Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

[M113 YKC]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(18/01/2020 17:40)313201 Wrote:  If there is anyone who works at the birkenhead depot on here, I was wondering if you could clear up something for me please.

I have heard that if your a part time driver that you can pick what time of the day you prefer to work and what route you would like to do, is this correct.

At Bootle, part timers work 3 days a week on a roster with a selection of duties off the other rosters (so a variety of earlies/middles/splits/lates). The only exception to the rostered duties is if you want permanent lates or are on a facility for a reason AFAIK. Could be different at each depot though.

[L401CJF]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(18/01/2020 20:44)M113 YKC Wrote:  At Bootle, part timers work 3 days a week on a roster with a selection of duties off the other rosters (so a variety of earlies/middles/splits/lates). The only exception to the rostered duties is if you want permanent lates or are on a facility for a reason AFAIK. Could be different at each depot though.

Its the same here. Majority of drivers work full time ie the 4 day rota/5day rota average 37hours per week. Some work 6 day rota. There are a number of part timers, most are on the 3 day rota however there is a special 'Facility' rota, ie a couple of drivers only work Friday/Saturday night same shift every week etc.

As previously mentioned, there are also full time late rotas for 4 day and 5 day, for those wishing to do lates only. All other rotas are mixed and have lates every 5 weeks roughly.

There is also a 'Spare to allocation' rota, where you know your rest days, but you have to check your duties each week as its basically random shifts for holiday cover etc.

If you want to be assigned a specific type of shift (say for example you are on the 5day rota but dont really want any early shifts) you can ask the allocator if he can try and give your duties away to spare to allocation drivers and try and replace them all with middles where possible - they try to accomodate as best they can.

Some 5 day drivers prefer to work longer shifts (ie 10hour shifts from the 4 day rota to get a few extra hours in) , so they sometimes help with this too.

In our depot there are a few couples, ie Mr and Mrs work in the same place,I believe a number of these are on spare to allocation and where possible given shifts with similar times to eachother so they can share a car and also match rest days but of course not always possible.

You can of course swop shifts and rest days with other drivers if you need to start after a certain time on a certain day, have an appointment etc.

Hope this helps!

[313201]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
Cheers for that.

It was just something I had thought of so I could have an income while I continue with my university studies to do something far more dangerous than driving a bus.

[Valandil]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
Really interesting to see how allocating shifts works.
Out of interest, how far in advance do you generally find out what your shifts are?

[L401CJF]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(19/01/2020 03:16)Valandil Wrote:  Really interesting to see how allocating shifts works.
Out of interest, how far in advance do you generally find out what your shifts are?

If you're on a one of the set rotas such as 3day/4day/4late/5day/5 late, 6day then you can work out your shifts as far in advance as you like as they're printed on a big sheet with 60+ weeks on each, you just rotate weekly and when you reach the last week on it you go back to week 1. Just have to keep in mind that when the services change every few months its quite possible some shifts will change and rest days often change on the larger changes.

With spare to allocation drivers, they usually know their rest day pattern in advance but won't know next weeks shifts until Wednesday /Thursday the week before - ie for the week starting today (Sunday) I would have probably found out what my shift was about 3 days ago.

[Valandil]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(19/01/2020 09:27)L401CJF Wrote:  If you're on ...

That's really interesting - many thanks for sharing.

[MTL0201]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
Looking at the timetables, Arriva Birkenhead routes start from 6am, last one being arrives back at the depot 1am, last bus being 423, 23.40 Liverpool to Liscard, arrives Liscard 00.49, so shift pattern will be anytime from 05.30 until just after 1am

[L401CJF]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(19/01/2020 13:17)MTL0201 Wrote:  Looking at the timetables, Arriva Birkenhead routes start from 6am, last one being arrives back at the depot 1am, last bus being 423, 23.40 Liverpool to Liscard, arrives Liscard 00.49, so shift pattern will be anytime from 05.30 until just after 1am

Plus the staff bus drivers who come in earlier in the morning, and finish later at night. They're on a separate rota of their own though.

[MTL0201]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(19/01/2020 16:25)L401CJF Wrote:  Plus the staff bus drivers who come in earlier in the morning, and finish later at night. They're on a separate rota of their own though.

I see, so main rota would be 7-8am until 7-8pm maybe 9pm then?

[L401CJF]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot
Main rota 5 day would usually consist of earlies (booking on between first bus and say 0730) then finishing between 12 and 1500. Middles starting from 8/9/10/11/12/1300 finishing any time up until 2100 ish, then lates starting any time from 1530ish until last bus in. The 4 day is pretty similar only same hours a week spread over 4 days instead of 5, so usually 10 hour turns so an early would be 7-1600, late 1400-2400 etc. I think the staff bus drivers come in at about 0430 or so then finish between 11/12 so they run the staff bus for their first half, have a break then do their back half on a route. Evening staff bus starts around 5pm I think first half on service, break, then staff until 0130 I think it is officially.

There is also the early morning paper duty where the first half of the shift is putting about 6billion metros on the buses, back half is normal service.

Edit: Late week comes up every 5weeks or so on the normal 4 and 5 day rotas