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RETURN OF THE TRAINING LEVY?
Page 10
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The cost of becoming an LGV driver is spiralling, and the verdict from CM 's operators' panel is that there will be fewer people prepared to foot the bills to put themselves through the necessary tests, Driver CPC training and medicals.
If the industry is not to see a shortage of drivers there are two alternatives-either operators will have to train more drivers themselves or market forces will push up driver wages to the point where it becomes worthwhile for individuals to invest in their own training and testing. Companies which do spend money on training run the risk that valuable skilled staff will be poached by those prepared to pay higher wages for ready-made drivers. Inserting loyalty clauses in employment contracts to tie up drivers until the costs of their training have been recouped is widely regarded as impractical.
A fair solution, some might argue, is the return of an industry-wide training levy, based on each firm's turnover or number of drivers, to train drivers for the whole industry. The construction industry similar in many ways to road transport, with a handful of very large firms and tens of thousands of smaller one-man-band contractors still has its training levy.
Such a system is, of course, open to abuse by companies fiddling the figures to avoid paying their fair share. But despite the drawbacks, the training levy may be about to make a comeback. The UK government has been complaining about the poor state of vocational training compared with other countries, which it believes is damaging our competitiveness. The RTITB the training and accreditation group that harks back to the old Road Transport Industries Training Board warns: "There is a clear indication that if training undertaken on a voluntary basis does not improve, statutory obligations may be imposed around 2010." Does that mean a return to some kind of training levy? "Watch this space!" is RTITBS answer.
'Companies which do spend money on training run the risk staff will be poached"