John Darker AMBIM on Management Matters
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On with group training!
Group training associations sponsored by the Road Transport Industry Training Board are a welcome development. They bring firms of all sizes together in an activity that does not threaten the business interests of any member firm. In the North West, Mr. Harry Floyd, regional manager of the RTITB, and his team of training officers have made a notably quick start in promoting group training schemes. GTAs will soon be part of the jargon of our industry/ LAST WEEK'S contribution by Mr. T. E. Tindall, director-general of the RTITB, stressed the limited experience of management development amongst large companies in the industry and the tremendous scope for introducing management training to the many small companies. He implied that the industry could only get maximum value for the training levies paid if its managers— in firms of all sizes—are fully competent to apply modern ideas of business organization and staff development.
Management training can be fostered in many ways and as the work of the RTITB develops I have no doubt that a variety of schemes will be worked out to cater for the special needs of the industry. After visiting the North West regional office of the Board and talking to some of those concerned with the establishment of a new Group Training Association I feel confident that management training will be a valuable byproduct of group training. If groups get together to foster the training needs of their employees, directors of member firms can hardly fail to be bitten by the training bug.
Attitudes in road haulage management are changing rapidly. I recall many meetings of operators when the RTITB and all its works have been consigned to the nether regions, at least metaphorically. Today, if I am right, such attitudes could not be manifested by any representative gathering of road hauliers. The Training Board is making friends with its erstwhile critics, cementing relationships of lasting benefit to the industry.
Three road haulage group training schemes, duly registered with the Board, are already functioning in the Manchester area. For the record they are the North East Lancashire Group Training Association, West Cheshire GTA, and Wigan and District GTA. GTAs have also been set up for the Lancashire Ford dealers and for BMC dealers in the Fylde area. In the pipeline, road haulage GTAs for Furness, Lancaster and District Transport, Merseyside Transport. and North Manchester Transport, are being processed. Constitutions have been agreed, and signed, preliminary , costings completed, and initial training programmes are being prepared.
Mr. Floyd is distinguished in his own right as a highly experienced transport manager—he was formerly with the Cooperative Wholesale Society. His detailed knowledge of road transport and of the area —he is a Manchester man—stood him in good stead in his approaches to the industry.
Nevertheless, when he was appointed regional manager of the RTITB a year ago its image was not very bright.
"We kicked the GTA idea around as much as possible from the start", said Mr. Floyd. "It was recommended to our training staff and mooted whenever we talked to local road haulage concerns. We've had 70 public meetings with operators, with attendances ranging from 20 to 200, and my colleagues and I have talked to a wide variety of representative gatherings having no direct connection with the industry. Our face-to-face confrontations with operators to explain what training is all about have markedly changed the atmosphere in the past year.
"I attribute our progress with GTAs to the innate good sense of Northern businessmen. A huge slice of British industry is within 20 miles radius of Manchester. Up here we like to say 'the work's all done in the north and the paper work's done in the south'. The attitude of most road hauliers is very realistic. Accepting that the training levy had to be paid they very rightly wanted to get the best possible value for money. They realized it would often not be economic to do training on their own. Group training provided a constructive method of sinking difficulties and making reasonably fast progress".
As always, enthusiasm begets enthusiasm. Local and national publicity when the N.E. Lanes group was presented with a training vehicle by the Board was useful. Mr. S. S. Booth, regional training manager responsible for a staff of 14 training officers, has
talked at Transport and General Workers' Union weekend schools about the scope of training in the industry, eliciting a positive response. Local technical colleges are reinforcing the impact of the Board's own training facilities. The Nelson and Colne Technical College, for example, is running a course on fault diagnosis attended by staffs representing eight road haulage concerns.
At the Board's Peter Street offices in Manchester courses for training officers on personnel selection, management training, costing and accountancy have been developed by Mr. Booth and his colleagues. The aim has been to prove the syllabuses and ensure they are appropriate for the needs of the industry. Once a course content is proved to be viable the running of future courses can be left with assurance to local technical colleges—Bolton, Rochdale, Stretford, Hartford, Barrow, Lancaster, St. Helens, Liverpool College of Commerce, were some of the colleges mentioned. A first year off-the-job apprentice training course laid on by a number of colleges at the instance of the Board is laying a foundation for more advanced studies. Mr. Booth did not disguise the strength of his conviction about the importance of management training for road haulage operators. "If management skills are inadequate some of the firms won't exist in five years' time" he opined. I agreed wholeheartedly with Mr. Booth's view that road hauliers typically had very little idea of negotiation either with customers, to discuss rate increases or demurrage problems, or with employees, in working out a productivity plan. "In this field we have much to offer" he said.
The chairman of West Cheshire Road Hauliers' Group Training Association is Mr. W. R. Povey, a director of O.B. Transport Ltd., of Ellesmere Port. He told me his 17-member-firm group was officially endorsed on November 23. (Mr. Booth's first talk to discuss the possibility of setting up the group was on September 18—which gives an indication of the expedition with which a group can be launched with all formalities and enquiries completed, when there is a general wish to make progress.) "We're all new to the training group idea", said Mr. Povey. "We are following up a number of suggestions for group premises as none of the member firms can provide anything suitable. We all got concerned about training from the day we started to pay the levy. It was obvious from our first meeting that the group idea would take on. Now that Bill Grafton has been appointed group training officer—and he's visiting all the firms to see what's needed as an immediate priority— we shall make steady progress".
Mr. Povey's firm operates 42 vehicles. A. S. Jones and Co. Ltd., of Bromborough, the largest member-firm, has an 80-vehicle fleet. F. Z. Pierce, of Tattenhall, is a five-vehicle operator. Member firms at Ellesmere Port, Birkenhead, Capenhurst, Ledshal, Nestor', Heswall and Chester together operate about 400 vehicles, half of them articulated outfits up to 32 tons gross, though 24-ton machines are most common. The most common rigid vehicle type is the 16-ton capacity eight-wheeler. Two-thirds of the non-articulated vehicles are tippers— so that taking the fleets as a whole a wide variety of driving skills must be catered for. The total employees of member firms number approkimately 600. Not unnaturally, nearly 85 per cent of the employees are drivers.
Driver recruitment
For the time being, Mr. Povey explained, driver recruitment would stay with individual companies-but he envisages—as driver training gets under way—the maintenance of a register of drivers, recording training performance and other relevant information. "The group training officer could then make an initial selection of available drivers with suitable qualifications if any member firm requires a driver."
The appointment of the group training officer itself provided an exercise in manage
ment. The executive committee of the group attended a seminar on personnel selection at the Board's Manchester offices before the eight short-listed applicants were interviewed. (Altogether, following the insertion of advertisements in the national trade journals and some local newspapers there were 50 replies, which perhaps suggests that there is more talent worthy of promotion in the road transport industry than might be thought!) Mr. Booth commented: "It's hard to buy training officers 'off the shelf, but there are many men available with deep knowledge of the trade who are capable, with concentrated training, of organizing the training needs of their group." He has arranged for Mr. Grafton to attend a special training officers' course at a local technical college.
I asked Mr. Povey about the "job specification" of a group training officer. "We looked for leadership ability, transport knowledge and experience of work study" he told me. Mr. Grafton has grappled with driver training problems in West Africa and from what I heard from him the training of Nigerian drivers on laterite roads with many bridges little more than 9ft widq calls for the exercise of a lot of patient skills. "West African drivers can get a heavy goods vehicle licence after some experience of learning in a car or small truck of 3-ton capacity. It takes some time to inculcate a sense of judgment of height and width when they graduate to heavy lorries", said Mr. Grafton.
West Cheshire GTA hope soon to have two training vehicles—an attic unit and a medium or long wheelbase rigid vehicle with drop sides and tipping gear. Trailers of various types would be made available by member firms. Because 24-ton-gross artics are used by many member firms it is probable that a unit of this category will be supplied by the Board—though! gather some member firms would prefer a 32-ton unit, as representing the fast-growing trend towards heavier machines.
Two driving instructors will be needed. Mr. Povey said the area was peculiar in that all types of traffic competed for the available drivers. There was a lot of staff turnover, made worse by seasonal work. Some firms were even training drivers with car licences! The general level of driver on offer was not as high as it could be. In his own firm he expects accurate returns from drivers to facilitate costing procedures and he accepts the general need for more clerically minded drivers.
Encouraging
It is an encouraging portent that so large a firm as A. S. Jones and Co. Ltd—a subsidiary of Coast Lines Ltd.—should be members of the West Cheshire GTA. Mr. Gilbert Jones who showed me round the splendidly equipped new depot at Bromborough, said he hoped that GTA driver training, supplementing their own training programmes, would be to the standards of the heavy goods vehicle. licence. Driver training for the wide variety of A. S. Jones specialpurpose tankers would probably remain a company function. This is quite understandable. No general driving course could profitably train all drivers in the many specialized
skills needed to handle a mixed tanker fleet, with many vehicles costing around £10,000.
A. S. Jones hopes that membership of the GTA will provide a higher class of driver. Tanker operations are becoming increasingly specialized and there is a need for intelligent and conscientious men capable of interchanging between special-purpose vehicles. If the training programme makes drivers more adaptable it will contribute greatly to efficiency.
When the products carried and loading and discharge methods are as varied as they are with the A. S. Jones fleet one can sympathize with Mr. Jones' lament: "It is harder and harder to get a good driver who is conscientious and hard working. So many want to drive from A to B and then forget about the job. In our business a sensible approach to the vehicle and its equipment is essential. Spillages and contamination of products are serious and often due to sheer carelessness. What do you do with the sort of driver who pulls away from an installation without uncoupling pipes—not once but two or three times!". So serious is the driver recruitment problem that A. S. Jones do not engage drivers under 28. The cowboys who get lost or in trouble and then drive fast to make up time are no use to reputable operators.
Shop steward training
Many other facets of group training schemes could be discussed. Mr. Booth said that all existing groups in the North West could accept some new members. When a round dozen groups had got going it was planned to consolidate their activities and assess the results. I gather that the RTITB in common with several other training Boards is actively considering the question of shop steward training. In some areas shop stewards and managers change places in simulated role-playing exercises. Anything which impresses .understanding of the other's problems is to be welcomed. If all shop stewards fully appreciated the significance of national agreements and were competent to negotiate viable local agreements, the labour relations picture in the industry would be so much the brighter. Both sides can profit from courses on the crucial subject of communications. In general, as Mr. Booth commented, "the more the shop steward knows the lower the temperature".
Brian May, the Board's area training officer for the Wirral has a background in ports and is a technical college lecturer. He is thoroughly enjoying work in the road haulage field and is developing courses for traffic clerks and for the transport manager's licence. Not the least of the benefits of the training boards which are revitalizing so many sectors of British industry is the crossfertilization of experience which training officers from different industries bring to their present environment.
The RTITB publishes an admirable pamphlet on group training which sets out clearly the hows and whys and explains the financial background of GTAs. Interested firms should send for a copy post-haste, or at the very least express interest in group training next time the man from the training board calls.