Ah, so it's that time again is it? Open season on Driver's pay. Here we go again.
Some of the posters on here should remember that in BR days the basic driver salary was low but it had allowances eg DOO, night hours etc. The total pay increase has not gone up as dramatically as is always suggested.
And you know what, you couldn't give it away then because that headline figure was poor and all that was known was that the hours were dreadful. Far better to work 9-5 in a cushy warm office.
Well I came off the street from a cushy warm office to be a driver, and one of the reasons I did it was because I knew it was now a properly paid job, and that AFTER training (during which time I dropped over a third in pay) I would be properly rewarded.
I had no real idea what the job entailed and unlike many on here, I kept an open mind. I have been continually surprised by what I'm expected to shoulder. I am of the opinion that though it is well paid, every penny is earned.
Comparison with other jobs is pointless. It is pretty much unique. What we have in common with pilots and bus drivers is that we move people. It ends there.
Comparisons with nurses or firemen are pointless. When you compare apples and pears, they are DIFFERENT. If they are badly paid, it does not follow that train drivers are over paid.
Amongst those who criticise us, I can understand ignorance. As I say, I knew nothing except it involved shifts and moving people. But sadly there seems to be envy, snobbery - the old British disease - how dare a working class job earn good money, and for reasons unknown, some people seem to want a race to the bottom. Let's deskill and pay everyone so little that the fourth biggest economy in the world needs food banks.
I think most of my colleagues have covered WHY we get paid what we do, but I'll add my fourpence'worth:
Training - around a year, on a reduced salary, can't take leave, can't really be sick, learn and be tested on rules, traction, routes. With continual assessment during your entire career. And keep the knowledge updated because things keep changing and you just have to learn it and apply it, there's no spoon feeding.
Rules, Traction, Routes - putting them in a list makes it seem less than it is. Rules. I think sometimes we forget the reality of what we do - moving live people inside enormous metal hulks. A wrong direction movement looks straightforward enough on paper, but then you have to do it. And KNOW it. Don't care that you learned it at the school 5y ago and have never done it. Now you have to get on with it. Go in the wrong direction towards where trains usually come from. It's nerve wracking. Traction. Here's a brand new fleet of trains, we'll give you a handout or maybe a day or two training, after all, they're all the same aren't they? Can you sort this faulty door quick please, the procedure you only saw on a slide? There's four trains held up behind you. Routes. Every one is different. How many signals between stations? Three or four aspect? Is it uphill or downhill? Three junctions and three different speeds. This station can hold 9 coaches on the up and 10 on the down, don't get it the wrong way round will you? Don't forget the red round the corner even though you've had a lengthy station stop beforehand with punters asking why you're late. Foggy today? Never mind, we still expect you to stop in the right place from 80mph when you can't see what's in front of you. Oh, we rebuilt London Bridge last week - it's practically a new railway, you have remembered ALL of it already haven't you?
Hours - start at 3.30 today and 08.00 tomorrow. Then two days off. Just as you've got used to sleeping normally again, on at 4.40. Yeah we know you were spare at 6.00 but we've had someone go sick. And next day, start at 10.30. Four day weeks that become seven days with Sundays and about a third of the recommended time that your body clock needs to go from early to late between the shifts.
Lifestyle - irregular meals, sleep, can't socialise normally, can't even go to your friend's wedding cos we've got no-one spare. Make sure you eat and drink properly, even though we'll schedule your only break 2 hours into a 9.5 hour shift, and won't give you enough time to go to the toilet. Or a toilet! Keep yourself fit, cos if you don't pass the medical, you could lose your job. What d'you mean you don't want to go to the gym when you got home at 02.30? Yeah we know that shift work raises BP and makes it hard to keep weight down but that's your problem.
Mishaps - Don't do any of a growing number of things that we designate, or will designate, to be safety of the line incidents, some of which you didn't realise were dangerous. It's your job to concentrate the entire time. Don't care that you're tired. Or that we use different stop car marks at every platform to confuse you and hide reds behind bridges. Hit a tree? Hopefully it doesn't come through the windscreen and behead you. Make sure you get the trains stopped though. Someone jumped in front of you? Aw, shame, when you coming back to work though?
Responsibility - ready to deal with it when you've got ten cars fully loaded and someone decides to let themselves out on the fast line with a live rail humming away because they smelt dust on a heating element and then everyone follows them? Or ready to defend yourself when one of alleges you shut the doors on them because they ignored the rule about closing doors? Or accuses you of killing their children who thought it would be funny to get drunk and run along your train and you didn't see it when they fell in the gap? Or not able to defend yourself when one of them spits at you or vents their spleen at you? And if they decide to have a **** next to your cab window, well there's no toilet here is there, you're not a person, you're just a driver. Summon the staff to help, oh hang on there are none, you're on your own in the middle of nowhere.
Pressure - 140 perfect stops today please. Keep the passengers informed - although we know you can't use your phone to get information. Report any poor railhead conditions. And now tell us why you're late even though all you ever know is that you've got cautionary signals. We'll download the train to find out if you really slid through two sections and make you sweat in the meantime - but don't let that affect your concentration or sleep will you?
Prospects - assuming you survive all the above, fine. If not, welcome to being middle aged and jobless with skills that have only one use. You could become a DI, or a guard (if there are any left), or a driver manager (if we haven't re-organised them out of a job) - but actually that's only within this industry. It's golden handcuffs to some extent.
More than fourpence, but when my back is up...I fully expect to have to defend my well deserved pay again before the year is out...but let's also mention...it's the going rate for the job. Just like all jobs have a going rate. If you want the job, apply for it like me. I've been lucky enough to get the job. But I could lose it like that. And if you're not as lucky as me, don't say that we should get paid less, consider all that's above.
)
