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Forward thinki
Page 26
Page 27
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It is now a little more than 18 months before the Driver CPC begins to have an impact on the UK truck driving industry
— but as Alex Nelson, managing director of the RTITB, explains to Andy Salter, a lot of questions remain unanswered.
ou'd he a brave person to argue against the implementation of the new Driver CPC Directive — the forthcoming piece of legislation that will increase the training required both for new truck drivers and existing practitioners of the art.
The road transport industry has suffered for years through under-investment in training and skills and surely anything that raises the bar in this area is welcome, Well, yes — up to a point.
Alex Nelson is MD of RTITB, a company owned by registered charity Capitb Trust and formed out of the ashes of the old Road Transport Industry Training Board, and you won't find him playing down the value of training. The most successful companies continually invest in the training and skills of their people," he says, "and that should tell everyone about the power of training. If you don't continue to nourish the people in your business through training then the company will wither.
Impact on industry
While he has no problem with the concept of the Driver CPC, which will hit the bus and coach sector in September next year — trucks follow the year after— he does have concerns about the detail of the legislation and the impact it may have on the industry in the short to medium-term: concerns that many, including this correspondent, are beginning to share.
For instance, one of Nelson's major concerns is that the Driver CPC will lead to a driver shortage. "Currently we reckon there are approximately 51,000 new LG V and PSV drivers entering the industry each year,he says. "If we make the test more difficult, then logic tells us we're going to have more failures. Furthermore, through discussion with many drivers out in the field, particularly those over 50,1 estimate many, when faced with the prospect of a new training regime, will say 'this is no longer for me' and hang up their keys. How is this potential shortfall going to be filled? We can't keep importing drivers from Eastern Europe, because they will also have to meet the periodic training requirements.
"I'm concerned we [as an industry] are charging ahead with Driver CPC implementation without fully understanding the implications. Has anyone carried out research to assess how big a problem this might be? I've not seen any evidence of it.The Driver CPC should be bringing a clear business benefit to the industry and we have to ensure that is really the case."
As we've said, raising the professional standards of an industry is something you can't argue against. But if road transport is going to be competing with other industries for individuals with a higher skills set, then it will have to make truck driving a more attractive proposition.
The legislation raises the bar to entry, but lowers the minimum age for new entrants to 18, thus increasing the potential labour pool." Nelson continues. "Statistically, this age group shows the best pass rate for driving tests, but also exhibits the highest incidence of accidents.
"If additional training allows you to lower the minimum entry age, which appears to be the reasoning behind this legislation,then this needs to be explained to the insurance industry. We're going to be attracting new drivers to the industry who the insurance companies aren't interested in insuring, so they can't easily be employed."
Nelson's frustration with the potential pitfalls associated with the new legislation is palpable during our interview, and he raises issues with every area of the directive —presumably raising them elsewhere has generated few answers.
"As an organisation our role is to ensure the industry gets good training,he says. 'By putting the RTITB stamp on a training course we're saying this is a decent piece of training which will benefit your business'. We've already got over 100 hours of training accredited with JAUPT [the joint body formed between GoSkills, Skills for Logistics and the DSA to approve the organisations and training packages for the legislation]. And we've built a package that we can cascade down to other organisations that wish to work with us."
Plug and play The cost of accrediting an organisation and its training packages is not inconsiderable and for many companies the RTITB solution, which is effectively a `plug and play' training package, fully accredited and up to date to cover the Driver CPC. will be an attractive proposition.
"We're the only organisation I know that is offering this approval and support," Nelson says. "The training sector is going to be under immense operational pressure. If, say, there are 450,0(X) truck and bus drivers in the UK who, over a five-year period, all need one week's training, then the industry is going to consume 3.1 million hours of training a year. I'm not convinced we've got, or will have, enough instructors approved to carry out this training."
While the availability of training will be a big issue in its own right, the cost to an industry on its knees with high fuel prices will be equally massive.The consultation on training fees is still ongoing. but even at £25 an hour (an arbitrary amount for example only) this represents a cost to road transport of over £75m a year.
Nelson has similar concerns regarding the costs to new entrants. "From September 2009 the time taken for the new entrant test will approximately double," he says. "While this is unlikely to mean the training has to double, at the very least we'll need to provide an extra 20% of training, which will have an obvious impact on the cost of the training. In addition,a doubling of the testing time will impact on the availability of the testing resource. It's already difficult to get tests; without further investment this situation won't get any easier."
As ever with legislation, the devil is in the detail and our informative, lively session with Nelson raised just a few of the concerns associated with this new ruling. While 2009 might seem a long away off, and 2014, when the legislation really hits, even further away. companies should be putting their plans in place now to meet the requirements of the directive. Rest assured, this is a topic to which we'll be returning during 2008. •