Thinking of moving to lorries from delivery. Questions.

[DaveF14]

Been on delivery for 8 years now and am now thinking of a change. I would like to stay with royal mail but im geting slightly tired of delivery and want to try something new. I have thought about geting a licence so i could maybe start driving the lorries but dont know much about it. Just wondering if anyone could answer some questions for me.

Do Royal mail put you through the training and test or do you have to do it yourself?

Am i right and saying that all drivers do a 4 day week and 10 hour shifts? Or does it depend on the shift your on?

What are the most common hours for the duties? Would not be keen on night shift. Dropping off mail at the delivery offices and morning airport runs or something appeals to me. Just generally an insight into a shift and what all happens.

Is there a difference in pay compared to delivery?

Any help would be great.

[blueboy]

well if your talking class 1 driver they don't do 4 day weeks, depending on duty they can work weekends and bank holidays and up to six days i think. a driver will probably correct me...

[DaveF14]

Any help would be great.

[heathrow86]

Royal Mail would train you up to class 1,but if you left after a short amount of time you would be liable for repaying the training and i think they like you to be contracted for 3 years.Many Vehicle operating centres have training coaches. You would then become a network driver, the pay is monthly and is about £24000 a year or £2011.25 a month. Shifts are various again depending on your location and how big the VOC is. Also you don't get paid for your beaks so if you did a 10hr shift you would be paid for only 9hrs. With weekends and bank holidays we are required to work them but again depends on the size of your VOC,for example my is only a small one so we don't currently work the bank holidays, but places like the NDC, YDC do.

I hope this helps.

[blueboy]

like to know where there training people, i've only been waiting seven years for this (on a waiting list)

the only people i've seen getting trained have been managers...

[Jo_M]

I don't know about training for further driving. I have been waiting 10 months to get assessed to drive vans and my local management keep taking my details and never manage to arrange a test. So I would not hold out hope for training.

[DaveF14]

Royal Mail would train you up to class 1,but if you left after a short amount of time you would be liable for repaying the training and i think they like you to be contracted for 3 years.Many Vehicle operating centres have training coaches. You would then become a network driver, the pay is monthly and is about £24000 a year or £2011.25 a month. Shifts are various again depending on your location and how big the VOC is. Also you don't get paid for your beaks so if you did a 10hr shift you would be paid for only 9hrs. With weekends and bank holidays we are required to work them but again depends on the size of your VOC,for example my is only a small one so we don't currently work the bank holidays, but places like the NDC, YDC do.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for the response. Went into the office today and asked for information. Manager gave me the normal bull, "i will look into it".

[DaveF14]

like to know where there training people, i've only been waiting seven years for this (on a waiting list)

the only people i've seen getting trained have been managers...

True. My manager got trained up only 2 months back. If he can get trained, theres no reason why we can't.

[smokerjim]

I don't know about training for further driving. I have been waiting 10 months to get assessed to drive vans and my local management keep taking my details and never manage to arrange a test. So I would not hold out hope for training.

When I was made permanant ( six months after starting ) I kept asking about assessment, and I kept getting 40 types of bollocks "We're not doing any at the moment / not enough money in the training budget / we're waiting to get a group of you so you can all be done at once / etc, etc" Once a reserve driver got suspended ( and later sacked ) for theft, my assessment was booked so fast my feet didn't touch the ground! Keep pushing for your assessment, and don't accept any crap if you're a PT..... we have PT that have been assessed and now go out on driving dutys or OT......in fact don't accept any crap full stop!