(Yesterday, 3:16 pm)Adrian wrote I noticed they're advertising for a whole host engineering positions at the moment:

• Vehicle Electrician - £26.42p/h
  
• Chargehand Technicians - £27.67p/h
  
• Coachbuilders - £26.42p/h
  
• Master Technicians - £28.29p/h
  
• PCV/HGV Technicians - £26.42p/h
  

Looking at the salaries posted, and based on what you've written, it seems very odd! They're listing salary of 'up to' £26.42 for their Coachbuilder and PCV/HGV Technician roles, for example, which would equate to a £55k salary based on a 40 hour week (they say shifts will be 5 days over 7).

If that is anywhere near being accurate, then they're paying £13k-£20k more than Stagecoach? https://www.stagecoachbus.com/careers/jo...ng-3-24135
Arriva have a similar role at £18.95p/h: https://www.arrivabusjobs.co.uk/job-desc...d=JR028518

So if we're looking at an average of around £40k for the role, why wouldn't those with the skillset be flocking to GNE en-mass for paying well above the median? 

I wonder if this goes back to a topic done to death on here in the past: misleading pay/salaries being posted by this company on their job adverts. I assume the figure they're quoting will be some kind of enhancement for working a bank holiday or something like that, and in no way reflective of the usual hourly rate, hence the use of 'up to'

All I know is that there's definitely fitters that worked for GNE who have went over to Stagecoach, I don't know them well enough to confirm if they went for better money, but that's what other drivers who do know them better have said. So it's either the salary or working conditions weren't good enough for them.

Consett depot cancellations have also been increasing as the week has went on, specifically around peak times, as multiple buses are being pulled from service on the X5/X15 & 16/16A to run school buses.

(Yesterday, 3:16 pm)Adrian wrote I noticed they're advertising for a whole host engineering positions at the moment:

• Vehicle Electrician - £26.42p/h
  
• Chargehand Technicians - £27.67p/h
  
• Coachbuilders - £26.42p/h
  
• Master Technicians - £28.29p/h
  
• PCV/HGV Technicians - £26.42p/h
  

Looking at the salaries posted, and based on what you've written, it seems very odd! They're listing salary of 'up to' £26.42 for their Coachbuilder and PCV/HGV Technician roles, for example, which would equate to a £55k salary based on a 40 hour week (they say shifts will be 5 days over 7).

If that is anywhere near being accurate, then they're paying £13k-£20k more than Stagecoach? https://www.stagecoachbus.com/careers/jo...ng-3-24135
Arriva have a similar role at £18.95p/h: https://www.arrivabusjobs.co.uk/job-desc...d=JR028518

So if we're looking at an average of around £40k for the role, why wouldn't those with the skillset be flocking to GNE en-mass for paying well above the median? 

I wonder if this goes back to a topic done to death on here in the past: misleading pay/salaries being posted by this company on their job adverts. I assume the figure they're quoting will be some kind of enhancement for working a bank holiday or something like that, and in no way reflective of the usual hourly rate, hence the use of 'up to'

Think you've nailed it with the last bit there, I'd assume that they're an overtime rate, no doubt at 1.5x the actual salary. Mind I've never heard of any company doing upto salaries, talk about lack of transparency as an understatement.

(It's 'upto' £45k on here btw - https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/careers)

Credit to Arriva for being transparent here without any upto bollocks - https://www.arrivabusjobs.co.uk/job-desc...d=JR028638. Mind not sure £12.92 is exactly attractive, but that's for another thread.

Edit: Mind one thing that's noticeable is both Stagecoach and Arriva are both minimum NVQ Level 3 and GNE is NVQ Level 2. Quite a big difference there considering one is A-Level Grade and the other is GCSE Grade. Not sure I'd want a bunch of GCSE Grade staff in my garage if I had one, unless it was an apprenticeship.

(11 hours ago)PH - BQA wrote 8804 didn’t even make it to 4pm today, being pulled after the 1500 to the Freeman. It wasn’t replaced until 1620, again GNE missing 2 full round trips on a NHS workers contract due to no vehicle.

