Driver Manager East Midlands Trains.

[DaveCheeseman]

Can anyone tell me whether the above hold a key in their role and whether they maintain their competence?

 

[scott118]

surely all DMs will hold competence, otherwise they wouldn't be unable to do their driver assessments, or indeed help out in an emergency, or dare i even say, drive during official/unofficial working to rule disagreements, potentially..

 

[DaveCheeseman]

Some TOCs, including my current, employ two managers. One is a competency development manager who does hold a key and remains competent, the other referred to as a line manager does not. He essentially deals with the paperwork side of things. Needless to say they struggle with having any authority over their drivers as they have never driven a train and most seem to have come from retail management positions etc and have no railway knowledge.

 

[WannabeTD]

EMT employ both competent driver managers ("driver manager") and non competent driver managers ("non technical skills driver managers")

Competent ones obviously keep up their driving competence. NTS ones have never driven a train.

The current vacancies are for competent driver managers.

 

[DaveCheeseman]

EMT employ both competent driver managers ("driver manager") and non competent driver managers ("non technical skills driver managers")

Competent ones obviously keep up their driving competence. NTS ones have never driven a train.

The current vacancies are for competent driver managers.

Many thanks.

 

[whoosh]

Don't worry about keeping your competence. East Midlands Trains has an agreement that Driver Managers will be used to drive trains on Sundays if there aren't enough drivers who've made themselves available. This means Driver Managers drive trains most Sundays.

They don't seem to tell people this at the interview though, with newly arrived Driver Managers a bit shocked to learn that as well as their five day week in the office, they are going to be driving on a sixth day almost every week, although they do get paid a fixed amount for each Sunday in addition to their salary. Which is slightly higher than a drivers, but based on a 37 hour week instead of a 35 hour week which the drivers have, so about the same or even ever so slightly less per hour.

 

[DaveCheeseman]

Don't worry about keeping your competence. East Midlands Trains has an agreement that Driver Managers will be used to drive trains on Sundays if there aren't enough drivers who've made themselves available. This means Driver Managers drive trains most Sundays.

They don't seem to tell people this at the interview though, with newly arrived Driver Managers a bit shocked to learn that as well as their five day week in the office, they are going to be driving on a sixth day almost every week, although they do get paid a fixed amount for each Sunday in addition to their salary. Which is slightly higher than a drivers, but based on a 37 hour week instead of a 35 hour week which the drivers have, so about the same or even ever so slightly less per hour.

Sounds lovely. I have seen these positions advertised on a fairly regular basis, perhaps this is the reason.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

Strange how quick the turn over of DMs is at two sister companies... Might give you an idea what the higher levels of management are like!!

I know of at least two managers who quit them and left for other companies to go back driving and both are exceptionally happy.

The sister company has exactly the same trouble and have lost at least 12 driver managers to other companies to go back driving, so it proves that the problem may well be the "holding" company.