Grand Central staff shortages

[TUC]

On Monday the 0708 Halifax-London Kings Cross had no buffet until Wakefield due to staff shortages. On the same journey today there is no at-seat service in first class, again due to staff shortages. Even allowing for GC's smallness, I would have thought that catering should be one of the easier on-train roles to get cover for. Does anyone know whether there is a particular reason for the ongoing difficulty?

 

[Iskra]

It’s not easy to get cover at 0700 in the morning in any business.

If it’s your day off, do you answer the phone to work at 0700?

I know I don’t as I’m happily sleeping and I know my staff don’t either, nor do I expect them to. Smartphones make it even harder with silent/do not disturb modes.

It’s also peak holiday time for those without children at school.

 

[TUC]

It’s not easy to get cover at 0700 in the morning in any business.

If it’s your day off, do you answer the phone to work at 0700?

I know I don’t as I’m happily sleeping and I know my staff don’t either, nor do I expect them to. Smartphones make it even harder with silent/do not disturb modes.

It’s also peak holiday time for those without children at school.

That's a counsel of despair though. Small coffee shops, higjly dependant upon early morning commuters, seem to manage to get staffed and open each day.

 

[185]

Spares. There should always be spare staff.

If running low, they should employ seasonal staff like VWC occasionally do. But, in fairness no buffet until Wakey is not the end of the world.

 

[pompeyfan]

Spares. There should always be spare staff.

If running low, they should employ seasonal staff like VWC occasionally do. But, in fairness no buffet until Wakey is not the end of the world.

Not even my local bus companies pay for spare drivers unless they know there’s an event where they’ll need to use hot spares, GC/rail Gourmet are definitely not going to be interested in spares.

 

[Iskra]

That's a counsel of despair though. Small coffee shops, higjly dependant upon early morning commuters, seem to manage to get staffed and open each day.

Seem to manage ...there are times when coffee shops don’t open on time or are not able to offer a full service, but you are less likely to notice.

I run 2 such shops, and as I said in my first post it isn’t easy to find spare staff at 0700, and in these situations to keep things running if often ends in people working short staffed or doing things they shouldn’t regarding WTD or eroding into someone’s work-life balance, which the punters have no appreciation of.

 

[221129]

Spares. There should always be spare staff.

If running low, they should employ seasonal staff like VWC occasionally do. But, in fairness no buffet until Wakey is not the end of the world.

This. But you only have a limited amount of spares. All it takes is 1 person to go sick and you've used the spare turn person so if another turn is uncovered then you're stuffed.

 

[185]

Not even my local bus companies pay for spare drivers unless they know there’s an event where they’ll need to use hot spares, GC/rail Gourmet are definitely not going to be interested in spares.

Where there are compliance issues, it is in the interest of the operator to carry some token spares. In the case of an OA operator, not subject to franchising, that compliance is to the service level stated to the DfT/ORR when applying for paths. Repeatedly falling short could be in breach of their application.

 

[221129]

Where there are compliance issues, it is in the interest of the operator to carry some token spares. In the case of an OA operator, not subject to franchising, that compliance is to the service level stated to the DfT/ORR when applying for paths. Repeatedly falling short could be in breach of their application.

Indeed although I'm not sure whether this would have any impact in this case. I know we get fined for uncovered trolley turns and uncovered FCH turns though so it might be that GC get fined in a similar way depending on the terms that have been agreed. Or they might not.

 

[Iskra]

Indeed although I'm not sure whether this would have any impact in this case. I know we get fined for uncovered trolley turns and uncovered FCH turns though so it might be that GC get fined in a similar way depending on the terms that have been agreed. Or they might not.

Surely the guard could just tell first class passengers to claim their complimentary offer directly from the buffet? It’s hardly a major inconvenience.

 

[Domh245]

Indeed although I'm not sure whether this would have any impact in this case. I know we get fined for uncovered trolley turns and uncovered FCH turns though so it might be that GC get fined in a similar way depending on the terms that have been agreed. Or they might not.

Given that GC aren't franchised, I can't imagine that there are any sort of fine systems in place for customer service shortcomings?

 

[221129]

Surely the guard could just tell first class passengers to claim their complimentary offer directly from the buffet? It’s hardly a major inconvenience.

That too. But the TOC I work for will still be fined if there is not an FCH or a trolley on a booked turn.

 

[221129]

Given that GC aren't franchised, I can't imagine that there are any sort of fine systems in place for customer service shortcomings?

Depends on the terms of there Open Access Application.

