I must say I do find these vast figures bandied around for the cost of driver training a bit baffling. Fag packet calculations lead me to something like 25 grand, apart from the trainee's salary which is obviously not a factor if you're paying for yourself.
Assuming five trainees on a course for a year:
- 1/5 of a trainer's salary plus HR costs say 12k
- Random contribution to training school costs 10k (which is a whole lot of simulator running costs, heating, photocopying and all that) (don't forget that most things in a training school like the fittings and the simulators last for YEARS so can be spread over that time as a cost)
- Management time say 2k (that's a fortnight of exclusive time with a manager which is way over the top)
- Extra bit of salary for your DI 2k
- Can't think of much else.
Driver instructors are productive anyway and do their own diagrammed work while training, so to include their costs is pure double counting. People always used to say 75 grand when I qualified but I just can't see it and never could. Frankly it doesn't cost that much - not that a 20-odd grand free piece of training plus a load of salary is to be sniffed at and I'm very grateful that's the way I had it.
OK I will break it down for you: These are approximate figures for an intake of 5 drivers.
1. Recruitment including advertising, running of the IT requirements, hiring a venue, salary for the interviewers, letters, HR time
£25k
2. Medicals:
£3k
3. Induction week including hotel accommodation
£4k
4. PTS course (if sourced outside)
£5k
5. Uniform
£750
6. Equipment
£500
7. 1 years salary including pension and NI contributions match
£175k
8. Rules training at 6 weeks including the trainers salary:
£7.5k
9. Traction training at 3 weeks including trainers salary:
£4k
10. 5 x DI's salary (they need to cover core routes so will follow a vacant line in the feeder link)
£145k
11. Drivers pay to cover vacant DI from their link
£130k
12. Managerial cost including 2 years PQ.
£50k
so in total we have for a group of 5 trainees a total cost of about £550k and this is for a TOC that pays it's drivers £45k a year. Divide this by 5 and:-
Each driver up until passing out will cost a company:- £110k
Hope tis helps.
And a note that if a depot has a feeder/starter link the DI WILL be released to cover the core routes of the depot and to do this WILL follow the line of vacant work in the feeder link meaning their line in their link must be covered and this is usually on a RD basis.
