ASK THE EXPERTS
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• If you want expert advice, ask an expert. That's exactly what Commercial Motor has done in our survey of HGV driver training. The advice from our experts — the 100 or so leading RTITBapproved HGV driver training schools — is that to prepare fledgling HGV drivers for the real world you have to train and test them on laden vehicles. So why is the Department of Transport so reluctant to take that advice?
Every time Commercial Motor has asked the DTp for this commonsense move the reply (most recently from former Transport Minister Peter Bottomley) is to ask who would provide the laden trailers for Class One training.
According to the experts, that is no problem. Over 86% of the RTITB-approved training schools we spoke to reckon that provided an agreed British Standards specification can be drawn up for a laden trailer, they would provide them. So the DTp can stop worrying about having to shell out money: the initiative has already been taken by the training schools.
Why test with laden vehicles? Let the experts answer: "We've got to make training more realistic . . a laden wagon handles very differently to an unladen one . . a lot of trainee drivers do not realise the restricted rear vision with a laden truck."
An even more convincing argument for laden-vehicle training and testing can be found in the experts' reply to our question: "Do you think that the 1-IGV test programme adequately prepares the newly-qualified driver for work in the road transport industry?" Over 70% feel it doesn't — and over 88% say the HGV test should also include questions on how to load a truck.
If the road transport industry really wants to ensure that a newly-qualified HGV driver is adequately prepared, not least in order to give them a decent chance of getting a job, then the whole HGV driver training programme needs a radical overhaul — and not just in terms of weight categories.
lithe DTp really wants to see standards improve then it should start talking to the British Standards Institute, the trade associations — and its own driver testing and training division — and thrash out a practical programme for revising the HGV test programme to take it into the 1990s and beyond. Most of all, it should ask the real experts — the people who run the country's HGV driving schools, and listen to what they have to say about the current test.
The Government has made a lot of noise about "training people without jobs to do the jobs without people". We would prefer to see people without proper
training getting the training to 7 do the job properly.