Haulier acts after dismay at standards of driving
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• A general haulier is paying to train drivers because it says too many licence holders are not good enough. Page Group, of Ford, West Sussex, says the new training division will also help cut costs by reducing the need for agency drivers. The division has its own staff and vehicles to prepare learner drivers for their tests. As soon as learners hold their Category-C licences they are employed on probation for six months and then offered a permanent post, if one is vacant, or the opportunity to train for artic driving. "We're fed up with the quality of drivers coming to us with ostensibly the right licence but leaving a trail of destruction behind them and the horrendous costs of agency drivers," says Page driver trainer Kevin Robertson. "Training our own drivers is more cost-effective: you are dealing with a known quantity." But the company is suffering the same lack of interest from would-be drivers as the rest of the country. The number of applicants wanting to start the training course is "very disappointing". 0 Employers in London, the Thames Valley, south Glamorgan, Leeds and the south Midlands are finding it most difficult to recruit drivers. The Road Haulage Distribution Training Council's survey, Skills for the Future, Found that more than two-thirds of the 1,000 companies that responded reported difficulties,