COWBOY TRAINING • The IIGV and PSV driving test is
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the only fair and reasonably accurate way of testing a driver's knowledge, skill and competency. A practical and economic substitute is difficult to envisage. There is also, it has to be said, a "small element of luck" on the test as well.
A successful driving test candidate will most hopefully have received in training the fimi foundations to a lifetime's driving skills and will have the responsibility to appreciate the fact that the driving test pass is only the basic legal requirement.
In fact, they are now licenced to continue learning "under their own supervision". The public look to a professional HGV and PSV driver for safety. A number of your readers will soon be contemplating driver training, either upgrading or fresh into
the industry. To these readers I should like to point out certain factors they ought to be aware of.
Driving an HGV or PSV carries a lot of responsibility, is affected by considerable legislation, and requires a high degree of skill. It is with concern that I note the increasing number of "Billy the Kid" schools of motoring where you could be duped into believing that you have an excellent chance of passing in a ridiculously short space of time. I have heard of a car to HGV class 1 course in 11 hours, plus test; and an instance of a car to PSV class 1 course in four hours plus test. Naturally, with this type of training a candidate will take a number of tests before either gaining that licence or giving up altogether, either way a great deal wiser but very much poorer.
These unscrupulous practices are a means of gaining business and also monopolising driving test fixtures. Quality instructors are unable to get a reasonable quota of tests for a test standard driver, because "Billy the Kid" is constantly sending in a candidate who is nowhere near good enough.
Moves are afoot, albeit slowly, to either cure or cut out these "cowboy" instructors. The road transport industry is a fantastic profession, and one to be proud of. Without proper initial training and then lots of commonsense afterwards, it can also be potentially dangerous.
Terry Landsborough, THE HAWK'S MORRIS • Not being a dog owner, I cannot help with the identification of the Spratts display shown in Commercial Motor (23-29 March), but the vehicle is another matter.
It looks to me that it is almost certainly a Morris Commercial (or just Morris as some of the earlier versions were named). The photograph is just clear enough to show the old cast type of radiator. This, together with the opensided cab, went out about 1930, so that would give an approximate date.
It looks like a one-tonne truck which Spratts might have favoured for its size, rather than its carrying capacity, which suggests that it might be a "light tonner", or LT type. The small tyre size would also support such a choice.
The LT was introduced in 1927, so I would suggest that the likely date of the vehicle is between 1927 and 1929. A Hall, West Derby, Liverpool.