ROAD TRANSPORT NEED, I RECRUITMENT POLICY
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As Competing Industries' Training Schemes Are Implemented, Operators of Vehicles Must Adjust Staff Management to Suit Current Conditions
By a Special Correspondent
ROAD transport operators will be increasingly affected by the changes •in British economy which have necessitated a national reappraisal of labour recruitment,
training and welfare. Mass-produc tion in in manufacturing industries provide opportunities for economies not available to operators to offset, by increased output, the high wages induced by full employment.
The urgent need to initiate or expand training schemes for persons
entering industry is being widely recognized. Following a recommendation of the Carr Committee, the Industrial Training Council was instituted to lead the setting-up of
industrial training schemes throughout the country.
More than 120 schemes are now in operation in a variety of occupations, and recent statistics issued by the Ministry of Labour show that 37 per cent, of youths entering industry are serving apprenticeships.
Nor are such schemes limited to compact industries or large works. The building and motor-vehicle retailing and repairing trades, for example, are nationwide and include many small companies, yet both have appropriate training arrangements for recruits.
Less Transfer of Labour
This expansion of training schemes must inevitably intensify competition for suitable recruits, particularly in a period of full or near-full employment. Moreover, as a higher proportion complete apprenticeships, subsequent transfer between industries will probably decrease, with a corresponding diminution in the availability of adult labour.
Because the road transport industry is a major employer of labour, it must inevitably be affected as such training schemes become fully implemented. Even though transport does not require large numbers of skilled craftsmen, other than in maintenance departments, the task of attracting and retaining an adequate labour force will become increasingly difficult and competitive.
As an industry, goods transport at present accepts little, if any, responsibility for staff training. Such schemes as do exist have been sponsored by individual, and usually large, organizations, but in total they represent only a small proportion of the road transport industry.
However, continued and possibly intensified labour shortage could
compel a higher .proportion of operators to reconsider the adequacy of
their own arrangements for staff recruitment, training and subsequent control after engagement. 1 give here particulars of some existing schemes employed by goods-vehicle operators as an indication of the problems likely to be met.
• Dealing first with a large C-licence operator, the background to his problem is-the distribution of approximately 700 vehicles throughout the country with not more than 40 in any one area. There is no direct control from headquarters over the driving staff, and the local area organizations often engage drivers primarily on their ability as salesmen.
This operator has found that the employment of the British School of Motoring, with their wide national coverage, has been invaluable in providing a means for impartial reporting on prospective drivers in a way which would otherwise have been extremely difficult. The scheme has been in operation for about five years.
The scheme also proved of advantage when indoor staff—warehousemen, for example—asked for a transfer to the driving department. Such applicants are sent for B.S.M. tests, and if they should be rejected on the ground of having attained insufficiently high driving..standards, the possible objection of favouritism is eliminated.
Where a previously good driver unaccountably becomes accidentprone, and it is necessary to take lction, his record is discussed with the i-nan s superior and, if necessary, a re-test with B.S.M. is arranged. Here, Again, the impartiality of such a test is invaluable.
The scheme is not used, however, when engaging sales staff who are to De allocated a car, as distinct from van Irivers. Recently, however, a subidiary company of the national Hganization h a s inaugurated an tdditional scheme to encourage rcpre3entatives and sales staff to take the !riving.test of the Institute of
Advanced Motorists at the company's expenSe.
Subsequently, if successful and free from accident for any one quarter, they are given a £1 Premium Bond, and if they so continue, are given a further Bond at the end of the year, making five in all.
This operator has also found that there is an additional psychological advantage in employing outside instructors, as is the case with the B.S.M. He has discovered that chauffeurs and drivers undoubtedly take more notice of advice from B.S.M. instructors than from their own staff, no matter how skilled, with the resulting more beneficial results.
Because drivers were employed by their customers, Mr. E. R. Durham, general manager, Blox Services, Ltd., Morden, stressed to me that they were in a special position in respect of driving staff's selection and training, particularly as the responsibility for provision and maintenance of vehicles remained with the contractors. It was essential that they should have some means of approving customers' drivers.
It was therefore a condition of the contract, signed by the customer to whom vehicles were being supplied on hire by Blox Services, that all drivers which the customer wished to employ must pas S an impartial driving test to the satisfaction of Blox Services. The great majority of such tests were, in fact, carried out by the B.S.M.
A good driver was the key to efficient operation, Mr. Durham emphasized. For that reason, in addi tion to the initial driving test, Blox Services also operated accident and fuel economy bonus schemes. Although the initial purpose of offering drivers a bonus for low fuel consumption was obviously to cut costs, it had been found that drivers who merited the highest fuel bonuses were invariably men with low accident records.
