• Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

TfL Cover groups

Status
Not open for further replies.

Railroader22

Member
Joined
28 Sep 2019
Messages
175
Location
London
Hi all, I’m currently waiting to start with TfL as a customer Service Assistant. I was wondering if anyone has any insider knowledge as to how ‘cover groups’ are sorted (allocation of stations you work in). I think in the next 12 months I will be moving just outside of London, on completely the opposite side to where I am now. Is it possible/easy to swap ‘cover groups’?
Any Help/Advice is hugely appreciated.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

Sifyu

Member
Joined
13 Jul 2017
Messages
26
Location
Barking & Dagenham
Station resourcing try to allocate you a group that's close to where you live though usually it ends up being opposite to where you live. It's quite common on the underground for new starters and those having gone through promotionals so take that as it may.

Cover groups consist of the station group your assigned to plus other groups that you 'could' work in during your cover weeks (sort of like relief weeks where you'd cover other shifts on your groups e.g. cause of annual leave, absences or other reasons). In most cases, depending where you are based, groups try to keep their staff covering stations in their group rather then sending them off to cover other stations in the cover group. And there is a whole system to this which will be explained to you via the Framework. Note that it is the group you'll be wanting to swap and the cover group along with it.

As an example - You were allocated West Ashfield Group which consists of West Ashfield Station & Kensington Down Street Station (a Zone 1 Group). Your cover group is District City which consists of your group (West Ashfield Group) + 4 other station groups.

Now the answer to your question; It is possible to swap station groups and in the first instance it would be within your training class by mutual agreement. If however no one is able to swap with you then you'll have to stick with it for a year minimum (6 months probation then you can nominate then another 6 months till you are allowed to move but this may be longer depending on waiting lists for each group).

Hopefully that clears up a few things. Let me know if you have any other questions.
 

Railroader22

Member
Joined
28 Sep 2019
Messages
175
Location
London
Station resourcing try to allocate you a group that's close to where you live though usually it ends up being opposite to where you live. It's quite common on the underground for new starters and those having gone through promotionals so take that as it may.

Cover groups consist of the station group your assigned to plus other groups that you 'could' work in during your cover weeks (sort of like relief weeks where you'd cover other shifts on your groups e.g. cause of annual leave, absences or other reasons). In most cases, depending where you are based, groups try to keep their staff covering stations in their group rather then sending them off to cover other stations in the cover group. And there is a whole system to this which will be explained to you via the Framework. Note that it is the group you'll be wanting to swap and the cover group along with it.

As an example - You were allocated West Ashfield Group which consists of West Ashfield Station & Kensington Down Street Station (a Zone 1 Group). Your cover group is District City which consists of your group (West Ashfield Group) + 4 other station groups.

Now the answer to your question; It is possible to swap station groups and in the first instance it would be within your training class by mutual agreement. If however no one is able to swap with you then you'll have to stick with it for a year minimum (6 months probation then you can nominate then another 6 months till you are allowed to move but this may be longer depending on waiting lists for each group).

Hopefully that clears up a few things. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks a lot for your detailed response. Helps a lot. Do you happen to know how many cover groups there are? And what cover groups there are?
 

Sifyu

Member
Joined
13 Jul 2017
Messages
26
Location
Barking & Dagenham
There are fair number of cover groups. I can't really disclose the whole list here.
I can DM you later if you want.

Do you know where you'll be deployed? Usually they tell you in your first week of training but of course circumstances might be different now due to the Covid-19 situation.
 

Railroader22

Member
Joined
28 Sep 2019
Messages
175
Location
London
There are fair number of cover groups. I can't really disclose the whole list here.
I can DM you later if you want.

Do you know where you'll be deployed? Usually they tell you in your first week of training but of course circumstances might be different now due to the Covid-19 situation.
If you wouldn’t mind, that would be great, thanks. I’m not sure where I’ll be deployed yet. Just waiting for my start date which was delayed cause of coronavirus.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top