Qualified and Trainee Driver Instructors Positions

[Firestarter]

Railadventure RailAdventure – Spezialtransporte und Probefahrten von Zügen

Europaweiter Marktführer im Bereich Test- und Überführungsfahrten von Schienenfahrzeugen

www.slcoperations.com

 

[tiptoptaff]

Railadventure RailAdventure – Spezialtransporte und Probefahrten von Zügen

Europaweiter Marktführer im Bereich Test- und Überführungsfahrten von Schienenfahrzeugen

www.slcoperations.com

Surely anyone who wants to be a DI will do so within the relative safety of their own TOC? Who'd leave a TOC job to go here?

 

[16.19]

May tempt some. But leaving a ToC that gives a great pension and AVCs - not for me.

 

[ComUtoR]

Surely anyone who wants to be a DI will do so within the relative safety of their own TOC? Who'd leave a TOC job to go here?

No all TOCs have DIs I am led to believe and my TOC may be removing the DI role.

Not only that TOC jobs can be a bit.. well.. "exclusive". Some will seek oportunuties elsewhere. £65k is a reasonable shout and is £10k more than my TOC so it's tempting for sure.

Training has been leaning to outsourcing for quite some time and we have started to see some seeds starting to grow. It wouldnt surprise me if more of these jobs come up.

 

[DriverEight]

Can someone clarity how this works? Are these guys independent contractors that travel to whichever TOC requires some driver training? Surely they would require extensive route and traction knowledge for every TOC in the country for that to be possible

 

[tiptoptaff]

Can someone clarity how this works? Are these guys independent contractors that travel to whichever TOC requires some driver training? Surely they would require extensive route and traction knowledge for every TOC in the country for that to be possible

I guess and that's what concerns me.

As a trainee, what's important is how well my DI knows the route and traction they're teaching me. But they also teach you other things, like how the company works, how you deal with rosters and resources, how to get leave, approach swaps etc. Things that you need to know when you pass out but you'd never get from a contractor who just teaches you to drive.

 

[Class2ldn]

My toc is on more then the trainee DI role and thats without doing sundays, a DI at my toc who works their Sundays is on well over 70k and thats without any overtime.

 

[DriverEight]

I guess and that's what concerns me.

As a trainee, what's important is how well my DI knows the route and traction they're teaching me. But they also teach you other things, like how the company works, how you deal with rosters and resources, how to get leave, approach swaps etc. Things that you need to know when you pass out but you'd never get from a contractor who just teaches you to drive.

I'd guess he's also your first friend on the railway too. Helps you break the ice in the mess room, tells you a good place to park, points you towards the best sandwich shop. Trivial things, but invaluable when it comes to helping you to settle in to a new job

 

[Gemz91]

I'd be interested to know more about this position. Once a driver, there's not much scope for progressing your career at my depot. The instructor positions seem to be taken up by instructors who have no intention on moving on, and all other depot or company training centres are too far away to commute.

I do wonder if its more to do with the training of train drivers in rules, classroom based traction and other training courses (driver instructor courses for instance). Once traniee drivers are competent in rules the handling would be done by the TOCs still (not sure if I explained that very well!). My TOC currently use an outside company to train mentors and instructors, so it seems it could be another one of these companies.

It seems they also have a number of guards and drivers they can hire out as almost like agency staff. I guess they hope that if TOC's go on strike, they'd be called upon. They strike me as a company like ROG.

I'll be emailing them later to ask for more information. My major concern is how you'd keep route and traction knowledge up. Also, if there's a lot of working away and staying at hotels, I don't think it would be worth the extra £100ish a month to be away from my family to do the job.

 

[DriverEight]

I'd be interested to know more about this position. Once a driver, there's not much scope for progressing your career at my depot. The instructor positions seem to be taken up by instructors who have no intention on moving on, and all other depot or company training centres are too far away to commute.

I do wonder if its more to do with the training of train drivers in rules, classroom based traction and other training courses (driver instructor courses for instance). Once traniee drivers are competent in rules the handling would be done by the TOCs still (not sure if I explained that very well!). My TOC currently use an outside company to train mentors and instructors, so it seems it could be another one of these companies.

It seems they also have a number of guards and drivers they can hire out as almost like agency staff. I guess they hope that if TOC's go on strike, they'd be called upon. They strike me as a company like ROG.

I'll be emailing them later to ask for more information. My major concern is how you'd keep route and traction knowledge up. Also, if there's a lot of working away and staying at hotels, I don't think it would be worth the extra £100ish a month to be away from my family to do the job.

If they hired out guards and drivers like agency staff, then those guards and drivers would need route and traction knowledge for every possible combination. If they don't have that knowledge they would be very restricted in what they could do. On the other hand, if it was just classroom based training, would they still get paid a train driver's salary? I'd love to hear the outcome of your enquiries, because there's definitely more questions than answers at the moment!

This could he a vicious circle. These guys lure experienced drivers away from the TOCs. The TOC then has to hire and train more drivers, and uses this training company to do it. The training company charges an outrageous fee for the training, which enables them to put up wages and lure more drivers away from the TOCs. A similar thing is happening in the NHS. More and more, private ambulances are responding to 999 calls because the NHS can't cope with the volume of calls they get. The private ambulance companies charge the NHS astronomical fees for this and, therefore, can pay paramedics more than the NHS. As a result, experienced paramedics leave the NHS to work in the private sector so the NHS has to rely more on the private ambulances...