(21 Apr 2014, 5:40 pm)buznut wrote Are spare drivers asigned on shift or do they use supervisor's and office staff to deal with illness and operational problems!Would be interested to find out a typical depot personnel set up....
Not entirely sure how other depots work but basing it in Stockton, you've got your operations manager and assistant at the top.
On the operational side you've got one person as a "detailer" who sorts all of the duties out and all drivers problems, filling in lost mileage and dealing with other administration. 2 people are based at the depot dealing with cash, vouchers and other admin tasks including working on new rotas for months in advance (eg our rota change in July was started as the last one came in back in March!).
Then we have 2 inspectors per day, one to supervise the morning run out at the depot (0430-1400 roughly) and then one supervising in Middlesbrough during the day (0800-1800 roughly).
Outside of those hours it is left to the leading driver to sort things out. We have 3 per day, two early and one late. Any drivers who are unable to operate their shift (for whatever reason) has to be covered by these, this includes any "depot operations" (disciplinaries, other meetings etc) that will need the driver relieving during the day for an hour or two. Anything above this relies on drivers being called out on rest day/holiday to cover shifts as required.
There is not a lot of slack in the system when things go wrong to be honest, and I would expect most depots to work in similar ways. Other depots are more constrained in who can do what, with school work having to be operated by DBS checked drivers etc. This often results in depots loaning drivers, indeed at Stockton we have just gone through a period of having 2 drivers on loan from Redcar, whilst one of ours was also recalled from Darlington to help with the shortage!
Have to say Stagecoach ran with a similar amount of spare coverage at Stockton when I was there - however there was always a supervisor on duty (though they could never leave the office) but they only had 2 admin people rather than 3 so the supervisors ended up having to deal with recording lost mileage and lost property etc as well as dealing with the drivers (and manning the radio). They too only had 3 spare drivers per day which were always kept busy doing changeovers and covering lost mileage. They recently increased it to 4 with a daytime spare dedicated to covering lost mileage to get the lost mileage figures down, as they were sky high (mainly due to tight running times).