Proneness to high fuel consumption, breakdowns and accidents were closely inter-related. A driver returning a high standard in any one, usually showed good results in the other two.
Reward of £4 4s.
The accident-bonus scheme at present operated by Blox Services ensures that every regular driver entirely free of an accident of any kind, during a 12-month period, is eligible for a reward of £4 4s. It is stipulated that drivers shall have driven their vehicles regularly each month for a full year.
Where a new driver is taken on after January 1, he qualifies for the bonus at the rate of 7s. per month for each full month's driving up to December 31, subject to his being free of accidents.
Blox Services insist that all accidents, no matter how slight, must be reported on the appropriate form and received within 72 hours. Failure to do this disqualifies the driver concerned for any award that year.
A driver involved in an accident forfeits three months' bonus at the B33
rate of 7s. per month until the competition for that year ends on December 31. It was significant, Mr. Durham said, that when an accident occurred more correspondence passed between contractor, insurer and customer than for any other part of the business.
Following a successful initial driving test, customers' employees are free to drive any Blox vehicle allocated to them up to the size of the vehicle on which they were tested. If a customer later wishes to transfer the driver to either a larger or different type of vehicle, such as from a rigid to an artic," the driver must first pass a further test on the alternative type of vehicle to which it is proposed to transfer him.
Mr. Durham added that no immediate benefit was obtained from insurers in respect of vehicle premium because of the employment of an impartial driving test for all new entrants. There could, however, be a long-term advantage resulting from accidents being kept to a minimum and so virtually eliminating the need for insurers to impose excess charges.
In addition to handing each driver of their customers a copy of their:own "Hirer Drivers' Guide," covering a wide range of subjects relative to the operation of vehicles from the drivers' aspect, Blox Services also issue a copy of "Advanced Driving." This is a book drawn up by the British Safety Council, based on the manual issued for the instruction of police drivers at the Hendon school.
• Having obtained the experiences of two different types of operator when employing an outside agency to conduct impartial driving tests, I then discussed the operation of such schemes with Mr. F. R. Priestly, chief instructor of the B.S.M. He emphasized at the outset that commercialvehicle operators making use of their services for the testing of drivers on recruitment relieved themselves of
heavy responsibility. • having tested a prospective driver, it was the custom for B.S.M. to return a confidential report to the employer indicating the standard the driver had attained, and if further instruction was considered necessary, the approximate numberof hours B.S.M. considered 1314 would be required before the driver was brought up to an agreed standard of proficiency.
Whilst it was normal procedure to issue confidential reports, a copy was also given to the driver if the employer so wished. Special rates of fees applied when contract arrangements were made for the successive testing of recruits.
Apart from initial testing of prospective drivers, B.S.M. services are also employed for other purposes. A large fleet operator who formerly used electrically propelled vehicles decided to change over to petrol-engined vehicles. As a result, the whole of his driving staff had to be retested on new types of vehicles. Some companies prefer to have their drivers retested at spetific age levels.
As an example of the amount of tuition required for conversion from one type of vehicle to another, a driver formerly used to 10-cwt, vans and being transferred to a 5-tormer would, on average, require six to nine hours additional instruction.
Conversion Tuition
Whilst either B.S.M. or operators' vehicles may be used for testing drivers, the advantage of dual control of B.S.M. vehicles was particularly important when conversion tuition was being given. If operators' own vehicles Were used for this purpose by a driver who had no previous experience of that particular vehicle, there would not only be the loss of use during the time of tuition, but also the distinct possibility of minor accidents.
Mr. Priestly stressed the importance of the impartiality of the B.S.M. The company had only one objective. namely, to state whether a driver reached a predetermined standard. Such impartiality was a vital factor when disciplinary action was under consideration following an accident.
A more recent development concerned operators of ancillary goodsvehicle fleets who were also responsible for staff cars. There was a growing interest by top level managements, Mr. Priestly said, in the high accident rate which some were experiencing with their representatives' fleets of cars.
In the past, the attitude has undoubtedly been that if a member of the staff was a top-grade salesman, any high accident rate he might have with his car was to be discounted. This was by no means the case today. It was being increasingly recognized that, apart from the cost, damaged vehicles were no advertisement to their owners.
Disruption of Working
There must also be substantial disruption of day-to-day working as well as the obvious expense, whether in terms of direct repair bills or ultimately increased insurance premiums.
In conversation with Mr. F. Howarth, B.S.M. chief instructor of commercial vehicles, he disclosed that almost invariably the first contact with a commercial-vehicle user immediately followed notification from the operator's insurance company that his premiums were to be increased forthwith because of a high accident rate.
