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The attitude of operators to professional standards
Page 55
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The recently issued final examination pass list of the Chartered Institute of Transport demonstrates clearly the indifference of road freight operators to professional standards. In paper number seven — Road Freipht Transport. only 10 passes are recorded. Of these, three were obtained by full-time students of this Polytechnic who were at the time working in road transport and one by a Polytechnic lecturer. At most, therefore, six passes were obtained by those working in the industry. The position concerning physical distribution management is even worse, for in that subject there were only five passes_ This year's Road Transport paper was not beyond the competence of a professional manager with industrial experience and the fact that one candidate obtained one of only four CIT distinctions in the subject confirms my view that the marking was not too severe.
One is left with the view that the industry is either indifferent to professional standards or incompetent to meet them. In an industry where profit records are so poor. bankruptcy so rife, and public criticism is so vociferous. this lack of interest in professional standards seems woefully misguided. One freouently hears complaints of drivers earning more than management staff, but if a heavy goods vehicle driver is a properly oualified professional and his boss is unaiialified and unprofessional, this apparent anomaly seems not unreasonable.
May I conclude by forestalling those road hauliers who will say that l am advocating better oualifications at the expense of practical experience? What I do say is that theory and practice must go together and that the track record of the industry suggests that neither can be safely neglected.
D. H. STEWART-DAVID, Senior Lecturer in Transport Studies, Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic