DB Cargo Driver Vacancies - many locations

[Gemz91]

Whats the salary out of interest?

 

[tiptoptaff]

Whats the salary out of interest?

ASLEF website quotes £47k, but that may have changed - pay award was shown as pending due 1st April 2017

 

[Bromley boy]

Yes each day is a 'time band' of either:
00:01 - 05:59
06:00 - 11:59
12:00 - 17:59
18:00 - 23:59
You will be allocated a job that starts between those times, that's up to 11 hours 30 minutes in duration. You can be booked on anywhere within your 'hub' (so you could be driving in your own time 30 miles before and after your shift)

You can be moved out of your time band but the shift length has to be reduced from 11h30 by the amount it's moved outside the band. So for example you could be in the 12:00 - 17:59 band but you could actually be booked on at 06:00 or 23:59 providing it's only a 5h30 long job. You could be booked on at 09:00 or 20:59 if it was a 8h30 job.

You'll know what your rest days are, except these can be changed by the company when the roster is posted, if that week contains a Bank Holiday. (Good luck over the Christmas period!)

On Saturdays and Sundays the time bands are 00:01 - 23:59

You won't find out what you are doing next Sunday to Friday until up to 23:59 on the previous Friday. And for Saturday you won't find out until upto 11:00 the day before.

Just think what that means for a minute. That means that if you aren't Rest Days over the weekend, you won't know what you are doing until the Friday approaching that weekend.


1 in 8 weeks is a 'flex week' - they pick what days off you are having and what hours you'll work, you'll have no idea in advance.

Seasonal rosters - during peaks in customer demand, rest days can be replaced with instances of work. Rest Days will be given back in preceding or subsequent rosters.


This is why Voluntary Redundancy at the firm was massively oversubscribed.


And now look, "Oh we've got rid of loads of experienced drivers, and changed Terms & Conditions for the worse, and now we'll advertise for any old desperate 'yes man' to come and work for us and they'll be so grateful. And they'll never leave because no-one else will have them after all the incidents they end up having due to fatigue. Then we'll have them captive and make things even worse."

Said a cynic!



Sick pay has been reduced. I think it's 6 weeks full pay, six weeks half pay now, however long your service is. Some illnesses/conditions/hospital waiting lists can have you unable to work for more than 12 weeks as a train driver, so bear that in mind.

You are only entitled to one 20 minute break if your duty is over 6 hours long.

All instances of duty have a commitment to be extended by 3 hours, up to a maximum of 11h30. So even a short job can be turned into a long one.




A bus driver might be half the pay, but a stable roster is worth a lot more than twice as much!
If you want to be a Train Driver then join a TOC.

I'm amazed by this. It looks absolutely rubbish, especially for £47k.

I know money isn't everything but it's difficult to see this as attractive for anyone when TOCs are now offering quite a lot more money, secure employment and a far more stable roster.

 

[Tom9748]

Yes each day is a 'time band' of either:
00:01 - 05:59
06:00 - 11:59
12:00 - 17:59
18:00 - 23:59
You will be allocated a job that starts between those times, that's up to 11 hours 30 minutes in duration. You can be booked on anywhere within your 'hub' (so you could be driving in your own time 30 miles before and after your shift)

You can be moved out of your time band but the shift length has to be reduced from 11h30 by the amount it's moved outside the band. So for example you could be in the 12:00 - 17:59 band but you could actually be booked on at 06:00 or 23:59 providing it's only a 5h30 long job. You could be booked on at 09:00 or 20:59 if it was a 8h30 job.

You'll know what your rest days are, except these can be changed by the company when the roster is posted, if that week contains a Bank Holiday. (Good luck over the Christmas period!)

On Saturdays and Sundays the time bands are 00:01 - 23:59

You won't find out what you are doing next Sunday to Friday until up to 23:59 on the previous Friday. And for Saturday you won't find out until upto 11:00 the day before.

Just think what that means for a minute. That means that if you aren't Rest Days over the weekend, you won't know what you are doing until the Friday approaching that weekend.


1 in 8 weeks is a 'flex week' - they pick what days off you are having and what hours you'll work, you'll have no idea in advance.

Seasonal rosters - during peaks in customer demand, rest days can be replaced with instances of work. Rest Days will be given back in preceding or subsequent rosters.


This is why Voluntary Redundancy at the firm was massively oversubscribed.


