Test changes are delayed
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by Miles Brignall • The Driving Standards Agency has slapped a sixmonth delay on far-reaching changes to the LGV driving test that will force potential artic drivers to first take the test in a rigid.
The changes were due to come into force on 1 July; they include a written test and a change to the law requiring candidates to drive rigids for a year before taking the attic test.
The new date of implementation will be 1 January 1997.
Driving schools have been inundated by candidates keen to take the test before the changes take effect. At present anyone with a car licence can learn to drive in an attic vehicle following a medical.
Much of the industry, particularly the PCV sector, lobbied hard for a longer period of adjustment.
The DSA says the delay has been granted to allow the industry to prepare for the new tests but critics claim the DSA simply isn't ready to bring in the changes.
Nick Smith of Purfleetbased training school Roadtrain describes the delays as a "fiasco" and a further example of the DSA's incompetence, but he concedes it is good news for candidates, as the current booking congestion will not be made worse by the two-tier system.
Jim Thomson of Portsmouthbased Creative Training, who has just put a deposit on a new £38,000 rigid, says: "The DSA could have told us sooner—lots of schools have spent money on vehicles that are going to lie idle for six months."