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Problems for the Training Board
AFTER so many years in which training and education in road transport have been largely neglected or ignored it is natural to assume that more recent developments are the manifestation of a grand strategy worked out by the authorities. Statements by the Road Transport Industry Training Board support this by leaving the impression that the Board has been in control of the situation at all times. Mrs. Barbara Castle may have helped by her efforts to present the Transport Bill as a coherent and integrated piece of legislation.
The course of events has also played a part. The standards expected from operators and staff are rapidly becoming more onerous. The heavy goods vehicle driving licence is to be reintroduced. The Bill contains provision for the appointment by each company, and even at each depot, of a transport manager who must hold a licence. Plating and testing will make new demands on the facilities for vehicle maintenance. Higher penalties and new penalties are being imposed for breaches of the law.
On the other hand, the Training Board is now getting into its stride and organizations within the road transport industry have carried out, or are planning, special training projects for their members.
New facilities The new requirements and the new facilities are reaching out towards each other like the two sides of a bridge. When they meet it might be supposed that the menace of an uncouth and uncontrolled industry will have been overcome and operators and workers can cross together into a better land. A strong point has been made of the possibility that masters and men will accompany each other to the new Multi-Occupational Training and Education Centre.
Hopes of this kind may well be fulfilled. It would be misleading to claim as a result that a master plan is being worked out. The Transport Bill and the Training Board are not the twin products of a single idea. When it comes to the point they may even be found to work against each other.
The work of the Training Board is not merely an exercise in education. It has a practical purpose which is to improve the standards of efficiency throughout the industry. Operators are bound to approve of this, although their aim might be expressed rather differently as that of keeping the staff when they are trained and attracting promising new recruits at every level. In road transport the brain drain is not a new concept.
The Bill will make the task of operators more difficult in many ways. The ambitious young man thinking to make a career in road transport can only be discouraged by the prospect of quantity licensing. He will see a narrowing of the possibilities of advancement.
At the same time he will find out—what the administrative staff in the industry already know—that before he gets very far he will probably need to hold a transport manager's licence and that this can be taken away for any one of a number of reasons, not all of them clearly defined. Here are two points which may influence his decision towards entering some other industry.
The man already in transport may see the transport manager's licence as a challenge and as an encouragement to make use of the educational facilities provided especially through the good offices of the Training Board. He will also present a problem ha the employer wishing to keep him. Once he has mastered the managerial techniques he may be tempted to apply them in a more rewarding field either by going to a larger operator or by leaving transport.
TM L hazards
The hazards attached to the transport manager's licence must be a deterrent to the good man as well as to the bad. The skilful driver may also become more inclined to abandon his occupation. He would find no difficulty in obtaining the new driving licence, but the growing number of restrictions and offences must be discouraging and most drivers do not seem to regard the proposed reduction in their working day with any special pleasure.
For some time operators have had similar difficulties with their maintenance staff. This situation will not necessarily be eased with the increased facilities for training. Garages and service stations can often offer more favourable conditions than are possible in the harsh world of road transport. As a man becomes more skilful the inducements to move elsewhere will multiply.
Even within the confines of road transport there is a problem. The scope of the Training Board includes persons engaged in road haulage but not those in other trades operating vehicles on own-account. Some hauliers have found it easy to conjure up a picture of the customer lying in wait until a driver or mechanic or manager has been trained and then luring him away.
The danger may be more imaginary than real. Quality licensing will break down the distinction between A, B and C licences, and discussions are taking place about the new status of the Training Board in a world where this convenient distinction will no longer exist.
With responsibility already for approximately 900,000 people, making it the third largest industrial training group, it is not likely that the Board would wish to double or treble that number by taking over the transport staff, at present covered by the boards serving industries to which vehicles are ancillary. However, the fact that hauliers and traders are no longer to be in watertight compartments may diminish the danger that they will poach each other's staff.
Learning to adapt
Without doubt the setting up of the Training Board will prove a benefit to road transport, although the advantages may not yet have shown themselves. The Board is learning to adapt itself to the industry rather than expecting a complete change of attitude among operators.
Some surprise has been expressed that operators who are conducting activities for which a grant could have been made have taken no steps to lodge a claim and do not even seem to be aware of their rights. The Board is having to advertise to attract the attention of such operators.
Their apparent indifference is characteristic of the industry. Training and education are concepts for which many hauliers do not expect to find personal application. The idea that they are actually engaged in these activities is as strange to them as the discovery by the Frenchman in the play that all his life he had been speaking prose.
Because training courses for road transport staff have been neglected in the past the belief has grown that operators are irresponsible. As the Board accumulates information it may be found that the extent of training is far wider than had been supposed. There may have been reasons which seem excellent to the operators themselves why they should prefer facilities other than those officially provided.
The most frequent complaint is that much of what is taught in the classroom, interesting though it may be in itself, is remote from the day-to-day activities of the student. He cannot see the point of studying the history of transport and more especially the history of other forms of transport than that in which he is engaged. His attitude may be misguided but it has to be taken into account. It may drain away his enthusiasm to such an extent that he decides the academic life is not for him.
From what has so far been seen of the work of the Training Board it shows every sign of encouraging practical activities rather than theory. It is also a good sign that the road transport associations are entering the field. The five-day senior management course which the Road Haulage Association is sponsoring in November is a good beginning.
Given the opportunity to organize their own facilities through their associations operators are more likely to give the correct weight to those items from which their own staff will derive the most benefit. The associations will act as a link with the Training Board, not least in ensuring that the people who deserve grants receive them out of the ample funds available.