 

[Dieseldriver]

That's a counsel of despair though. Small coffee shops, higjly dependant upon early morning commuters, seem to manage to get staffed and open each day.

How many people work in those coffee shops though? If you have a team of 4 people in a Costa and one rings in sick, the other 3 work harder but the business stays open. If you have 1 first class host on a train and they go sick, you've had it..

 

[74A]

Maybe the guard could do the first class service ?

 

[TUC]

Surely the guard could just tell first class passengers to claim their complimentary offer directly from the buffet? It’s hardly a major inconvenience.

A trolley had been left at the end of the first class carriage for passengers to serve themselves.

It's the repeated staff availability issue that I was highlighting.

 

[70014IronDuke]

O7.55 ex Bradford Int cancelled this morning - staff shortages. A friend and (previously) loyal customer making way to KX with family.

 

[driver_m]

Maybe the guard could do the first class service ?

They'll be busy enough doing ticket checks and despatch duties to be also wielding a trolley .And doing that too often makes the company lazy thinking they can get away with not putting the effort to get a caterer in. As has been said, spare cover is the thing here.

 

[dk1]

Maybe the guard could do the first class service ?

Short of handing out bottled water that would not be tolerated on a franchised TOC & I would imagine most open access employees are in a union too.

 

[jopsuk]

with a shop, if a staff member can't turn up, you might not get open at 0700, but maybe someone will pick up and you'll open at 0800.

With a train by 0800 the service is off down the line

 

[Starmill]

Short of handing out bottled water that would not be tolerated on a franchised TOC & I would imagine most open access employees are in a union too.

I have had the train manager serve me hot drinks on VT in the past. I understand that this isn't an unusual practice. At LNER I believe that oversight of this service is a part of their role too?

There is no shortage of applications elsewhere where safety critical staff also carry out retail activities too, so it's a surprise that this doesn't happen as much in the railway industry.

 

[dk1]

I have had the train manager serve me hot drinks on VT in the past. I understand that this isn't an unusual practice. At LNER I believe that oversight of this service is a part of their role too?

There is no shortage of applications elsewhere where safety critical staff also carry out retail activities too, so it's a surprise that this doesn't happen as much in the railway industry.

It has been tried before but resisted every time. Anglia tried it back in 2000 on the lightly loaded Crosslink route & it was strongly resisted. It even came to staff saying due to religious beliefs they would refuse to handle any pork products. They would also take so long doing safety critical & other duties that it made it impossible to operate any sort of retail service & the company gave up.

 

[bnm]

More than once I've had a CrossCountry Train Manager serve me in 1st Class.

Whilst the rolling stock on XC may not be agreeable I've certainly never found fault with the customer service, particularly that provided in 1st Class.

 

[dk1]

Think you'll find out that if you are served by a Train Manager/Senior Conductor it's because they are helping their onboard colleagues out rather than it being in any way part of their job spec. They can often be found washing up too.

 

[moleman212]

More than once I've had a CrossCountry Train Manager serve me in 1st Class.

Whilst the rolling stock on XC may not be agreeable I've certainly never found fault with the customer service, particularly that provided in 1st Class.

I've found XC First Class service very suspect on numberous occasions. The older stoutish women are especially curt and border on hostile. Mostly tje Newcastle based ones. No problem at all with the male members of staff.

 

[vlad]

Maybe the guard could do the first class service ?

As other people have said, this does happen.

Travelling with VT a month or so ago the guard announced that there weren't any first-class staff available so he'd be doing the catering. He also apologised that there'd probably be a delay as he had other jobs to do such as dispatching the train (then seemed to serve us more quickly than the actual first-class hosts would).

 

[185143]

Think you'll find out that if you are served by a Train Manager/Senior Conductor it's because they are helping their onboard colleagues out rather than it being in any way part of their job spec. They can often be found washing up too.

Indeed. I've been served by a TM at weekends on XC as the trolley was at the other end of the train and there were about 4 of us in first. Was only cans of coke and biscuits but still, did the job for the marginal extra cost.

 

[riceuten]

I wonder if this has extended to a lack of drivers. We had a (broken down) Grand Central 180 parked in the (seemingly disused) Redlands siding at Stevenage for 3 days - I believe that when it was moved, it also caused delays

 

[duffield]

I've found XC First Class service very suspect on numberous occasions. The older stoutish women are especially curt and border on hostile. Mostly tje Newcastle based ones. No problem at all with the male members of staff.

On the other hand, I've always found all the XC staff very pleasant and friendly (and yes, I do have a staff pass, but often they don't know this since the ticket check hasn't happened yet or they didn't check me personally).