Maintenance Depot Driver, Neville Hill

[Jimmy McNulty]

Hi,

Northern are looking for Maintenance Depot Drivers at Neville Hill.

I have seen conflicting information regarding multiple driver app's with Northern Rail but seems you can only apply for one at a time even if you have applied for a Mainline and then want to apply for a Depot role as well. After clicking the apply button on the Careers page it brings up 5 multiple choice questions, the first being; Do you currently have a live application for a Driver vacancy at a different location to the one you are applying for? If you click yes you obviously don't go any further.

Does anyone know if this is the case? Wouldn't want to lose my existing application after all. But another stone to throw at the birds would be nice.

Can you apply for these Depot positions without Rail experience as it doesn't specify trainee just that you must be able to undertake train driving duties?

 

[Beveridges]

Yes you can apply for this without experience. Full training is provided. It is a 7 month course I believe and you'll be trained on everything, plenty of traction here you've got locomotives (08's), DMU's (142 up to 158) and EMU's (321s - 333s) and its a busy and complex depot, with several operators using it, I would think it would be a good job, far from boring anyway. Mostly night shifts however.

Dont know if the application system would stop you applying for this if you've put in for a mainline role as MDD and mainline are two different roles. I'm not sure how the application system works so you'd have to contact Northern but I thought that for external applicants you get 1 app at any 1 time for every grade, and as said above MDD and mainline are not the same grade, so you may get away with putting another one in. If in doubt you could always open a new account and apply for both anyway.

 

[WestRiding]

are sundays included in the £30,000+ wage or included, and what is overtime like as a depot driver?

 

[Jimmy McNulty]

Yes you can apply for this without experience. Full training is provided. It is a 7 month course I believe and you'll be trained on everything, plenty of traction here you've got locomotives (08's), DMU's (142 up to 158) and EMU's (321s - 333s) and its a busy and complex depot, with several operators using it, I would think it would be a good job, far from boring anyway. Mostly night shifts however.

Dont know if the application system would stop you applying for this if you've put in for a mainline role as MDD and mainline are two different roles. I'm not sure how the application system works so you'd have to contact Northern but I thought that for external applicants you get 1 app at any 1 time for every grade, and as said above MDD and mainline are not the same grade, so you may get away with putting another one in. If in doubt you could always open a new account and apply for both anyway.

Fantastic advice Beveridges, really helpful, thanks a lot. The various traction appeals and with the constant variety, being on the move all the time and having to use your head I agree it would be a great job.

No issue with night shifts etc, I can understand why others would see it as a downside but I just see it as something you need to do to make the grade.

are sundays included in the £30,000+ wage or included, and what is overtime like as a depot driver?

I have heard you can push the salary to around £50k with overtime but would imagine that would be a hell of a lot of extra shifts. Not sure on the Sundays but Northern Mainline Drivers are contracted to 10 per year and are paid extra for this.

 

[WestRiding]

I cant see it just been nights, i would have thought there would be a roster with distributed earlies, lates and nights and rest days

 

[Jimmy McNulty]

Its shift work, not all nights, but you would need to be prepared to do them and probably regularly

 

[Dave1987]

Sundays are not included in the basic salary. You get extra money for sundays worked. Overtime is also not certain.

Regards

David

 

[Beveridges]

Its a 17 week rota I believe, I went looking at this role on a Development Day once. Not all shifts are nights, I was there in the day and there were 2 MDD's on at that moment and there was stuff going on in the day, including shunting with the 08. However night time is when most of the action is so thats what most of the shifts will be. They will not be equally distributed between early, late and night, it will probably be something like 60-70% nights, the rest lates and earlies.
As said before, very good variety in the work, it's got to be one of the most varied operational roles you can do. £50k as an MDD is possible on west side with a hell of a lot of overtime at places like Newton Heath, not sure if so much overtime is available on eastern depots.

 

[Jimmy McNulty]

Just wondering what the Selection process is for driving at the depot and what, if any, differences there are with the Selection process for a Trainee Driver role?

 

[Dave1987]

Jim you go through exactly the same selection procedure, as you would still be a driver and one day go out main line.

 

[Jimmy McNulty]

Jim you go through exactly the same selection procedure, as you would still be a driver and one day go out main line.

