advice please

[HopefulPostie]

Hi,

went for an interview this month at a London SO and I thought it went really well but raised a few issues. Most of the details on the application were wrong (the manager had a laugh about it during the interview) including the days, hours and actual area of work.

I applied for postperson with driving and only realised (the details on the application didn't help) half way through the interview it wasn't solely parcel delivery (seemed to have completely forgot about parcel force!!) and am now a bit confused about what the job actually entails.

If I get the job am I likely to do much driving as that was one of the reasons why I applied for the job - always wanted to drive a van! I don't mind the walking and that but had my heart set on driving. I've spent the last few days having a good look on here and many questions have been answered but is it basically you go out in a van, park and do a loop of deliveries like 'normal' postmen you see with a postbag and then go back to the van and drive back to the office? There's no way you could park and you and your partner could do for example 6 roads and then get back in the van and drive to the next 6 and so on on? does it depend on who you're with or does everyone have to do it a certain way?

I don't mean to sound ungrateful but I did think I was applying to drive a van rather than be a standard postman. don't mean any offence by that of course as i'd be accepting a job offer even if it doesn't entail much driving.

During the interview the guy said my round should take about 4 hours and i'll be finishing at 2 and I believe arriving to start my day at around 8 or 9. does that sound right for 30 hours per week part time? do you think this is manageable for someone a bit out of shape to get fitter as it goes or will it be too tough?

Hopefully I get it anyway as the managers who spoke to me were really nice and even said there was a strong union presence in the office, also the staff I met were really helpful.

Thanks for any help you can offer and apologies if I said anything out of turn as this is all new to me and want to make sure I know exactly what I'm getting in to.

cheers.

[Mr Incognito]

RM's plan is to have an ever increasing number of deliveries paired up and delivered by 2 posties sharing a small van, hence virtually all vacancies are advertised as "postman with driving". Duties in deliveries can fall in to 3 main categories:

1) Walking deliveries - where the whole delivery is done on foot from a HCT trolley.

2) CDV delivery - where two deliveries are done by two postmen from a small van. Although you use a van, it is still more or less a walking duty.

3) Firms/packets delivery. This is a full driving duty, however these are usually duties that are held by postmen with some seniority.

Tbh I think that you'll be very lucky to walk straight into a full driving duty as a new employee.

[HopefulPostie]

Thanks for your reply.

The area of the SO is about a 15 min drive from the area i'll be working so i'll defo be in the van albeit probably the passenger as I understand I have to undertake some sort of assesment before being let loose driving a van.

is there a chance of park and do a loop, park and do a loop, park and do a loop etc and so on or is it literally park at 10 and walk around until 2?

The rubbish job descriptions really do not help!

Thanks again.

[Lounge Lizard]

And if the SO is some distance from your home you might take advantage of overnight retention of the van to eliminate the cost of commuting.

[HopefulPostie]

that's not like telling the new guy to ask about spirit level bubbles is it?

[anonymous1994]

Started 2 weeks ago, doing my driving assessment on wednesday, as far as I'm aware and as far as i've been told it's park and loop, but you will have parcel deliveries to do to take the load off your partner in their area, something like you get 75% of the parcels and 25% of the walk and they get 25% of the parcels but 75% of the walk, something along those lines, really is a great job but.

[HopefulPostie]

Nice one , thanks mate.

Haven't heard anything yet in regards to how the interview went but apparently that's usual.

By the way, it's a great job but what? hahah

[GT85]

Don't get taken in by the " Driver " role too much, it's mainly travelling to and from the DO and moving the pair of you around the deliver area. Unless you are paired up with a non driver (most postmen are drivers but there are a few who are not) you will share the driving with your buddy throughout the day.

You both have delivery loops to walk but in theory one is slightly smaller so whoever does the smaller loop has time to drive around and deliver the oversize parcels (ones that don't fit in your mail pouch/trolley) from the van however the walker / driver roles are not always set in stone, sometimes it's simply a case of whoever gets back to the van first does the parcels.

[HopefulPostie]

Well, it's been 4 weeks on Friday and started to lose all hope... but then today I received an email saying I had passed the interview and the interviewing manager has requested I be considered for the role and for me to reapply.

I'm guessing this might be because the original application was so wrong? different SO amongst others as explained in original post.

Anyone heard of this happening before? It says I don't have to do anymore assesments or interviews and I had 24 hours to apply or I'd be disregarded. So basically, will I have a job at the end of all this be it an offer or the waiting list?

it says this "Please apply within 24 hours of this email being sent otherwise we will presume you no longer wish to be considered for the role and you will be added to our waiting list for 3 months." so does that mean if I apply I'm on the waiting list or if I don't i'm on the waiting list?

Very confused. But happy. I think?!

Thanks.