Re: 2 EL's on Patrick's

["T&J Jones" <jonest@senet.com.au>]

<snip>

, its a very difficult move to simply go from one
> railway to another as a driver, trainee-driver possibly.
> This is because vacancies for drivers are rare as most rail companies are
> downsizing, and even in the cases where vacancies come up , the employing
> company will require both specific road knowledge and safeworking
> qualifications, which thanks to the myriad of differant types between
state
> jurisdictions will mean that any potential driver wont have them,unless he
> /she formally worked for the same company over the same roads.
> As I beleive we are talking about ASR drivers in the previous post,the
only
> likely employers able to use ex ASR drivers would be NRC , of whom I have
> never seen any vacancies for drivers since their inception.
> MD

NRC are currently advertising for drivers in Parkes and to my knowledge have
also advertised in Broken Hill.  CountryLink is advertising in Junee and
FreightCorp advertised in Port Augusta.  CityLink is advertising in Sydney.

Few rail operators are training new drivers and appear to have resorted to
"poaching from their competitors".  With the ageing of the locomotive driver
profession there is going to be an initial shortfall of drivers which will
result in the law of supply and demand driving up salaries.  Eventually the
cost becomes so high that the companies will implement training programs
(which in turn will be expensive).  In the meantime the existing qualified
loco driver population will be required to cover more work via DOO, other
new technologies, infrastructure upgrades, etc.

It's far more expensive to recruit and train a new employee that effectively
manage your existing employees.  Therefore, whilst the might be a current
short term surplus of drivers that will reverse within 3-5 years.

Tom