IRTE CHANGES
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The reasoning put forward in last week's Sound Off by the Secretary of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers for its becoming just a brand of the Society of Operations Engineers exposed the demolition of IRTE culture that is threatened by the change.
The underlying strength of the IRTE has lain in its egalitarianism. Whatever the academic qualifications of IRTE members they share enthusiasm for road-transport vehicles—they are devoted to improving them, matching them to operational needs and maintaining them efficiently.
It is abilities relevant to that cause that IRTE membership represents. It does not primarily indicate a level of engineering qualifications; merely engineering professionalism focused on road transport vehicles, and embracing knowledge far wider than engineering per se.
Soon membership of the Society of Operations Engineers will be a pre-requisite. The grades of membership will be geared to general academic engineering qualifications, so class divisions will develop. The IRTE will no longer determine its own terms of membership— there can be no sustainable credibility attached to being a member of a brand.
Thousands of associates and affiliates of the neutered Institute will question the worth of being obliged to belong to an organisation representing grades of engineering instead of the distinctive transport engineers.
Johin Diekson-Sknpson, Transport Press Services, London W11.