Successful applicant?
Page 50
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In August an applicant for a driving job we successful in convincing me of his outstandin. driving ability. Aged 22, he already had licence which covered him for all classes c vehicles until 1972, but his experience wa limited to six-wheelers, whereas, among m small fleet, there are articulated vehicles.
I personally undertook his tuition and wa delighted at the aptitude he showed Inddentally I am over 60 years old, hay. been a haulier from my 17th birthday, an was a commissioned driving examiner in th, RAF in 1945/6.
To make doubly certain that my confidenc was not ill-founded I sent this driver on driving instruction course with a local haulag training association where, on the final Frida prior to his MoT test he had a "mock examination of some two hours duration. Thi he passed with flying colours. I now enclos the "Statement of Failure—Guidance Notes which was handed to him after his Mo. Heavy Goods Driving Test. You will note tha there are no fewer than 21 listed items o which he could have been failed but th examiner just had to write in a 22nd iter which appears to suggest that he did not driv fast enough.
(The written entry under the sectio, recommending applicants to give specie attention, reads: "make normal progress t suit varying road and traffic conditions"—Ed.
In fact the test lasted two-and-a-half hour all told and the distance recorded was 4' miles—1 would have thought amply fas enough for an actual driving time of less thai two hours with an articulated outfit over 401 long. The driver was absolutely discouraged; was furious and the school driving instructc was mortified.
Having been born in Yorkshire, of Yorkshir stock, my native caution would rebel a placing machinery of the value of som £5000 in the hands of an incompetent, anc with 45 years of driving experience I feE competent to judge. Can't something be don to prevent the writing-in of futile criticism such as this one that I enclose?
FRANK W. L. ELL!' Hauge Oldcotes, nrWorkso