And now look, "Oh we've got rid of loads of experienced drivers, and changed Terms & Conditions for the worse, and now we'll advertise for any old desperate 'yes man' to come and work for us and they'll be so grateful. And they'll never leave because no-one else will have them after all the incidents they end up having due to fatigue. Then we'll have them captive and make things even worse."

Said a cynic!



Sick pay has been reduced. I think it's 6 weeks full pay, six weeks half pay now, however long your service is. Some illnesses/conditions/hospital waiting lists can have you unable to work for more than 12 weeks as a train driver, so bear that in mind.

You are only entitled to one 20 minute break if your duty is over 6 hours long.

All instances of duty have a commitment to be extended by 3 hours, up to a maximum of 11h30. So even a short job can be turned into a long one.




A bus driver might be half the pay, but a stable roster is worth a lot more than twice as much!
If you want to be a Train Driver then join a TOC.

.....

 

[Dave1987]

I thank my lucky stars being one of the six DB drivers to be taken on by VTEC and getting out before these new Ts and Cs came in. It was a pain in the arse to work for DB before the new terms came in. Full weekends off where a once in a blue moon occurrence and reading above life is going to be infinitely worse for the lads still there.
If you are that desperate to be a driver go to DB,if you arnt look elsewhere.
Considering some of the salaries that train companies are now paying the DB money is shocking when you see what the guys now have to put up with.

I'm sure some on this forum would call those terrible t&c's "modern working practices" or "optimum productivity". You aren't allowed a decent family life in the modern economy.

 

[12guard4]

I'm sure some on this forum would call those terrible t&c's "modern working practices" or "optimum productivity". You aren't allowed a decent family life in the modern economy.

Probably those who don't work on the railway and have s 9-5. Those T+Cs are awful I'll still with my TOC thanks.

 

[Atishyou]

Salary is £50,500 - some travel allowance included at some hubs, either £600 or £800 depending on hub. Some hubs are also zero.

 

[axlecounter]

Or just be a single/divorced man with high csa and spousal maintenance payments. Mess rooms across the network are full of them!

Sure. And I know many who are divorced because of their job as Drivers.

 

[Spankthemonkey]

How many Saturdays and Sundays are rostered in General? Saw a freighliner link recently that had no Sundays included and only about one Saturday in two?

 

[whoosh]

That'll be Freightliner Intermodal. They run the container trains, and not many run at weekends. I've seen a similar roster and it didnt look bad, BUT that is because the container trains are all timetabled and therefore a stable permanent roster can be created.
An awful lot of other freight work is either:
Seasonal,
A contract of a specified length,
Engineering works at different places over different periods of time,
Ad-hoc stuff.

Hence you're shifts will be all over the place, with you not knowing what you'll be doing until the Friday before (including for that weekend commencing the day after!). Engineering work means a lot of the trains with the new rails and new ballast running around at the weekends.

 

[Groggy]

Yes each day is a 'time band' of either:
00:01 - 05:59
06:00 - 11:59
12:00 - 17:59
18:00 - 23:59
You will be allocated a job that starts between those times, that's up to 11 hours 30 minutes in duration. You can be booked on anywhere within your 'hub' (so you could be driving in your own time 30 miles before and after your shift)

You can be moved out of your time band but the shift length has to be reduced from 11h30 by the amount it's moved outside the band. So for example you could be in the 12:00 - 17:59 band but you could actually be booked on at 06:00 or 23:59 providing it's only a 5h30 long job. You could be booked on at 09:00 or 20:59 if it was a 8h30 job.

You'll know what your rest days are, except these can be changed by the company when the roster is posted, if that week contains a Bank Holiday. (Good luck over the Christmas period!)

On Saturdays and Sundays the time bands are 00:01 - 23:59

You won't find out what you are doing next Sunday to Friday until up to 23:59 on the previous Friday. And for Saturday you won't find out until upto 11:00 the day before.

Just think what that means for a minute. That means that if you aren't Rest Days over the weekend, you won't know what you are doing until the Friday approaching that weekend.


1 in 8 weeks is a 'flex week' - they pick what days off you are having and what hours you'll work, you'll have no idea in advance.

Seasonal rosters - during peaks in customer demand, rest days can be replaced with instances of work. Rest Days will be given back in preceding or subsequent rosters.


This is why Voluntary Redundancy at the firm was massively oversubscribed.


And now look, "Oh we've got rid of loads of experienced drivers, and changed Terms & Conditions for the worse, and now we'll advertise for any old desperate 'yes man' to come and work for us and they'll be so grateful. And they'll never leave because no-one else will have them after all the incidents they end up having due to fatigue. Then we'll have them captive and make things even worse."

