Collections Driver
Royal Mail

Ketrina C

00:00:04 I’m Ketrina C, I’m twenty-seven years old, and I work for Royal Mail as a driver. Being a collections driver means I have to go and pick up mail from firms, post boxes, or the post office actual branch, and drive back, along with my music as well keeping me company. I drive back to the depot, clear the van and wait for the next collection time.

00:00:28 I first came to Royal Mail a month before my seventeenth birthday. A friend of mine told me about the cadet scheme, which I applied for, they used to have. So when I came, basically it was them training you in different fields. So it was manual work, as in sorting manually, or working on the machines. I wanted to become a driver because I’m a people person. I like to be outdoors. The vans have the CD player so it’s just me. There’s no managers overlooking you. As long as you do your job properly, you just do your thing, so that’s why I wanted to be a driver.

00:01:06 When I went to school, I loved it. I went to a mixed school. You had your bad things in school. There was a lot of trouble in school but I’m a leader, not a follower, so I just thought as long as I do what I need to do, I can achieve what I need to achieve. So I went to school and I got four A to C grades, and the rest were disgusting, but I did come out of school with GCSEs.

00:01:37 I thought I wanted to do business administration, but I went to college for three months to learn about that and didn’t like it. At the time, I left college early and then from there I came to Royal Mail.

00:01:49 My mum, she was doing nursing. My dad used to work for the Post Office years ago. Yes, from nursing, my mum did a little bit of cleaning and that. My mum was working. She worked really hard with us as well.

00:02:05 For my leisure time, I love to socialise, always with my cousin. I listen to music a lot, and I go to church on a Sunday. I write a little bit of spiritual poetry as well. God, for sure, is number one in my life, and I think that’s what’s probably changed my character, if anything, to be a more loving person and be there for people. I used to be quite aggressive. If anything, it has helped me with my patience. I am more patient now, more passive than aggressive. My poetry is spiritual. Basically, it’s what I feel. I can’t write it just off the top of my head. It’s what I feel at the time, but it’s all spiritual. As I search within, I put it to paper and that’s how my poetry came about.

00:02:55 In five year’s time, hopefully, I’d like to work with younger youths, like teenagers, to show them that you don’t have to just bum around, there’s always things to do. I do want to learn. I do want to learn a course, as I said, and I do want to help with youths, so if I can do some social work or something like that… There’s still time. I know I’ve still got time to do that, and I can still do mentoring. I’ve got no regrets with my past at all. To me, in life, not everyone is supposed to follow certain roads as other people, so I always though uni wasn’t for me but I was still working, and I’m still achieving now, and I’m happy.

00:03:38 End