Really doesn't make sense to me, I don't understand why they don't use the two diesel Yutongs which they used for ages on the service without an issue. Mind it'd be interesting to see what the fines are like for it. Similar for BSIP services since I noticed the tax payer is now paying for cancelled services on the 21.

(Yesterday, 3:16 pm)Adrian wrote I noticed they're advertising for a whole host engineering positions at the moment:

• Vehicle Electrician - £26.42p/h
  
• Chargehand Technicians - £27.67p/h
  
• Coachbuilders - £26.42p/h
  
• Master Technicians - £28.29p/h
  
• PCV/HGV Technicians - £26.42p/h
  

Looking at the salaries posted, and based on what you've written, it seems very odd! They're listing salary of 'up to' £26.42 for their Coachbuilder and PCV/HGV Technician roles, for example, which would equate to a £55k salary based on a 40 hour week (they say shifts will be 5 days over 7).

If that is anywhere near being accurate, then they're paying £13k-£20k more than Stagecoach? https://www.stagecoachbus.com/careers/jo...ng-3-24135
Arriva have a similar role at £18.95p/h: https://www.arrivabusjobs.co.uk/job-desc...d=JR028518

So if we're looking at an average of around £40k for the role, why wouldn't those with the skillset be flocking to GNE en-mass for paying well above the median? 

I wonder if this goes back to a topic done to death on here in the past: misleading pay/salaries being posted by this company on their job adverts. I assume the figure they're quoting will be some kind of enhancement for working a bank holiday or something like that, and in no way reflective of the usual hourly rate, hence the use of 'up to'

It'd be a bit like my employer advertising my role as being up to £45.66 an hour when that actually reflects a special enhancement we get for working Christmas Day *if* we're rostered. Good catfish exercise.

(Yesterday, 3:12 pm)Ambassador wrote Surely there's a contigency? Hire vehicles in from a competent operator or someone like Ensign?

Whacking a load of the Solos that could have worked the 34, on to the 4 - seemed to be the solution.

(8 hours ago)Andreos1 wrote Whacking a load of the Solos that could have worked the 34, on to the 4 - seemed to be the solution.

To be fair, not sure the new open top bus on the 4 would be very fun

(8 hours ago)Storx wrote To be fair, not sure the new open top bus on the 4 would be very fun

Why would a Solo be an open topper?

Seem some interesting comments on randomly a local football forum forum drivers basically blaming cost cutting, lack of weekend engineering cover and general management incompetence

Gonna be death knells until franchising isn’t it?

(5 hours ago)Andreos1 wrote Why would a Solo be an open topper?

It's all deckers on the 34 mostly. No use for the 4 unless you want to smash it into the bridge at Fatfield.

(5 hours ago)Storx wrote It's all deckers on the 34 mostly. No use for the 4 unless you want to smash it into the bridge at Fatfield.

Why would they stick a decker on the 4?

The gaps are huge on the 34. Solos being reallocated from the 4 to the 34 would surely be the easiest option. 

Minimal impact on the 4.
Problems solved on the 34.

The bridge at Fatfield is fine for a decker. 
It's the tunnel at Penshaw that has the height restriction.

(5 hours ago)Andreos1 wrote Why would they stick a decker on the 4?

The gaps are huge on the 34. Solos being reallocated from the 4 to the 34 would surely be the easiest option. 

Minimal impact on the 4.
Problems solved on the 34.

The bridge at Fatfield is fine for a decker. 
It's the tunnel at Penshaw that has the height restriction.

To be fair, the 4 seems to be down to every 30 minutes for a fair chunk of the day or it has been anyway.

Get you now though, I thought you meant swapping the vehicles around rather than dropping boards.

No arguments on the bridges, always get mixed up around there.

On that I'm surprised they haven't lent something from another depot and share the hits out, like if the 20 lost the odd board during the day would it really be the end of the world? I was down that way today and seen around 4 of them and they were mostly carting around fresh air anyway. Similar arguments could be made for the 2/2A and 49/49A at Riverside aswell. The Versa's being the most obvious choice of moving across.

If GNE had a remotely competent commercial team to support a remotely competent engineering team we might see something

But I suspect unless you’re a goldmine route…well basically the 21, they don’t care. Saves them a few bob