Said a cynic!



Sick pay has been reduced. I think it's 6 weeks full pay, six weeks half pay now, however long your service is. Some illnesses/conditions/hospital waiting lists can have you unable to work for more than 12 weeks as a train driver, so bear that in mind.

You are only entitled to one 20 minute break if your duty is over 6 hours long.

All instances of duty have a commitment to be extended by 3 hours, up to a maximum of 11h30. So even a short job can be turned into a long one.




A bus driver might be half the pay, but a stable roster is worth a lot more than twice as much!
If you want to be a Train Driver then join a TOC.

Wow!
So have aslef just agreed to all this?
Do you see any change in the future ? As i can stick it at northern for a few more years but even our t&cs are changing soon as it seems sundays are coming in the week aswell.....

 

[whoosh]

Sundays in the working week will come in everywhere I expect.

ASLEF did agree to all that, although it was 'Version 11' of the new Terms & Conditions which was signed off.
As I said, with hundreds of redundancies they had to tread carefully to get (or keep) the best deal for those taking Voluntary Severance - any industrial action would probably have meant even more redundancies and with a much less favourable package for those leaving.
There are a lot of upset Drivers who were not able to get Voluntary Severance who will have to cope with these new Terms & Conditions, as well as some Drivers who were made redundant because they didn't have a car driving license who would've liked to stay on a few years until retirement - it would've been cheaper to pay for them to have driving lessons than make them redundant in a lot of cases as they were more senior.
It seems like a big mess really.

Then there's Freightliner Heavy Haul who made 114 Drivers redundant last year and who are now recruiting again.


FOCs are a very volatile industry. Go for TOCs if you want employment on the railway.

 

[Groggy]

Sundays in the working week will come in everywhere I expect.

ASLEF did agree to all that, although it was 'Version 11' of the new Terms & Conditions which was signed off.
As I said, with hundreds of redundancies they had to tread carefully to get (or keep) the best deal for those taking Voluntary Severance - any industrial action would probably have meant even more redundancies and with a much less favourable package for those leaving.
There are a lot of upset Drivers who were not able to get Voluntary Severance who will have to cope with these new Terms & Conditions, as well as some Drivers who were made redundant because they didn't have a car driving license who would've liked to stay on a few years until retirement - it would've been cheaper to pay for them to have driving lessons than make them redundant in a lot of cases as they were more senior.
It seems like a big mess really.

Then there's Freightliner Heavy Haul who made 114 Drivers redundant last year and who are now recruiting again.


FOCs are a very volatile industry. Go for TOCs if you want employment on the railway.

ok....cheers for the advice whoosh....you have defo put me off with these t&c's....looks like im never going to get on the freight side

 

[jcook84]

I take it therefore that union power on the freight side of things is very minimal compared passenger work as what is described in this thread is a world away from passenger work. I guess the threat of withdrawing Labour carries far less influence when your due to move 10 wagons of ballast rather than thousands of commuters every morning.

It has nothing to do with what is being moved, freight drivers can't go on strike for fear of a rival company taking over the work, Aslef's hands are tied in a fully privatised rail freight industry.

 

[Groggy]

Can anyone see these t&c's changing for the better?
Also....any ex passenger work drivers who have gone to freight habe any thoughts?

 

[SkinnyDave]

Can anyone see these t&c's changing for the better?
Also....any ex passenger work drivers who have gone to freight habe any thoughts?

Not a chance

 

[Belgarion]

Can anyone see these t&c's changing for the better?
Also....any ex passenger work drivers who have gone to freight habe any thoughts?

I a man an ex freight driver, so have gone the other way. If anybody asks me whether I would recommend leaving a TOC for a freight company I would say definitely DON'T DO IT. The state of freight is very volatile at this moment in time whether it goes full circle and gets better I don't know, but at the moment if you want job security and terms and conditions that are favourable then stay as a passenger driver.

 

[Groggy]

So are there any pluspoints?
Dave what depot are you at?

 

[SkinnyDave]

So are there any pluspoints?
Dave what depot are you at?

I do not work for them (Thank God) buy work with 4 guys that have just managed to escape in last 2 months, I have asked them your ?

SFA came the replies

 

[Groggy]

im getting conflicting answers from guys i know......some say its great and they enjoy the job...some say stay away unless you want to work the hours