Avanti - Flexibility on Rota (CS Role)

[ConKarni]

Hi all,

Thought i'd hop in here to try and get some opinions and personal experiences on this.

I was recently successful for an Avanti Customer Service position and am now in the Talent Bank awaiting for a training course to pop up.

I do however have some concerns with travel to and from the departure/ arrival station as I live about an hour 30 away. I've seen that Avanti rotas can start onwards from 0500 and finish at 2330.

If I had a 0500 start I would have to get a train outbound from home at 2300 (waiting 5 hours in City) and if I were to return by 2330, I would have to get a return at 0530 (waiting another 5 hours in City). With overnight trains not operating within the hours 0000-0530

My question:
Does Avanti offer flexible shifts within certain times? For me, that would be between 0800 and 22:30 (making sure i'm not stranded in the City..)

Thank you all!

 

[transportphoto]

For a new starter the expectation is that you’re able to make your own way to the depot for your shift times (at all times of day) - this is likely to have been made clear during advert stages.

The company would frown upon anyone commuting to an early start late the previous evening.

There’s a possibility of the employment law changes regarding flexible working requests but this won’t help immediately.

Which role have you applied for? On train or station based?

 

[p.d87]

I agree, the expectation is that you are able to get to and from work for the varying shift patterns. If you were unable to do so, this should have been discussed during the interview stages.

 

[Harpo]

Flexible/family friendly arrangements are anything but to those outside of them as the rest of the team/link get to pick up all of the carp that others wriggle out of.

 

[43066]

I do however have some concerns with travel to and from the departure/ arrival station as I live about an hour 30 away. I've seen that Avanti rotas can start onwards from 0500 and finish at 2330.

If I had a 0500 start I would have to get a train outbound from home at 2300 (waiting 5 hours in City) and if I were to return by 2330, I would have to get a return at 0530 (waiting another 5 hours in City). With overnight trains not operating within the hours 0000-0530

I’d agree with comments above that flexibility isn’t likely to be made available in this instance.

Were you not made aware that you’d be needing to get to work at extreme times when you applied for the role? This is usually made very clear to applicants in job adverts, and throughout the recruitment process.

 

[2007Emily]

Hi all,

Thought i'd hop in here to try and get some opinions and personal experiences on this.

I was recently successful for an Avanti Customer Service position and am now in the Talent Bank awaiting for a training course to pop up.

I do however have some concerns with travel to and from the departure/ arrival station as I live about an hour 30 away. I've seen that Avanti rotas can start onwards from 0500 and finish at 2330.

If I had a 0500 start I would have to get a train outbound from home at 2300 (waiting 5 hours in City) and if I were to return by 2330, I would have to get a return at 0530 (waiting another 5 hours in City). With overnight trains not operating within the hours 0000-0530

My question:
Does Avanti offer flexible shifts within certain times? For me, that would be between 0800 and 22:30 (making sure i'm not stranded in the City..)

Thank you all!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Mar 2025 ==

Hi, I’m also in the talent bank for the same job. It was in the job advertisement and I also got asked about it at interview stage. It was made very clear to me that I needed to be able to get to and from the station without public transport. Not sure why your experience was different to mine.

 

[phixl]

I concur….I have a f2f tomorrow but one of my digital interview questions specifically addressed this point….odd!

 

[Ducatist4]

You have the right to request flexible working and the employer must consider it and deal with it in a reasonable manner but the employer can refuse an application if they have a good business reason for doing so. Employing someone to work on a train that leaves at 5am would be good enough for them to reject it.
I'm not sure if fatigue management applies to your role but if it does it sounds like you'd be well outside of those rules as well.