Operators of commercial vehicles were seldom in a position to employ a person with both the experience and time to conduct proper driving tests. All too often it was an additional duty to be performed by overworked transport managers or foremen fitters anxious to get back to their job.
Mr. Howarth said that almost invariably when the B.S.M. took over the responsibility of testing drivers. the person previously designated for the job was only too glad to shed this responsibility.
Although B.S.M. did not take a. direct interest in the Lorry Driver ol the Year competition, •many successful competitors were, in fact, B.S.M.. trained, In an analysis of faults of driven who did not attain the required standards, the highest percentages werc recorded against the incorrecl approach to turnings, the misuse ol the gearbox, and steering faults. 01 37 drivers tested on a 10-ton articu. lated • vehicle, only 13 were recommended as suitable. In the 3-5-tor rigid class, however, 149 driven
.....ached the required standard out of total of 249.
As an alternative to the employlent of an outside agency for the :sting and training of driving staff, le establishment of one's own school n.ist obviously be limited to the irgest users. Not only is the cost ibstantial but the probable subNuent loss of trained personnel to ther operators would inevitably have ) be accepted.
Such an arrangement. however, 'mild have the advantage of permitng training to be adapted precisely ) the users' needs, particularly as :gards traffic handled and system of ocumentation.
Railways' Scheme In keeping with their position as le largest operators of commercial :hides in this country, the training iven at the British Railways' driving ;hoots shows what can be achieved y individual organizations. The railays employ 20.000 drivers and perate 16,000 vehicles together with further 30,000 trailers, two-thirds of hich are articulated.
Thirteen schools are maintained in le five regions, and an average of ) fully trained drivers are passed out eekly. The procedure adopted at the ondon Midland school at Watford is fair 'representation of the work ndertaken in other regions.
At the Start of their training, appliints are instructed that it is a public uty to regard a motor vehicle as a lethal weapon, which should be treated as such. From the railways' point of view, it was an expensive piece of Machinery to which due care should be given. To spotlight this aspect, the school at Watford contains a sectioned chassis and equipment so arranged as to emphasize the effect of abuse because of rough driving.
Training .Period The maximum period of training is 19 daYs, after which the applicant returns to his home base if he is not considered up to standard, although it is possible for him to re-apply for appointment as a driver, at alater date. The average time taken, however, is 13 days, each day consisting of approximately seven hours.
In contrast to many other transport organizations, Mr. A. E, C. Dent, road motor engineer of London Midland Region, British Railways, says that the majority of recruits reporting to their training schools are already in railway employ, possibly in the position of porter, and therefore having at least some knowledge of the traffic a driver would handle.
Two factors distinguish the employment of drivers by British Railways. One is the policy of overall promotion within the organization, and the other the exceptionally low average daily mileage —around 20 25 • miles, although this could increase to 50 miles in agricultural areas.
As permitted by the Transport Act, the railways are authorized to carry out their own driving tests under the authority of the Ministry of Transport, and to issue driving licences where they consider the applicant suitable. These carry the same authority as a normal driving licence, and are not in any way restricted to driving whilst within railway employ.
Mr. Dent said that the 16,000 vehicles operated by the railways could be divided into .six broad categories: 3-ton articulated (threewheeled); 3-ton articulated (fourwheeled); 6-ton articulated (three wheeled); 6-ton articulated (fourwheeled); 3-ton rigid (four-wheeled) and 5-ton rigid (four-wheeled). In general, vehicles used on parcels work are fitted with van bodies whilst those on goods delivery are flats.
Good Propaganda He considered that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents provided good propaganda. Whilst undergoing training at railway schools, applicants are given the opportunity of visiting the ROSPA headquarters to undergo reaction tests and examine models exemplifying traffic problems.
It was indicative of the success of their training schools that British Railways had been able to curb the number of fatal accidents in which their vehicles had been involved, thought Mr. Dent, In 1929, before the training schools were inaugurated, the equivalent area to the London Midland Region operated 1,948 vehicles and had three fatal accidents. In 1959, when the fleet had risen to 6.581 vehicles, the number of fatal accidents was five.
On completion of his training, a railway driver is issued with a docket listing the types of vehicle on which he is considered qualified to drive. Should, at a later date, he be required to drive a type of vehicle on which he has had no previous experience, he returns to the school for a refresher course.
The inauguration and maintenance of such complete national coverage of training schools must obviously be far beyond the resources of ail• but a few of the largest road transport operators, Nevertheless, both current and future competitive conditions in the labour market may compel co-operation among operators so . as to ensure the necessary supply of adequately trained labour.
Moreover, such co-operation could reduce substantially the possibility of the loss of staff trained at the expense of individual companies to competing operators.