Hi!

I was made redundant from my previous employer's lousy fleapit on the 29th November last year,

and a couple of weeks ago the large Bus Operator was advertising Driver Vacancies again, so I applied for one!

I was invited to a Presentation and Written Assessment Test at my local JCP Office, which I scored a very high mark on, so I have now been invited to attend a Practical Driving Test conducted on a D1-type vehicle at their local Operations Garage on 7th February.

A couple of questions:-

1) I have been unable to locate the exact Paper Counterpart to my Photocard Driving Licence - I came across one for the previous issue which has an expired endorsement (TS10 fixed penalty) written by hand in ballpoint-pen by the court that imposed it nearly 5 years ago.

However I had to renew the Photocard as the Photo was out of date during last year, so I sent the old Photocard to Swansea with the fee and a note explaining I'd mislaid the Counterpart!

I got my renewed Photocard with a new Counterpart, with the endorsement in machine-printed characters, which unfortunately has now got buried at home somewhere and I can't find it!!!

Anway the old Counterpart has now turned up again - could I present this to the staff at the Operating Centre when I attend for my Assessment, or will I risk losing my chance to take the Assessment? If I do so - can the Staff match up the Counterpart to a Photocard?

I doubt very much Swansea would be able to replace the licence in time by post! Obviously if I do sit and pass the Driving Assessment, the Medical & Interview Stages will follow and if I pass these the Bus Operator will make all the arrangements with Swansea for a new Licence to be issued to me with Cat D Provisional on it!

I DID try the online DVLA's Change Of Address Service to get round the snag but this gets stuck because I don't know the Reference Number on my most Recent Counterpart and the application won't complete!!!! HELP!!!!

2) I had eye-surgery for Cataract last year and the results are so much better - is there still a bar on Cataract Surgery patients holding Vocational Licences? I have read the requirements, basically 6/12 in the better eye (mine is 6/7.5 in the better eye) with Glasses/Contact Lenses, and 3/60 in the worse eye without Glasses/Contact Lenses - nothing whatsoever is stated about Cataracts, and otherwise I'm fairly confident my eyes meet this, regarding the rest of my health, I've no issues whatsover except a Stoma Bag - I'm sure a bag isn't a valid medical disqualification for vocational driving, surely!

Can any experts in the field advise me please?

I would contact the organiser in advance and explain the problem with the licence. They probably have regular sessions and could defer your one until DVLA can give you a copy, or you can find it.

You could mention the stoma bag if it might be relevant to your job, as it would be a protected act. However, you are not obliged to mention it if it has no bearing on your role.

Hi!

Further to the above I attended on the date and time specified for the Introductory Driver Assessment, but becaust the issue nos of my licence paper and placcy bits didn't match there weren't able to conduct it!

However they said they were very pleased with my assessment paper and personal interest I showed about the job so have offered to reschedule it as soon as I can get a new licence from Swansea, which I'm going to apply for in the morning!

Hi!

Just a quick note to clarify in case anyone's wondered why I'm posting about Bus-Driver employment as well as Electronic Employment - It is getting more and more difficult as the years go by to find secure employment in the Electronics Repair Industry which I'm skilled at and has been my whole livelihood, and I also suspect ageism (I'm 52!) is starting to creep in!

I have always been interested in Road Safety, Transport and Driving as well, it was my JCP Advisor who strongly recommended I applied for one of the regularly advertised Bus Driving Vacancies in the light of my initial interview with him!