Industry needs to regulate workshops
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By Roger Brown
SENIOR TRAFFIC commissioner (TC) Beverley Bell said the time was finally right to introduce an accreditation system for truck maintenance providers.
Attracting the largest crowd of the Commercial Motor Live conference programme, delegates at the Enforcement Issues and Responsibilities seminar heard Bell say that the industry was “doing nothing” about regulating workshops and mechanics and urged the industry to debate the best way this could be achieved.
Bell asked: “Why doesn’t the industry have a standard? At the moment a maintenance contractor can set up with no experience and no knowledge of the industry, and a mechanic who is trained to repair washing machines could become a truck mechanic.
“This is an opportunity for change, let’s have one standard and have it accredited – a bit like the Gas Safe Register in the gas industry. We have written to all the trade associations and they are in agreement with us.” Alastair Peoples, Vosa chief executive, who also spoke during the session, welcomed the TC’s call for the industry to debate the issue of a new standard for maintenance providers.
Bell also told attendees that the requirement for drivers to carry out 35 hours of Driver CPC training in the five years to September 2014 will be “vigorously enforced” by the TCs and Vosa.
“We can suspend drivers’ entitlements until they have completed their Driver CPC,” the TC explained. “It won’t go away, so embrace the training and make it meaningful for the drivers. Do it, and do it now.” Bell said she would also welcome the creation of a new professional body for transport managers. “An institute for transport managers would be somewhere for people to share best practice, and provide a golden opportunity to professionalise the industry even more.”