message is there’s a lot more to a good job than a high salary headline.
A lot of the regional operators don’t have night shifts like you have with the above said operators. Also time in the seat can be much longer before you have a break etc. I know of drivers at regional operators who wouldn’t move to an intercity operator for these reasons.