Morning all,
Just wanted to throw my own opinion in to the mix to help out anyone else that might be thinking about taking this path!
I left the Met in April this year to take up a trainee position with ARL. Did just shy of 10 years as a PC and 2 years as a civi in the control room before that.
Got my final assessment booked in to start on Tuesday, so all being well I should be a newly qualified driver by this time next week!
Firstly, I would definitely recommend to anyone in the Police, or any emergency services job to consider moving in to the railway if you get the opportunity to do so. That being said, it’s definitely not for everyone and it’s not just “pushing a control back and forth” as I had been told many times before leaving the job myself.
Before you make any final decision however, there are some things I think everyone should consider properly.
Pay: While the fully qualified salary is fantastic and will be a step up for almost everyone coming across, you won’t be on that salary whilst you train. Do your sums and work out whether you can manage the drop in pay. For me, I’m down about £600 a month (take home) at the moment in comparison to when I was a top rate PC.
I did my sums and figured that I could manage, but it’s definitely been harder than I initially thought. For starters, the projected end date of the course is only a guide line - and from what I’ve come to learn, it’s common for those to be missed and for your passing out to come some time after those dates. That means you’ll more than likely be having to endure less pay for a bit longer. Make sure you can afford the drop in pay and sustain it for a while after your projected end date, just in case your course goes on longer than expected.
Security: I can only speak for myself, but I imagine the same is true of most people moving from the Police to the railway, in that we look for comparable job security. We probably joined the Police thinking that we had a “job for life” and from the little bit I’ve experienced so far, it certainly seems as though the driving grade is a similar fit. However when you’re a trainee, you’ll likely be on a temporary contract (that’s how ARL manage it at least, not sure about other TOCs). So there’s a possibility that the company could get rid of me at any time if they feel that I’m not making the grade. I’ve been told that this is very unlikely etc and the company certainly seem to provide me with ample training and opportunities to pass the course, but it’s still a possibility - something that you don’t have the risk of in your current job in the Police and definitely something to consider.
Shifts: If you’ve worked in a front line role, you’re probably already fairly accustomed to shift work. However, there are some ungodly start times in my roster (04:15!) which mean that I have to set my alarm for 02:45! I know we had the odd early start in the job for aid, or warrants/ops, but it was usually every once in a while. Certainly for my place, 04:15 starts will be fairly common place and I’ll have to deal with them.
Also, your shift times can vary. You have a main roster that shows what days you’re working and what days you’re off - and also what job you should be covering, but this can change. There’s a 7 day mark up (meaning 7 days beforehand they can change your duty slightly) and a 48 hour mark up (meaning 48 hours beforehand they can change your duty slightly) which give short notice warning of changes to your duty. These should only be minimal changes, ie a few hours in either direction, but that could make things difficult if you happen to have to arrange child care etc. Moving from a 10am start to an 8am start will obviously mean you miss the school run - and potentially you’ll only have had 48 hours notice to make alternative arrangements. (However that should be fairly similar to the sort of horrible shift changes we experienced in the Met!).
Training: In my experience, the training has been very good. The trainers themselves all seem to enjoy training and definitely go out of their way to try and help you along. There have been some hiccups (issues with resourcing and not being able to get a spare train to play around with etc), but I don’t feel that it’s affected me too badly.
That said, there is a good amount of self learning to be done (depending on how quickly you pick things up). It won’t just be 9-5 in the class room and all your weekends off, you’ll have to make time to learn new bits and pieces, or even just to revise things you already know. I have a young family at home, so I found studying at home to be really difficult (can’t get any peace and quiet) - so I ended up making sure that I came to work a few hours before class started, or I stayed behind a few hours after class had finished. That lead to a lot of missing out at home and a lot of cancelled plans - and my classroom days seemed to be really long, but hopefully that hard work will pay off next week!
Learning rules and regs should be fairly familiar to most police officers, but there is a lot to learn. Even though I did some research before taking the job, I’ve still been surprised by not only how much there is to learn, but how your knowledge has to be so in-depth. You really have to try and become an expert on your rule book and your route!
I feel like I’ve typed enough, so I’ll probably leave it there!
So far, my experience has been positive. Everyone seems to genuinely want to help you succeed, which has been a nice change from my time in the job. People also seem to still enjoy their job here, even after 15-20 years in (they usually moan about the company or the way they’ve been managed as opposed to the actual driving job itself).
I definitely think being ex-Emergency services gives you a good amount of transferable skills and experiences that should bode well for taking on your training as a driver. And for anyone thinking of following suit and jumping across, good luck!
