ga1717
Member
Thanks for the info. I've heard a few / read a few sources that there are differences between IM and HH. That clears things up a bit. Thanks again.
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Freightliner - Trainee Drivers / Shunt Drivers - Recruitment Discussion
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vc99
Member
Heya. Im applying for heavy haul. But in talent pool for gwr. What do you think is better for like graft, pay, conditions. Hours
Well, it depends on what you want? I am a HHR driver - ask away.
Unobrow
Member
Two totally different jobs. HH pay more, IM drive more trains generally, no T3 engineering work and less weekends. More to it than that, but that’s an initial indication.
vc99
Member
Hey. Well exactly what I was querying I guess, it doesn't state a pay start or finish? Is it mainly weekends? Is route learning more varied, based out of Mendip?
I can only give you information about what is currently going on - It may be subject change.
This is a run down of a Heavy Haul Rail Train driver job out of Mendip.
Pay:
The end pay will be £70,000. You will have 3 months on a reduced wage (circa 21,000) while you are in the classroom. It will increase slightly after classroom (while you are doing your handling hours). Handling hours could take up to 1 year to complete depending on mentor availability. You may have to do your classroom and some of your driving hours elsewhere (North East, London, etc) if they do not have enough mentors at your location. You won't get the full £70k salary unless you have completed classroom training, done your 250 hours (with assessments at intervals) and signed your first route.
Driving Hours:
You will need to do 250 hours of "wheels turning" driving. It does not include any hours if you are sitting in a loop - but still being paid.
Location:
Out of Mendip there are 2 main quarries. Merehead and Whatley. The bulk of traffic comes out of these. There are others in the area such as Machen and Tytherington, but for the purposes of your employment it will mainly be Merehead and Whatley.
Routes:
Initially your first route will be local, like Merehead/ Whatley to Westbury and maybe the odd local yard. They will then leave you alone for a bit. As you accure time within the company you will get to sign further places like Wooten Basset, Eastleigh, etc. The radius gets bigger. A large amount of Mendip traffic is destined for London, eventually you may learn up to Acton Main Line on the GWML. These are the jumbo trains that are often formed of two engines and ~40 wagons. The train will reach Hanwell or Southall and will be split in half and a ~20 wagon train will go to one London location, the other train to another. You will only take them as far as Hanwell, Southall or Acton - to then get relief.
Holidays/ Days off:
The quarries (at present) do not work bank holidays or much of the weekends and have a two week shutdown over Christmas and new year, but it is a 24 hour operation throughout the week. There are some turns that finish early on Saturday morning (ie, the return Jumbo from Acton late at night gets back to the Quarry at early Saturday morning). There are some turns that start Sunday to prepare for the Sunday night/ Monday meaning early departures.
Shunting:
The quarries have their own shunt locos. You will drive the empty or full trains off the reception roads to the destination on the mainline. All moves inside the quarry are done by quarry staff.
Book on/ Book off times:
You will have very odd book on times. For example you may be expected to book on at 10pm and work until 9am. Booking on at 7am and finishing at 3pm is very rare, but there are the odd diagrams that do. There is no rhyme or reason and it is based on the service pattern of customer demand.
Diagrams:
Diagrams generally are around 9, 10 or 11 hours. They are very long days. You may be expected to work inside the quarry forming trains up, or delivering a trainload of material to a quarry, then drive it back. Sometimes depending on a diagram you may also have to drive a staff car (Seat Leon) to a location, to pickup a train and drive it back or vice versa. You may not have access to a toilet or shop for sometime /the full shift. Consideration should be given for 12 hours of food/ water.
Locos:
You will sign class 59s and 66s. 66 training will be included on your 3 month classroom stint. You will get a day on 59s around the time you pass out. There is a hot plate in the cab to warm up soup, etc. There is no fridge. Class 59s have no air conditioning. HHR/ FL Class 66s do have air conditioning that is able to cool the cab when the external temperature is below 30 degree. Due to the construction of the loco (One big metal shed) it gets hot in the summer as the sun beats down on the metal roof, and it can get cold in the winter due to windows letting drafts, etc.
