VOCATIONAL LICENCES for STEERSMEN
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THE driver of any type of mechani
cally propelled vehicle must have the ordinary non-vocational licence, but after April 1, the driver of any heavy goods vehicle must obtain from the Traffic Area licensing authorities, on the expiry of his non-vocational licence, the new additional vocational licence, and steersmen of steam wagons, etc., come into this category. Any man, however, who satisfies the Commissioners that he has had six months' driving (which includes steering) of a heavy goods vehicle, or periods of driving making six months in the aggregate, in the year ended March 31, 1934, has a right to claim the new licence without test. It is suggested that the man who is only a steersman should, on the form which he has to send to the authorities, write "I am employed on heavy goods vehicles as a steersman only." If his first non-vocational licence was issued on or after April 1, 1934, he will have to pass a driving test.
Under the Road Traffic Act, 1934, the licensing authorities may, but need not, require him to pass a driving test before granting a vocational licence, but if he be exempt from, or has already passed, the non-vocational test and his application clearly shows that he wants to be only a steersman,
they will be prepared to give him a vocational licence without test, or with a limited one.
In the case of new entrants, the steersman must have an ordinary nonvocational licence, and will have to pass the driving test, which can be made on a light goods vehicle or upon any motor vehicle. Once he has obtained his non-vocational licence he can apply for the vocational type.
The existing driver of a heavy goods vehicle may be required to pass a practical test if he has not had at least six months', driving experience; lie is, however, entitled to run on the road and be tested on the road until the expiry of the non-vocational licence which he held on April 1, 1935.
The man who starts driving, say, a year hence, is more of a problem. He cannot legally drive a heavy goods vehicle on the public highway, even for a test, unless he has obtained the vocational licence. in the case, of a petrol vehicle or oiler, it should be possible, in some cases, for the man to learn and be tested either on private property or on a stripped chassis (which is not technically a heavy goods vehicle); where neither is possible, the authorities will have to: put him through a pretty Stiff test on, a vehicle which is not a " heavy." • •