End of the line for EWS?

[washingmachine]

Its going to be a tough year for DB and its staff.The Uk operation needs to drop its business unit thing.Its been a disaster,nearly all its staff can see the problem .The company needs to fight the downturn as ONE unit,all staff pulling the same direction.Only then will progress be made.

[BRIZER]

Im An Ews Employee We Dont Get Told Any Information From The Company Or From Aslef Our Union. In Our Area, Ayrshire, Freightliner Has Grabbed Alot Of The Work That Used To Be Our Core Work. Hope Someone Knows More Outthere

[washingmachine]

The trouble is that some of the managers and staff are ex EWS/DB Schenker employees. so they took their contacts with them.The management that are left are clueless.We complained about BR,wish we could turn the clock back as this shower are shit.So are the unions.

[LesG]

Originally Posted by washingmachine

this shower are shit.So are the unions.

Washingmachine I would'nt quite as far as this on the management (well maybe some) but what this company really neads Is for managers to sit down and listen to the staff that actually work the trains our ideas and our grievances about the company but you know yourself that most of them don't give a stuff.

I had the misfortune to be stranded at my depot this week and the company paid for a hotel for me, so not all managers are uncaring, As they did not have to do this

What we need is forward thinking managers that are willing to go get and not stay in thier offices in the warm drinking coffee all day.

I also believe that we need to get rid of the RED HERRING in Doncaster the CSMD (can't see don't care) and get back to regional control and controllers that know the area they control and to stop looking at a 1964 railway map book to make stupid decisions that can't possibly work as there are no rails for what the want us to do.

As for the Unions you hit the nail on the head!

Les

[washingmachine]

This company went down hill when Jim Fisk left,I got to know him and was impressed with the way he operated.And Berkhart,met hime a couple of times.
This bunch running it are arrogant ex BR managers.One director got a new car yesterday as they made two loco controllers redundant.
Totally agree with area control.
Been told that they have revised plans for staff reductions,less than originally thought.
Major problem is loco shortages,loads in store,but 40 locos to work 49 trains is crap.

[25250]

Ermm, did you know that my company (London Midland) are allowing EWS/DB Schenker drivers that are surplus drive the Watford - St. Albans service and also certain e.c.s. workings Euston - Camden sidings. We're short of drivers in spite of being told from day one that we were surplus!

[Pom Liner]

Originally Posted by LesG

WM,

I don't know if you work for EWS/DB schenker but if you do its not the same company I work for.

I agree with some of what you say but with other bits of this comment its pure rubbish.

I have to watch what i say, but many of our drivers don't want to change the old practices, mainly those from the large depots, they want the big money but they want it for doing next to nothing. Many of our older drivers are still working to what is called the pre 1988 agreements, now I won't even pretend to or understand the details of this agreement as its way before my time on the railway. New drivers have to agree to drive road vehicles to and from jobs if the diagramme needs that particular form of transport. These pre 1988 drivers do not have to drive road vehs so therefore that part of the job becomes a taxi ride which then equalls two taxi rides, one for him and one for the returning driver. According to our management the taxi bill is absolutley phenonomil for the company,

Yes many of our staff will go that extra mile to make a train run and keep it running but if we get to a point where we start to exceed our legal timings etc and can't get relief there comes a point where we have to say enough is enough. A couple of months ago a train arrived at our depot that was a couple of hours late, through no fault of the company, the relieving driver, who had travelled up pass refused to work the train away because he would have been a few minutes over his day and returned home pass leaving a train standing with no-one to work it.

This to me is what DB-Schenker has to stamp out the old BR mentallity, not just from its traincrews/groundstaff but also from some managers aswell. These people have to move into the 21st railway centuary and realise that the only way to work is to work as a team and maybe we can succeed as a team.

Your statement about a lot of good will from the people running EWS, Can you point them out to me please cause I have yet to meet any one running the company that has any.

Just my view from someone from a small DB depot.

Les

I think its relative to where exactly you happen to work. Theres some depots with higher concentrations of 'dinosaurs' as I like to put it, that cannot, or will not accept they now work in the private sector. These people, still think that they work for BR, even though all around them has changed. Every depot has two or three, but to tar all EWS/DB 'drivers' (interesting you single drivers out....) with the same brush does the vast majority a huge dis-service. If I were a driver wherever you work, i'd be gently tapping you on the shoulder and requesting a quiet word about what you have said here.

Im more persuaded by 'Washing Machine' and what he says. As an ex-EWS employee, I have to agree that many of the top to middle management are 3rd rate ex BR management, running scared of the tyranical midget from Canada. Things started to go seriously awry when Mengle replaced Burkhardt, and have only got worse. The visionaries fell by the wayside, the likes of Kim Jordon, Ian Braybrook etc, and were replaced by yes men. The can do attitude dissapeared, and gradually EWS went from truly being the 'best' to an organization continually fighting fires whilst believing it was setting 'Industry Standards'.

In short EWS was a dinosaur, that needed putting out of its misery. The company signified all that was wrong, and customers and staff voted with their feet. I left 6 months after the 'new' sectors were created for a lower paid job but one for a company that actually cares for its employees and can actually run a service to the customers needs rather than its own. When I departed, EWS were lurching from one disaster to the next, with the middle management increasingly desperate, and in a manner that effectively blamed the 'worker' for the troubles.

One last thought - Heller has never made any secret of his desire to concentrate on block traffic flows, it is also widely recognized that DB were only interested in the mainland Europe operation. With NR reducing its ballast commitments by 40 - 50%, EWS yards being mothballed, staff leaving and getting made redundant, wagons going to store and locos being mothballed or sold off for scrap, you have to ask yourself if the company is ever going to recover in the uk. I suggest not.

[John H-T]

Welcome to the Forum Pom Liner. I have a feeling you will have plenty to contribute! I look forward to your posts.

I have deleted your second post as it appears to be a duplicate. If not please accept my appologies. Anyway if you like to check that the remaining post says all you wanted it to and amend accordingly.

Many thanks.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

[DSY011]

Hello Pom liner and welcome to the railway forum. Nice to get another view on the EWS/DB debate.

[Pom Liner]

Originally Posted by John H-T

Welcome to the Forum Pom Liner. I have a feeling you will have plenty to contribute! I look forward to your posts.

I have deleted your second post as it appears to be a duplicate. If not please accept my appologies. Anyway if you like to check that the remaining post says all you wanted it to and amend accordingly.

Many thanks.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Thanks John, your welcome is appreciated. I did try to add to the above post but it seemed to have been lost....the forum logged me out, but it was referring to a previous posters seemingly ignorant (through no fault of his own i'll add here now) of EWS/DB traincrew agreements, and rules governing time in the seat - or driving hours as laid down by the Hidden 18 reccomendation which came into being as a direct result of the Clapham disaster in the late 80's (i was a Railman at London Bridge, early turn that day).

I'll get round to adding it again in due course, but a better version! In the meantime, I'd like to remind the Scottish chap that if a train was already 2hrs late, then it may be the driver baled out because if he hit someone or had a SPAD at 12hrs 3 mins then he'd be on his own union wise. No one likes being interviewed by HMRI under caution.....