The 10 Vacancies that are being recruited for are a combination of natural wastage (Leavers, retirements, etc) to bring the staff number back up to compliment.
Contract:
You will have your "contract year". This starts as soon as you sign your first route. Everyone's is different. This is a document which logs how many hours you have worked each year. You should by the end of the year have completed 1568 Working hours (it is 1800 but 300 is annual leave). Your average working week on your contract is 35 hours. So 35 hours each week added up after a year taking away leave is 1568. If you end up after 1 year being under hours you will not loose money, you will still have been paid the ~70k Basic. If at the end of the year you have done 200 hours over the next payday after your contract year finishes you will receive a "happy cheque" this is the hours over 1568 paid in one lump sum. Your contract will then renew back to zero and it repeats each year. This is not your employment contract - that is different.
Working week:
Your working weeks could be 55, 30, 27, 42, 45, 50. The hours are long, you will be financially compensated for the extra hours at the end of the year. You can ask to have your contract "managed", this means rostering will try to keep each week as close to 35 hour week throughout the year - some drivers do this. Depends what is important to you - Money or time.
Rest Day:
If you do a rest day (AKA RDW) this will be paid in next months payslip. Over hours contract payment is only paid once a year depending when your contact anniversary is.
You are welcome to question any of the above text to help you make your decision. When I was making a job move from elsewhere to Train Driver people on here helped me with information. I am purely passing the baton on.
This is a run down of a Heavy Haul Rail Train driver job out of Mendip.
Pay:
The end pay will be £70,000. You will have 3 months on a reduced wage (circa 21,000) while you are in the classroom. It will increase slightly after classroom (while you are doing your handling hours). Handling hours could take up to 1 year to complete depending on mentor availability. You may have to do your classroom and some of your driving hours elsewhere (North East, London, etc) if they do not have enough mentors at your location. You won't get the full £70k salary unless you have completed classroom training, done your 250 hours (with assessments at intervals) and signed your first route.
Driving Hours:
You will need to do 250 hours of "wheels turning" driving. It does not include any hours if you are sitting in a loop - but still being paid.
Location:
Out of Mendip there are 2 main quarries. Merehead and Whatley. The bulk of traffic comes out of these. There are others in the area such as Machen and Tytherington, but for the purposes of your employment it will mainly be Merehead and Whatley.
Routes:
Initially your first route will be local, like Merehead/ Whatley to Westbury and maybe the odd local yard. They will then leave you alone for a bit. As you accure time within the company you will get to sign further places like Wooten Basset, Eastleigh, etc. The radius gets bigger. A large amount of Mendip traffic is destined for London, eventually you may learn up to Acton Main Line on the GWML. These are the jumbo trains that are often formed of two engines and ~40 wagons. The train will reach Hanwell or Southall and will be split in half and a ~20 wagon train will go to one London location, the other train to another. You will only take them as far as Hanwell, Southall or Acton - to then get relief.
Holidays/ Days off:
The quarries (at present) do not work bank holidays or much of the weekends and have a two week shutdown over Christmas and new year, but it is a 24 hour operation throughout the week. There are some turns that finish early on Saturday morning (ie, the return Jumbo from Acton late at night gets back to the Quarry at early Saturday morning). There are some turns that start Sunday to prepare for the Sunday night/ Monday meaning early departures.
Shunting:
The quarries have their own shunt locos. You will drive the empty or full trains off the reception roads to the destination on the mainline. All moves inside the quarry are done by quarry staff.
Book on/ Book off times:
You will have very odd book on times. For example you may be expected to book on at 10pm and work until 9am. Booking on at 7am and finishing at 3pm is very rare, but there are the odd diagrams that do. There is no rhyme or reason and it is based on the service pattern of customer demand.
Diagrams:
Diagrams generally are around 9, 10 or 11 hours. They are very long days. You may be expected to work inside the quarry forming trains up, or delivering a trainload of material to a quarry, then drive it back. Sometimes depending on a diagram you may also have to drive a staff car (Seat Leon) to a location, to pickup a train and drive it back or vice versa. You may not have access to a toilet or shop for sometime /the full shift. Consideration should be given for 12 hours of food/ water.
