Birmingham New Street XC - why so many vacancies?

[SlimJim1694]

Just wondering if anyone can shed any light on why Cross Country seem to have so many regular driver vacancies at Birmingham New Street? I've been looking around TOCs for qualified jobs for a while now and I've seen that depot advertised for routinely. I would have thought that in the Birmingham area XC would have no trouble recruiting from the other TOCs. I would have thought WMT drivers in the same location would be filling those XC vacancies for the money and work content, but from what I can see XC seem to advertise for drivers more than WMT do.

 

[Red1980]

Seems to have been that way for a while now. I did some route learning with them a while back and some drivers were saying that they're not what they were.

For a long time financially they were well above a lot of TOCs which I believe isn't the case as much now as a lot of other TOCs have caught up maybe that has something to do with it.....or maybe it's a conditions thing who knows.

I know a lot of drivers who wouldn't dream of leaving WMT even for a higher wage because their conditions are so good.

 

[the sniper]

I imagine a factor also is that a lot of the former top link Central Trains Drivers that were tuped over to Cross Country when they got the 170 stuff will now be around retirement age, mostly all being of the same generation. Like Red says, very few go from WMT now because after 2012, LM had to up the wages to stop the exodus, so there's not that big a gap between the two in pay term, but ASLEF didn't have to give up any noteworthy T&Cs on LM/WMT to achieve this. I think it's widely recognised that a lot of T&Cs have been sold to Cross Country over the years to get where they are.

There are also differences in culture and working practices between Cross Country and WMT that are talked up in the WMT messrooms which put some off too.

 

[SlimJim1694]

Thankyou for the input. For a qualified driver looking to move would you say WMT is a good TOC to look at then? I've read other people on this forum saying staff morale is dreadful etc, but from what has been said on this thread there are many who would much rather work for WMT than XC. Its very interesting and I'm struggling to shortlist TOCs to apply to as peoples opinions tend to differ so much.

 

[lammergeier]

The T's & C's at XC are good, much better than at many other companies. I don't know where the myth that they were all sold comes from but it keeps getting trotted out. Personally speaking I prefer the pay and work at XC compared to what you would get at WMT but that's just me.

 

[Economist]

I always thought that in/near Birmingham, Chiltern was one of the best places to be. Historically, turnover was very low there, though they seem to be advertising a fair bit too.

XC did used to be very rare when it came to qualified jobs, it does seem like there's a lot of driver recruitment at the moment.

 

[lammergeier]

I always thought that in/near Birmingham, Chiltern was one of the best places to be. Historically, turnover was very low there, though they seem to be advertising a fair bit too.

XC did used to be very rare when it came to qualified jobs, it does seem like there's a lot of driver recruitment at the moment.

Plenty of ex-Chiltern drivers at XC. Better pay, more variety etc.

 

[221129]

The problem XC has and the reason it is constantly recruiting at the moment is that there are a hell of a lot of ex BR drivers that all started around the same time and are all starting to retire.

 

[Economist]

Any idea how long this trend will continue for? I'm signed up to my current TOC for three years (of which I've completed about two).

In theory I could leave earlier but there are other industries where people did that and the training is no longer paid for by the employer, this has hurt future generations (me amongst them) so I'm a bit sentimental about staying for me three years.

 

[SlimJim1694]

Any idea how long this trend will continue for? I'm signed up to my current TOC for three years (of which I've completed about two).

In theory I could leave earlier but there are other industries where people did that and the training is no longer paid for by the employer, this has hurt future generations (me amongst them) so I'm a bit sentimental about staying for me three years.

Do you mean your company makes people sign something when they join to say if they leave within 3 years they have to pay back training costs? My TOC does that too but plenty of people have left and not paid them back and they've never lifted a finger to try and get the money off them other than threats before the person leaves. The only people who have paid them back have done so out of fear but the reality was they didn't have to pay a penny. Something to do with the Bosman ruling in football allegedly.

 

[Economist]

I think we're both at the same TOC Jim. Mass exodus at the moment, especially at certain depots. Now you've mentioned the Bosman ruling, it's triggered my memory and I recall hearing about it during a PNB.