Driver recruitment south east vs everywhere else

[Bayum]

Is recruitment for central London TOCs as strict as elsewhere? The demands for recruitment and training for the region must be massive and, though I imagine they would apply the strict screening and interviewing processes as elsewhere, there must be additional complexities to the recruitment of new candidates?

 

[43066]

Is recruitment for central London TOCs as strict as elsewhere? The demands for recruitment and training for the region must be massive and, though I imagine they would apply the strict screening and interviewing processes as elsewhere, there must be additional complexities to the recruitment of new candidates?

Candidates have to pass the national tests to the standards required by the TOCs. I don’t really see why there would be more complexities to the recruitment of candidates - albeit the large population in the south east likely means more competition for places.

 

[Horizon22]

Is recruitment for central London TOCs as strict as elsewhere? The demands for recruitment and training for the region must be massive and, though I imagine they would apply the strict screening and interviewing processes as elsewhere, there must be additional complexities to the recruitment of new candidates?

If you work for Southeastern at Grove Park or SWR at Waterloo it will be the same recruitment requirements as if you were based at Dover or Weymouth respectively.

Why would the “demands” be any different? Do you mean the “demand” for the job?

Yes it will be more competitive, but what “complexities” are you envisioning?

 

[TheAnswer89]

He's probably hoping for TOCs to be more desperate as they need more drivers. Supply and demand kind of thing. Even though London requires more drivers city and its surroundings provide infite supply of people wanting to get that job. So it's probably even harder to become TD in London area.

 

[Sorcerer]

I can't speak for the whole of the south-east, but being specific to London there will naturally be more driver recruitment based on the sheer number of depots and vacancies that will appear compared to smaller depots up north. But at the same time you will also be dealing with more competition because of the greater number of applicants. They might be more lenient with distance and time from depots given housing prices (I once met someone from Stevenage applying for a London-based vacancy) but otherwise it won't be much different from recruitment elsewhere in the country.

 

[Bayum]

He's probably hoping for TOCs to be more desperate as they need more drivers. Supply and demand kind of thing. Even though London requires more drivers city and its surroundings provide infite supply of people wanting to get that job. So it's probably even harder to become TD in London area.

Not at all. I’m excluded from applying for safety critical roles due to medical condition and subsequent treatment.

I know in some places, there are long wait times in various talent pools and the like but for somewhere like London where you may have a large volume of drivers needing training at once, dealing with the number of applications etc, I wasn’t sure if the system was different to accommodate those additional challenges.

 

[TheAnswer89]

Talent pools are overcrowded, because of quite low pass national standard threshold and therefore many people pass the tests, but they want the best scoring ones, so they cherry pick candidates from the pool. Once in the pool there is no guarantee you will ever get an offer, because you might be one of the lower scoring ones and that offer will never come.

 

[Horizon22]

Talent pools are overcrowded, because of quite low pass national standard threshold and therefore many people pass the tests, but they want the best scoring ones, so they cherry pick candidates from the pool. Once in the pool there is no guarantee you will ever get an offer, because you might be one of the lower scoring ones and that offer will never come.

Talent pools are also overcrowded as they are often, poorly administered with recruitment teams stretched thin.

 

[HeelBurton]

Talent pools are overcrowded, because of quite low pass national standard threshold and therefore many people pass the tests, but they want the best scoring ones, so they cherry pick candidates from the pool. Once in the pool there is no guarantee you will ever get an offer, because you might be one of the lower scoring ones and that offer will never come.

We do not get access to the full scores of applicants. Not at my toc anyway.

Simply comes as a form that says what you’ve passed in. And where you failed if you failed on first attempt.

Simple pass and fail tick boxes, sometimes comes with information of standard or enhanced, but no specific scoring points.

 

[TheAnswer89]

We do not get access to the full scores of applicants. Not at my toc anyway.

Simply comes as a form that says what you’ve passed in. And where you failed if you failed on first attempt.

Simple pass and fail tick boxes, sometimes comes with information of standard or enhanced, but no specific scoring points.

Thats interesting, cause I was told something completely different.

 

[TheVicLine]

Demand is huge throughout the country, there are 1000's of applicants for trainee driver positions when they are advertised irrespective of location. Applicants are tested to a national standard, although some TOCs do require enhanced pass rates but I think that is just down to the massive volume of applicants.

 

[Pintman]

Thats interesting, cause I was told something completely different.

What were you told?

 

[TheAnswer89]

What were you told?

That offers are issued based on overall performance during all assessments and MMI and DMI.