/ As part of a new national scheme aimed at
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assessing and increasing the skills of the UK's 100,000 bus and coach drivers, PCV operators are undertaking to fit calibrated and sealed tachographs to all their coaches — including express services where tachographs are not required by law.
Over 30 companies had signed up even before last week's launch, including National Express, Midland Travel, Frames Rickards and Horseman Coaches. The national domestic express network could be run without tachographs under the law," says Alan Gurley of the Bus & Coach Council, which is sponsoring the scheme.
In 1984 the then National Bus Company agreed with the Department of Transport to fit tachographs. They were used to monitor speed but little else: coach operators have tended to use extracts of driver rosters and the timetable to prove driving hours. Tachographs give tighter control and are more reliable.
The new code is split into two parts. Companies must make various undertakings on tachograph fitment and use; proper scheduling of journeys; ensuring that speed limiters are not call brated in excess . of 70mph (113km/h); and encouraging drivers to go for recognition as a 'Careful Driver' under the code.
The BCC code has been approved by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications and by the Scottish Vocational Educational Council. Over the past year it has been through successful trials with a number of operators.
"We believe the scheme will have a major impact both in boosting the morale and status of the industry's drivers and in improving the quality of service provided to the public," says Maurice Jones, chief executive of the programme's developer, Bus and Coach Training.
Under Secretary of State for Employment Robert Jackson believes the code and training scheme represent a major step forward over past systems: "We need to rid ourselves of the historical situation in which we had too many qualifications biased towards certifying what people knew, rather than what they could achieve in the workplace," he says. "We need to change the scene in which seven out of 10 people had virtually no training since starting work."