Cheers Dave

 

[Beveridges]

Exactly the same process

1-Application form
2-Corporate Interview
3-Psychometric tests exactly same as Mainline with the same Structured Interview with the assessor at the end
4-Medical exactly the same medical as Mainline
5-References
6-Contract

 

[Jimmy McNulty]

Thanks Beveridges . . . waiting game for now then

 

[Beveridges]

How did it go?

 

[Jimmy McNulty]

I got an email advising that due to a change in business requirements the position is no longer available. So I would guess filled internally.

Back to the drawing board.

 

[DelBoy]

Just a quick FYI for anyone interested about being an MDD at Neville Hill.

I used to work there as an MDD myself and it's a good way of eventually getting on to mainline driving, like I did a few years ago; It will take a good couple of years as an MDD though before being considered.

The role is predominantly nights as most have mentioned already; I would say you work more or less twice as many nights as you do earlies/lates combined; usually between 7-10 hour shifts.

Sundays are part of the working week as the salary includes a portion of shift allowance.

Overtime is readily available and is shared out evenly by the MDD's accordingly from whoever has the least hours in that 'four week' period; but expectations of £50k a year is a tad high; I would say you would have to be a regular 'grabber' to get anywhere past the £40k mark if i'm being honest.

Work wise it is one of those jobs where you can be sat about doing next to nothing, then all of a sudden have a good 2-3 hours or so where you're none stop; it is really busy on friday and saturday nights when 25+ sets turn up to needing to be fuelled, tanked, cleaned, serviced and prepped by the morning.

It's a good job though for anyone interested and I really enjoyed working there.

 

[Beveridges]

Overtime is readily available and is shared out evenly by the MDD's accordingly from whoever has the least hours in that 'four week' period; but expectations of £50k a year is a tad high; I would say you would have to be a regular 'grabber' to get anywhere past the £40k mark if i'm being honest.

Definetely a completely different story over here to the east side. At NH (Newton Heath) the overtime is unlimited, they are forever short of MDD's on nights even if there are no vacancies in the links. With almost a 3 day week you can imagine how much RDW is possible. £50k is about the average for the grabbers.
There is also the fact that NH gets 40-55 arrivals per night so can't really get away with running too short staffed.

It's a good job though for anyone interested and I really enjoyed working there.

But did you enjoy it more than mainline?

 

[9K43]

At one time, Depot Drivers took the fuel empties from the the main depot and took them over to the otherside, behind L783/784 subs.
As I remeber the drivers do not drive on the main line, as EWS collect the ety fuel trucks and take them from the depot to Donny, this is done on a Saturday Morning, as I have been to Team member resonsible for train preperation at Nevill Hill Shed.( Many times.) This system may have been altered.

 

[DelBoy]

But did you enjoy it more than mainline?

No I would definitely say mainline driving is a much better job; For starters there are none of the little perks, such as early finishes and spare turns at Neville Hill i'm afraid.

 

[shedman]

Shedman is shocked

 

[Beveridges]

Shedman is shocked

Beveridges is shocked as well

--- Old post above, new post below ---



I don't see how a "spare turn" is a perk. In my vast experience on Depot, I had a day once where I was doing absolutely nothing all day. It was a Saturday afternoon turn, with no arrivals, and due to a power outage in the maintenace shed, no maintenance was going on. The entire depot was "dead". But it was boring. I just wanted something to do. That £1000 laptop I bring to work can only keep me entertained for a few hours. Not 10 hours.

 

[DelBoy]

I will elaborate on how spare turns can be a perk:

If you are booked on a spare turn (say a 7hr shift) and you don't get rostered a booked job, more often than not you will be sent home 1-2 hours before your shift ends; some depots quite bizarrely even get to go home after just 5 hrs if they haven't been given a job.

Alternatively your spare turn could be 8.30 hrs, but if rosters book you on a job with less hours (there are a few under 6 hrs), you then work those hours but you're still getting paid for 8.30 hours.

 

[NI 271]

In my early days on the buses we had loads of spare turns, I always swapped to get out of them as the boredom of being sat around on the off chance there was a breakdown or someone might blob outweighed any prospect of getting off an hour early, even if there WAS a decent card school going on.

I wouldn't say spares aren't a perk, but I would say I'd prefer an ordinary day's work pretty much every time. I can see how many (most?) others might not, however.

