the common room
Page 62
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Own-account operators and the RTITB by George Wilmot
I MENTIONED last week how many of the attacks on the Road Transport Industry Training Board by some public hauliers and bus companies could damage the whole concept of education and training within the industry. While these attackers are looking wistfully at the apparently greener grass outside the scope of the RTITB. there are many ownaccount operators looking enviously from outside wishing they were inside.
This curious paradox arises froi-n the fact that own-account operators come under the control, from an industrial training point of view, of the industry which they serve. The bringing together of all services and ancillaries into the one industry served, forms an important thread in the 1964 Industrial Training Act. Naturally, this is a very unsatisfactory position for the own-account operator as the other Boards-for example, the Glass Industry, Civil Engineering or the Chemical Industryare not especially interested in the training requirements of the transport personnel serving their industries.
There is now quite a wide cover of management courses for road transport personnel and, predictably, the vast majority attending these courses are own-account operators. It is an extraordinary anomaly that the vast bulk of road transport-especially in terms of the number of vehicles-is outside the scope of the RTITB. Taking the case of management training, there is the further anomaly that each industrial training board has a different scale of grant for management courses which are quite unrelated to RTITB scales. The RTITB feels, rightly, that management training is the major priority in the industry but other boards, not surprisingly, have quite different problems and priorities. In the field of "on-thejob" for all grades and schemes for fitters and technicians the own-account operator has often to plough his own furrow as the RTITB can only offer informal and indirect advice.
Operators' licences which will cover all former C licensees by the beginning of December, will produce even more peculiarities. In vehicles of 16 tons gross laden weight and under, former C licensees can carry any goods for hire and reward in exactly the same way as the public haulier. It is argued that few own-account operators will enter into the public haulage field in any way and the fact that vehicles of over 16 tons gross laden weight must revert back to the conditions of the old C licence-until such time as regulations are introduced for Special Authorizations (Quantity Licensing( are put into effect-must severely limit attempts to carry for hire or reward. Nevertheless, the argument that all goods transport should come under the RTITB is considerably strengthened and the present position is clearly quite illogical.
Some would hold up their hands in holy horror at the idea of extending the scope of the RTITB. Others take the view that the industrial training boards should embrace much larger units to give the advantages of the economies of scale and to avoid duplication. There are obviously great administrative problems involved in the effective working of a large board but in terms of the scarce resources of good, qualified instructors, teachers and lecturers in road transport, the more the work can be concentrated the better.
. Currently, the situation is unduly complex and a rrwch simplified structure is called for in regard to training in road transport. The absurdities add a very considerable burden for those anxious to get on with the job of training and education in the industry. And this, after all, is what industrial training should be about.