Better training
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for road
transport
IE ROAD Transport Industry Training Board exists for one non only — to promote a higher standard of education and lining within the road transport industry. Within this imework comes haulage — but the money to finance such lucation must come from somewhere, and in the case of the e haulage section of the RTITB, that money comes from the iulier.
No matter what size a British ulage company operating for -e or reward may be, by law it within the scope of the RTITB. Therefore, in theory, the F1TB should have no problems nassing a small fortune in ries on such companies once
• ery year. And from these. vies grants for financing )ining activities should be esblished.
But it is not as simple as that otunately for some hauliers). ist year and this year the Board Is insisted in hauliers donating per cent of their total wage Ils as a levy for financing road 3nsport education.
However, in the haulage secthe Board has come up with hat it terms a -cut-offpoint act as a safeguard for the very nall haulier.
This cut-off stands at present £16,000, resulting in quite a Jrnber of hauliers, although ithin the scope of the Board mply because they are 3uliers, not in fact having to ump up the levy payable to the T1TB Strangely enough, there are )me small firms whose total 'ages bill does come to less Ian £16,000, and yet who still rish to contribute something in )e form of a levy. .
;mall firms benefit
It may sound unlikely, but ifficials of the Board have asured CM that this is sometimes he case. If the small haulier loes want to do this, of course, le will be entitled to the benefits if grants for training purposes.
Most recent figures show hat the number of hauliers in ;cope to the Board was 8,200, ):f which only 4,200 were levilble. This was because of the ut-off limit.
The last levy raised through iauliers amounted to 4,670,000, out of which 4,440,000 was paid in grants. The number of firms that actually claimed the grants was 1,400.
In order to maintain a smooth-running operation, the Board sets aside certain times in the year for completing certain aspects of both netting the levy and distributing the grants.
And it is vital that those hauliers due to pay a levy are aware when they must pay the levy. Failure to pay up i0 statutory offence and could cost a haulier dear.
Statutory returns are sent out by the Board to all those in scope around the end of March and the beginning of April each year.
It is then up to the haulier to fill in the return, stating what his total emoluments are, and return it by mid-May. Failure to do so, or to put down false information, can land the haulier in court.
The next stage concerns the claiming of grants. Training grant year ends on July 31, and if a haulier wishes to submit a claim for a training grant he must do so between August 1 and September 30, If he leaves it till after September 30th, he forfeits any right he may have had to a grant. But up to now, the amount lost in this way has been negligible.
The Board will start processing claims as soon as the first one comes in. This may even begin earlier in the year, when RTITB field staff may have been in a position to start the ball rolling soon after a haulier has been involved in something for which he intends claiming a grant.
At the beginning of September, the Board starts to send out assessment notices to employers which tells them how much levy they will have to pay for that year.
Should an employer believe the amount of levy he is being told to pay is unfair, it is his right under law to appeal at an industrial tribunal. But notice must be given within one month of receiving the assessment notice.
A further period of time can be applied for in certain circumstances, but generally if an appeal has not been lodged by December 1, the haulier is legally bound to pay the levy asked of him.
Shortly after December 1, the Board before receiving the statement which tells the haulier exactly what his levy is, how he stands in the way of grants, what cash he may have paid to the Board before receiving the statement, and what monies, if any, the Board might end up owing the haulier.
The Board lays down a comprehensive list of general conditions that must be met by an employer seeking grants. Among other things, the employer must be registered with the RTITB, and no claim for grant will be paid unless either the employer has been assessed to the twelfth levy and all levies have been paid, or not being leviable by virtue of low employees' emoluments, the employer and the Board have mutually agreed before January 1, 1978, that he will pay a sum, of money to the Board in December, 1978.
Grants for employees
A grant will also only be paid for an employee when the employer has: paid the employee's salary or wages during the period of training, and reimbursed to the employee all expenses incurred by him for which the grant is claimed.
Where the Board has published training recommendations, the training given must result in the attainment of the standards included in those recommendations.
This does not mean the Board will lay down a rigid programme of training since the Board recognises there is a variety of methods for achieving results.
Where training recommendations have not yet been published, the training programme must be approved by the Board before the grant is ;paid.
Records must always be kept by the employer so that he can produce them for inspection should he be called upon to do so.
All RTITB grants are worked out on a "points" system, which on many occasions has been completely misunderstood by hauliers.
Very simply, the Board awards each aspect of training a certain number of points. For instance, a technician learning vehicle body repair would be awarded three points as the rate of grant per day of attendance on an approved course.
At the end of the year, when the Board calculates how much money it will raise in levies, and it knows how much it will have to pay out in grants, it divides the total number of points into the total amount of levy.
In the haulage sector during 1974 / 75, each point was worth £1.65. In 1975/76 a point was worth £2.85. Last year each point was worth £3.85.
Every year, the RTITB computer at Wembley is used to calculate how much a point will be worth, and then those claiming grants are told how much they will receive, depending on how many points they have been awarded.
Different grants
The RTITB awards many different types of grants, and one of the latest introduced (in 1975) is the preservation grant.
This was introduced in the .spring of 1975 to ensure that the economic recession did not result in a major loss of hgv driver training facilities, and contined throughout last year.
The grant, which continued at the rate of £350 per training place per quarter, ensured that a training centre would remain economically viable if its utilisa:lion fell to 50 per cent.
The preservation grant was a success and both employers and group training centres maintained their training capacity.
The board believes that as a result of this grant the industry retained its ability to train adequate numbers of hgv drivers.
Specific training grants cover a wide range of occupations in the industry from apprenticeship, craft and technician, operatives, clerical, salesmen, management, supervisory and .professional, graduates and., undergraduates and correspondence courses and other private studies.
On the apprenticeship side there are two main elements, industrial training and associated further education.
Details of all these categories are given in the RTITB's levy exemption scheme and 1 97778 training grants employers' guide, together with how many points each category gets.
But the more grants there are available, the more the paperwork continues to pile up. Hauliers, especially the small men with little time to spare, have complained to the RTITB about the mass of paper they have to put up With. The Board counters this with the explanation that, since its inception, it has cut down to what it considers the bare minimum of paperwork.
The computer now processes most of the paper as the scheme has got too large to be handled by staff on their own. Last year, for instance, th smallest claim would have beet one entry on two sheets o paper. In another case though large companies send to tilt board 1,000 sheets, each on carrying 15 to 20 claims.
At that rate the Board doe need a computer.