Department for Transport sharing Career Stories - Peter Hearn, Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency

For customer service week 2017, we asked 3 people working in the operational delivery profession across the Department for Transport family to tell us their career stories.

Peter Hearn, Director of Operations (North) from Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) shares his story.

What factors do you consider when making your career choices?

A career is what you make of it and you can’t expect it to come to you. Since joining the Civil Service, I have taken every opportunity that has been offered to me. When making career choices, I believe that the key is to find something rewarding that you enjoy; you spend a lot of time at work and if you enjoy what you do it’ll make achieving your goals far easier.

As an agency, we’re working together to help people stay safe through a lifetime of safe driving and there’s lots of important and exciting work happening to do this, such as:

• making sure new drivers are better prepared and have access to guidance, advice and training  
• delivering driving tests at times and places that are more convenient for our customers
• making sure that people know where and when they can get their vehicle tested, and know how to check their vehicle to ensure it’s safe all year round

What career advice would you give to others in Operational Delivery Profession?

It’s important to gain an understanding about not only the organisation you work in, but also the wider business. Developing your existing skills and taking on the challenge of learning new ones will improve your confidence and open more doors. Temporary promotions are an ideal way to not only extend your working knowledge of the business but also give you the opportunity to find a role suited to your skills and interests.

Working in operational delivery, it’s important to develop excellent working relationships with stakeholders, both internally and externally. This is invaluable in gaining support from the industry to improve operational delivery for stakeholders and customers, such as the ongoing project to allow exemplary commercial vehicle operators to test their own vehicles, if they share their testing data with us.

What’s your career history?

I started my career in 1980 as a vehicle mechanic and workshop supervisor at Leeds City Council where I completed an engineering apprenticeship. I then worked with my father in the family business and, in 1990, went on to become a Vehicle Examiner with the Vehicle Operator Services Agency (VOSA). I’ve progressed my career in the same agency (now known as the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) and my current role is Director of Operations (North).

Why are you Proud to be in operational delivery profession?

I’m proud to work with passionate and talented people in an agency that helps everyone stay safe on Britain’s roads.

Are you interested in a career with DVSA? Please click here.

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