 

[shedman]

In my early days on the buses we had loads of spare turns, I always swapped to get out of them as the boredom of being sat around on the off chance there was a breakdown or someone might blob outweighed any prospect of getting off an hour early, even if there WAS a decent card school going on.

I wouldn't say spares aren't a perk, but I would say I'd prefer an ordinary day's work pretty much every time. I can see how many (most?) others might not, however.

Couldn't agree more. Nothing worse than sat clock watching, minutes are hours! Bit some people like the idea of being paid to do nothing....

 

[notadriver]

Spare turns on the railway are great because you usually only get part of a job and then get sent home well before the length of the actual spare turn. Also messroom on the railway are usually well kitted out with a pool table, sky TV etc. If you are required to work up to or beyond your time the service controllers will usually remember the favour you did them for a other time.

On the buses I was treated like sh*t by supervisory staff and 8 hours spare or standby meant exactly that and you were made to stay to time. If there were too many standbys the extras could be made to do tasks such as tidying up the yard, arranging the running boards in the right order etc.

 

[NI 271]

On the buses I was treated like sh*t by supervisory staff and 8 hours spare or standby meant exactly that and you were made to stay to time. If there were too many standbys the extras could be made to do tasks such as tidying up the yard, arranging the running boards in the right order etc.

Do you mind if I ask where this was? As soon as I knew I wasn't going to be using a particular driver (usually around an hour before their official finishing time) I used to call them and send them home, makes you wonder what sort of bonehead supervisors you've got who wanted to antagonise people who they'd be asking to work overtime another day. What a strange way to behave.

 

[notadriver]

I was a London bus driver from 96-02. Treatment of bus drivers was and still is awful (so I'm told). It might be different outside of London but when I moved out of London a stand by job meant still meant you stayed to time. But London still has some of the highest rates of pay in the country - paid breaks and overtime rates/weekend rates of pay which you many bus companies don't pay.

But back on topic there is thing I admire about depot driving. They don't spend much time driving so they won't get the back pains from sitting in one position for too long !

 

[DelBoy]

But back on topic there is thing I admire about depot driving. They don't spend much time driving so they won't get the back pains from sitting in one position for too long !

That's true but, there is a lot of pulling points and climbing on and off the units; it's surprising just how many MDD's & Drivers do their back in just by pulling points (albeit by probably doing it incorrectly).

 

[Beveridges]

Depot Drivers don't spend that much time driving compared to mainline, but they spend a massive amount of time pulling points, fuelling and climbing on and off units. All this can lead to back and/or knee pains. Probably only effects those using incorrect form and/or rushing... e.g. jumping down off a unit in one jump without even using the steps!!! 200 times per night!

142s are the worst units for your back on the mainline due to the very poor ride quality. Class 142 cabs are great at 5mph. Absolutely horrible at 75mph though!
It is also not possible to drive a 142 stood up so you can't even alter your position on them. Very much hated units by mainline drivers, tolerable for depot drivers though.

Couldn't agree more. Nothing worse than sat clock watching, minutes are hours! Bit some people like the idea of being paid to do nothing....

When I was in training for practical handling I was often put with an incredibly lazy Driver Opp "minder" who would try and do as little as possible. We're talking 6 to 8 shunts in an 11 hour night and a few preps. Those nights dragged. They dragged about as much as an 11-hour air plane flight.
I couldn't believe how quick the 11 hours went when I passed out on Driver Opp and started actually doing some work rather than sat around doing nothing like the old minder did and still does. Suprised how many people like doing nothing though.

 

[GB]

I will elaborate on how spare turns can be a perk:

If you are booked on a spare turn (say a 7hr shift) and you don't get rostered a booked job, more often than not you will be sent home 1-2 hours before your shift ends; some depots quite bizarrely even get to go home after just 5 hrs if they haven't been given a job.

Alternatively your spare turn could be 8.30 hrs, but if rosters book you on a job with less hours (there are a few under 6 hrs), you then work those hours but you're still getting paid for 8.30 hours.

Spare turns on freight are even better (at least where I am). If you have no rostored job, planners have 24 hours to find you something or you are entitled to the day off. You can also claim spare turns as rest day worked if the planners give you anything less then 24 hours notice.

Alternatively they can book you "on call". The day is pretty much yours (baring the obvious drinking or extensive traveling) but you must be prepared to answer your mobile and attend work if they call you in within your hours. If they don't call you in you are entitled to half the booked hours.