Reserves Day – 27 June
Ahead of Reserves Day on Wednesday 27 June, when all Royal Mail reservists are invited to wear their uniform to work, area distribution manager – North of England, Kathryn Musson, represented Royal Mail Logistics at the Royal Logistics Corps (RLC) Foundation – Transport Management Event, at the Defence School of Transport (DST).
The RLC is the Army’s professional logistics organisation. It is the largest corps in the Army and has 11,000 regular and 5,000 reserve officers and soldiers. The DST, based at Normandy Barracks, Leconfield, East Yorkshire, was formed in 1996 as the Centre of Excellence for providing driver and transport management training to personnel from the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines.
‘We had presentations from the warrant officer in charge of the RLC driver career path for recruits,’ said Kathryn. ‘He spoke about how new entrants would receive initial license requisition training which would see them progress up to class 2 within 18 months.
‘The natural progression up to class 1 is in line with increased managerial responsibilities and rank, with career progression up to ‘master driver’ where they would complete a RLC transport specialist course and have managerial responsibility for thousands of soldiers.
‘For new recruits there is a big focus on preventative maintenance and diagnosing faults which was something that I think we could definitely benchmark. They talked about how they are trying to make the training given more ‘civilian compatible’ in readiness for future careers.
‘There was also a presentation from the team from Kuehne + Nagel, which provides logistical support solutions to the army. They talked about their approach to innovation and how they are working on schemes such as partnering with Costa to use waste coffee grains as biofuel. It was also interesting to hear that we don’t actually seem off the pace in terms of telematics, with Microlise being their system of choice.
‘We had a tour of the site which is hugely impressive. I can only describe it as a giant obstacle course for vehicles with miles and miles of training roads including cross country and water obstacles. They even have their own purpose built road just for hill starts.’
The RLC Foundation was established under the authority of The Council for the Regimental Affairs of The Royal Logistic Corps with the aim of promoting professional excellence within the Corps. It provides a focus for professional engagement with external logistics organisations from industry and professional bodies. It is part of the registered charity, the RLC Association Trust.
Celebrating Reserves Day
Royal Mail actively supports colleagues who are reservists for the UK Armed Forces.
We have around 220 military reservists – one of the largest groups in the country – who combine working for us with protecting their country at home and overseas.
Our association with reservists stretches back across our 500-year history. We continue to do as much as we can to uphold this proud tradition of supporting armed forces personnel and their families, as well as those who have left the services.
This year, Reserves Day is being celebrated on Wednesday 27 June – an opportunity for all Royal Mail reservists to proudly wear their uniforms to work.
Reservists give up their spare time to serve in the reserve forces, balancing their civilian life with a military career to ensure that should their country require them, they would be ready to serve as part of the military.
The reserve forces make up approximately one sixth of our armed forces personnel and, as such, are integral to protecting the nation’s security at home and overseas.