Locos:
You will sign class 59s and 66s. 66 training will be included on your 3 month classroom stint. You will get a day on 59s around the time you pass out. There is a hot plate in the cab to warm up soup, etc. There is no fridge. Class 59s have no air conditioning. HHR/ FL Class 66s do have air conditioning that is able to cool the cab when the external temperature is below 30 degree. Due to the construction of the loco (One big metal shed) it gets hot in the summer as the sun beats down on the metal roof, and it can get cold in the winter due to windows letting drafts, etc.
The 10 Vacancies that are being recruited for are a combination of natural wastage (Leavers, retirements, etc) to bring the staff number back up to compliment.
Contract:
You will have your "contract year". This starts as soon as you sign your first route. Everyone's is different. This is a document which logs how many hours you have worked each year. You should by the end of the year have completed 1568 Working hours (it is 1800 but 300 is annual leave). Your average working week on your contract is 35 hours. So 35 hours each week added up after a year taking away leave is 1568. If you end up after 1 year being under hours you will not loose money, you will still have been paid the ~70k Basic. If at the end of the year you have done 200 hours over the next payday after your contract year finishes you will receive a "happy cheque" this is the hours over 1568 paid in one lump sum. Your contract will then renew back to zero and it repeats each year. This is not your employment contract - that is different.
Working week:
Your working weeks could be 55, 30, 27, 42, 45, 50. The hours are long, you will be financially compensated for the extra hours at the end of the year. You can ask to have your contract "managed", this means rostering will try to keep each week as close to 35 hour week throughout the year - some drivers do this. Depends what is important to you - Money or time.
Rest Day:
If you do a rest day (AKA RDW) this will be paid in next months payslip. Over hours contract payment is only paid once a year depending when your contact anniversary is.
You are welcome to question any of the above text to help you make your decision. When I was making a job move from elsewhere to Train Driver people on here helped me with information. I am purely passing the baton on.
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vc99
Member
Thank you amazing reply appreciate your effort
Have you heard back about the MMI yet?
Not yet, should be tomorrow
Fingers crossed
20atthemagnet
Member
£64,074 without any overtime or harmonisation payments.
That's really helpful, thanks for your reply
IndegoMouse
Member
incase anyone has missed this they are recruiting again for Southampton https://gandwukeurope.wd3.myworkday...hunt-Driver-Trainee_ATR-4847-1?q=train+driver
I guess I failed my DMI back in early June then. Good of them to let me know!!
IndegoMouse
Member
there seems to be a few positions. If you haven't heard back then I would contact them!
Yes, they said in the interview they wanted three people. I contacted HR on the 30th June but never got a response. Can't find a number to call. I've just emailed again but think I know the answer!!
IndegoMouse
Member
how odd as they have advertised for 3 roles!
Yeah. Pretty certain they've just forgotten to tell me it's a no!
vc99
Member
Hey. Does anyone know of you can be in the reserves and be a freight driver?
ga1717
Member
If your looking to become a driver, operators dont tend to allow time off during training.
If your already a driver and then join im not sure what the rules would be?
Would have to also take the hidden rule into consideration.
vc99
Member
Thanks for the reply.
I know gwr support reserves. But I just wasn't sure if FOCs were the same.... dont know what the hidden rule means....
Brick79
Member
I do believe you get 2 paid weeks off per year at Freightliner for the reserves but the document still refer to it as the territorial so might be a bit dated, but the industry is filled with ex servicemen so I can't imagine it'd do anything but help you
Very insightful and knowledgeable and helpful. I find myself on this forum after recently applying for the most recent HHR job, Mendip area
@Error404 can I ask a typical shift pattern/how many days on days off roster for HHR ?
Are there many links ?
I currently work for GWR (not driving) and wondering whether HHR would work around young family life. I’m not opposed to shift work, have done it my whole life/long hours / nights don’t bother me as long as the days off to days on ratio is decent
Just wondered if there was a pattern of any sort?
