Location: Rugby, Warwickshire
Salary: £32000-36000 Contract: Permanent
This is a hands-on role, combining training matrix management and compliance administration with practical coaching and assessment in the depot and out on the road. You will work closely with drivers, loaders, street cleansing operatives and other frontline teams to ensure employees remain competent, appropriately trained and compliant with operational, safety and legislative requirements.
The successful candidate will be confident working with people at all levels, able to challenge unsafe or non-compliant behaviours and comfortable spending significant time in the operational environment rather than being office-based.
The Role
You will own and maintain a single, accurate training and competency matrix covering the operational workforce, ensuring qualifications, licences, assessments and refresher training remain current.
Alongside this, you will provide practical coaching to drivers and crews, carrying out assessments, vehicle familiarisation, walk-round checks, gate and route compliance monitoring and targeted refresher training.
Where specialist training falls outside your own expertise, you will coordinate delivery through suitably qualified internal colleagues or external providers, ensuring all training is properly recorded and tracked.
Key Responsibilities
- Build and maintain a comprehensive training and competency matrix covering drivers, loaders, street cleansing operatives and other frontline employees.
- Track qualification, certificate and licence expiry dates and ensure refresher training is completed before requirements lapse.
- Deliver operational training and competency assessments to a consistently high standard.
- Carry out driver assessments, vehicle familiarisation and walk-round check training.
- Coach drivers to improve driving standards, reduce accidents and minimise Operator Licence contraventions.
- Spend time on the yard and out on the road with operational crews, providing practical coaching and behavioural feedback.
- Support depot and operational teams with vehicle gate checks, crew monitoring and route risk assessment requirements.
- Identify and address unsafe, poor or non-compliant behaviours through coaching and targeted intervention.
- Monitor vehicle cleanliness and condition, escalating issues to the relevant operational manager.
- Deliver inductions for permanent, temporary and agency employees.
- Coordinate site inductions and policy briefings for agency workers before they commence duties.
- Monitor tachograph infringements and provide coaching to reduce repeat offences.
- Deliver toolbox talks and targeted refresher training following incidents, audits, operational issues or legislative changes.
- Arrange specialist training through internal colleagues or external providers where required.
- Ensure all training, assessments and competency records are accurately maintained and audit-ready.
- Support managers with investigations by identifying training and competency requirements arising from incidents, audits or performance concerns.
- Maintain an accurate overview of training compliance across the workforce.
- Act as a key point of reference for training and competency compliance relating to Health & Safety, DVSA and Traffic Commissioner requirements.
About You
We are looking for someone who combines practical fleet/waste experience with strong training, coaching and compliance capability.
You may come from a training and assessment background, or you could be an experienced HGV driver or operational professional who has developed strong coaching and competency skills and is now looking to take ownership of a wider training and compliance function.
You will ideally have:
- Previous experience in a training, coaching or competency role, or significant experience as a driver within waste management, highways, fleet or another service environment.
- A Category C or above driving licence, with experience operating a range of vehicle types.
- Experience developing and maintaining training matrices and competency records.
- Experience within waste management, fleet, highways, local authority or a similar operational environment.
- Good working knowledge of DVSA requirements, Operator Licence compliance and Health & Safety legislation relevant to fleet and waste operations.
- NEBOSH National General Certificate or equivalent, or IOSH membership/working towards it.
- Excellent communication, coaching and influencing skills.
- The confidence to challenge and correct unsafe or non-compliant behaviours constructively.
- Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to maintain accurate compliance records.
Desirable Qualifications
The following would be advantageous but are not essential:
- TAQA – Training, Assessment and Quality Assurance.
- Driver CPC Instructor or Driver Assessor qualification.
- Transport Manager CPC.
- LGV entitlement beyond Category C.
- WAMITAB qualification.
- CIWM membership.
This is an opportunity to play a key role in improving training standards, driver competency, operational safety and fleet compliance across a large frontline workforce.
You will have genuine ownership of the training and competency function while remaining closely connected to day-to-day operations. The role will suit someone who enjoys coaching people, solving practical problems and making measurable improvements in operational standards, rather than simply managing training records from a desk.
If you have the operational experience, coaching ability and compliance knowledge to make a difference across a busy waste and fleet environment, we would like to hear from you. Please send a cv to jack@wasterecruit.com or call 01252 353080 quoting reference M9723.