Go North East | Sunday timetables all weekend

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07 Jan 2022, 11:44 am #29

(06 Jan 2022, 7:18 pm)Adrian Encourage people to use their own private car instead? I know that isn't the message they'll be wanting to send, but that is exactly what this is doing. The public perception in public transport reliability is already poor, without it hitting a nuclear low.

Even if this was planned in advance, doing it with less than 48 hours notice is rash and does not give people the time to plan alternative transport.

I realise that this is not impacting one operator, and that it is industry-wide, but as has been discussed on this forum previously. It's not an issue solely created by the pandemic. There are numerous factors involved, but it's one exacerbated by it.

The industry has struggled to recruit and retain staff for years, and must have spent millions over the years in the process.

I started to do the maths (granted its using figures and procedures which are 15 years old), but that's when I was last involved in the training of drivers, booking tests, allocating vehicles etc.

At the time, I was in charge of allocating 5 members of the training team to 5 vehicles using a paper based system, booking the tests and ensuring those going through the tests got as much training as they could.
The tests at Sandy Lane were something like 8.45, 10.30, 13.30 and 14.45. You had to book them in advance by ringing the DVLA at the Regent Centre and checking to see what they had.
If there were issues at Sandy Lane or someone had booked the tests up before I'd had a chance to speak to someone, it was a case of hoping for a cancellation (ringing Regent Centre up again and again) or using either Carlisle or Darlington.
So in addition to avoiding the early test, I had to take in to account a range of factors whilst hoping for a late morning test or the afternoon ones (where possible and when available).

I was paid to do all of that.

There were the 5 instructors, 5 vehicles (that needed to be roadworthy) and fuel that needed funding too.
This was all in addition to any medicals, theory tests and provisional licence applications.

Quite a significant outlay financially and quite a bit of admin to overcome before the trainee had even set foot in the vehicle.

I appreciate things have changed, with some processes becoming easier or different over the years, but costs were significant. Even then.

'Illegitimis non carborundum'

Andreos1