HHR split into 3 time bands 00:00 - 08:00 (A band), 08:00 - 16:00 (B Band) and 16:00 until midnight (C Band). These bands are where your shift start time lies. In railway terms this is your earlies, lates or nights. What is key to remember here is in the same week they could book you on at 0100, 0200, 0600, 0800. They should fall later as the week progresses or stay the same, but in some cases for myself it has been a week of earlies 0200 0500 0200 0500 0300. Route knowledge, sickness, annual leave, etc can all effect the weekly roster.
A typical shift pattern might be 4 days of earlies, 3 off, 5 lates, 2 off, 5 lates, 2 off, 4 nights, etc. This is called the link. The links are agreed in advance and not often changed. Generally it always starts with the earlies, then moves to lates, then to nights. 156 rest days a year is built into the link.
What you will actually be doing (specific diagrams) giving you your specific diagram book on, off and content for the next week is published every Friday for the following week. Every Friday you will be emailed by the roster clerk giving you your jobs for the coming Sunday to the next Sunday.
So you will be able to tell family that you are on a early shift (A band) in 4 weeks time, but you will be unable to tell them when exactly you start and finish. You will only be able to tell them your exact start and finish times each Friday for next week. This is commonplace for freight in general.
Each depot is different in terms of link. All links will get 156 rest days a year.
Consideration should be given if you like to plan ahead for things.
I will give you an example - like going to the theatre with your husband?
You know you are on early shift 4 weeks from now. You book the theatre 4 weeks from now Thursday. You get the roster the week before, and it actually reveals you have a 0100 book on all that week which means you'll finish at the theatre at 10pm, get home at 11pm and wake up for work 0100 - unwise.
Activities now need to be booked for rest days which are guarenteed. That may not be a weekend. You may have to rethink your planning structure, what you do and how often you do it.
A typical shift pattern might be 4 days of earlies, 3 off, 5 lates, 2 off, 5 lates, 2 off, 4 nights, etc. This is called the link. The links are agreed in advance and not often changed. Generally it always starts with the earlies, then moves to lates, then to nights. 156 rest days a year is built into the link.
What you will actually be doing (specific diagrams) giving you your specific diagram book on, off and content for the next week is published every Friday for the following week. Every Friday you will be emailed by the roster clerk giving you your jobs for the coming Sunday to the next Sunday.
So you will be able to tell family that you are on a early shift (A band) in 4 weeks time, but you will be unable to tell them when exactly you start and finish. You will only be able to tell them your exact start and finish times each Friday for next week. This is commonplace for freight in general.
Each depot is different in terms of link. All links will get 156 rest days a year.
Consideration should be given if you like to plan ahead for things.
I will give you an example - like going to the theatre with your husband?
You know you are on early shift 4 weeks from now. You book the theatre 4 weeks from now Thursday. You get the roster the week before, and it actually reveals you have a 0100 book on all that week which means you'll finish at the theatre at 10pm, get home at 11pm and wake up for work 0100 - unwise.
Activities now need to be booked for rest days which are guarenteed. That may not be a weekend. You may have to rethink your planning structure, what you do and how often you do it.
vc99
Member
Hey. Have you done any of the tests yet for this application?
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Sorry only just seen this @vc99
Only initially just got past first set of tests and had an email through today to take the 2 online M7 SJT + VSE now! Only 1 week to do it which slightly stressing about as I am jam packed busy and working shifts throughout - I’m hoping to find some useful info on these forums!
I did see your name in the thread you’ve taken the tests right? Were you successful? I work for GWR (I’m pretty sure you said you were in a talent pool for that!) congrats
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Didn’t make it unfortunately, didn’t pass the MMI, I am slightly disadvantaged being 18 as I don’t have as many examples for the experiences they ask about during the interview. A bit of a shame as the FL team is really nice and I had passed my DMI.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Does anyone know if that means next time I go for psychometrics I have to do the lot? Or just the MMI.
vc99
Member
Heya. Yh u dont get long to do the online tests. Waiting to do dfft next month.
Yes I am keeping options open just want to be a trainndriver now. Love both freightband passenger and ideally will get to do both in the future.... what am ya a guard? Where u based?