• Disputes frequently arise over the use of the 161.
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designation RTITB Approved used by LAW training schools on letterheads and logos. There is a significant difference between individual instructors being registered with the RTITB and their training establishment being approved.
Two Scottish LGV trainee pupils queried the use of the designation on advertising and literature belonging to Dave McLagan, a Brechin-based instructor. Caroline King and Margaret Kydd both took an LGV course with McLagan, paying around £400 each for lessons and test fees.
At the end of the course neither felt they were ready to take their LGV tests and complained of the standard of training they received. They say McLagan's manner was unsympathetic during training, that he was bad tempered, that lessons began late and that McLagan frequently chatted on a mobile phone during training exercises.
The two women, who met each other as a result of their shared grievance with McLagan, have since taken LGV lessons with another school, John Cunningham of Perth, and passed their tests.
For his part, McLagan denies the women's claims: "If people come on a course and they don't make the grade they try to blame everyone but themselves. Ifs just sour grapes."
Although he has switched from LGV training to training motorists, McLagan says that these complaints represent just two out of 500 pupils he trained in three and a half years. He says his use of a mobile phone during training sessions was simply to take brief business calls: "No one's training was affected." And he says his tacho records show the distances Kydd travelled in the week she trained.
Following her course, Kydd wrote to RSL to query whether McLagan's school was RTITB approved. RSL confirmed McLagan was a qualified LGV driving instructor registered with RTITB as such, but his school was not on the approved list: "Registration on our scheme confirms that he has been trained as an instructor at an approved centre and satisfied our examiner as to his skills and competence at the conclusion of the course and nothing more than that."
The RSL suggested Kydd contact the Trading Standards Department at Tayside Regional Council. Trading Standards Officer Lynne Law contacted McLagan and reported the outcome to Margaret Kydd: "He (McLagan) has given me an assurance that all advertising material in the future will describe him as being RTITB registered, not approved. Mr McLagan is aware that failure to do so will result in further action being taken by this department."
However, the Trading Standards Department advised it had no powers to take up complaints about the standard of training received. This, it said, was a matter for the civil courts. McLagan says the matter was a mixup: "As a registered RTITB instructor I was not aware! was not allowed to say I was RTITB approved," E by Patric Cunnane