"Passenger Transport in Disfavour"
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General Manager Relates Current Outlook to Training and Opportunity
.i.ERE is no doubt that passenger 1 transport as a career has fallen into disfavour in recent years. The declining use made of public transport, the struggle to make ends meet experienced by certain sections of it, and the difficulties in obtaining operating staff all tend to make it less popular than some of the more prosperous and glamorous industries, and to have an effect upon both the quality and quantity of the entrants." This was
• said by Mr. W. M. Hall, general manager at Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport, in his paper entitled Training and Opportunity in the Road Passenger Transport Industry," which he presented on Wednesday at the annual conference of the Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association.
Mr. Hall considered that the road passenger transport industry as a whole, with the possible exception of the London Transport Executive, had fallen behind industry generally, both in the advertising of its opportunities as a career and in its approach to potential candidates.
"How often," he said, "does one see advertisements, either in poster form or in the national Press, calling attention to the careers which passenger transport has to offer? "• He suggested that it was very seldom, if at all.
Many of the large industrial concerns, said Mr. Hall, set great store by advertising the careers which were open to entrants to their organization, and also by their approach to students at public schools, technical colleges and the universities, either through the various appointments boards or by visits of representatives to these educational establishments. Many promising students were earmarked and "signed on in their second year at university at quite attractive salaries.
Apprentices So far as apprentices and junior staffs generally were concerned, the transport industry was as good as any other in providing facilities for attendance at approved courses of study, and this applied also to the practice of giving financial assistance, and, in some cases, financial rewards for examination successes. But he thought that there would be some merit in extending these facilities to employees other than apprentices and juniors, to a limited degree, on the lines now being done by some local authorities.
With regard to local training generally, Mr. Hall said that "some central body covering the whole of the road passenger transport industry might be set up on much the same lines as the Local Government Examination Board, to deal with training schemes and standards of train. lug, it being envisaged that this body would be representative of all sections of the industry and the appropriate trade B30 unions, and would co-opt the services of prominent educationalists, as well as men of experience from other branches of industry."
Consideration might also be given, Mr. Hall said, to the establishment of a training college for the whole of the road passenger transport industry on the lines of some of the colleges now provided by the nationalized industries, although he realized that there would be financial obstacles in the way of this, which would 'have to be overcome.
Non-Europeans Quoting from a report which dealt with the training of non-Europeans as drivers for a large bus company in South Africa, Mr. Hall said that as a result of extensive tests carried out over a considerable period it was found that the well-tried methods of interview, and examination of previous job trends, were not efficient in the long run. Men selected for driver training were not only selected for intelligence and skill, but were also subjected to tests which gave indications of the candidate's stability, maturity, selfassgrance, even-temperedness, carefulness, reliability, moderation, patience, tolerance and civic-mindedness.
Experience showed, he said, that, contrary to popular belief, accidents were largely a matter of driving experience and skill. In fact, when men were selected purely on their intelligence and driving skill, although the training results were good, no impression was made on accident results.
The results proved that the skilful driver was not necessarily the safe driver, but that the safe driver was rather the one who had the right attitude to life and to other people. It was necessary not only to test for intelligence and basic driving skills, but to test for personality also.
"It is significant," said Mr. Hall, " that this report claims that training failures were reduced in the driving school from 60 per cent. to seven per cent. and that the wastage of staff was reduced by 40 per cent., where men selected for driving were subjected to these personality tests as well as the intelligence and skill tests. It is claimed also that the accident rate was reduced from 2.0 to 1.4 per 19,000 miles over the period of five years whilst the tests were in course."
Mr. Hall then went on to say that in his opinion the craft or trade apprenticeships in force today should be reviewed with the object of making them less rigid and giving them a wider scope. The introduction of some form of group apprenticeship scheme in which several adjacent transport undertakings would participate would be of advantage and would benefit smaller undertakings who could, not provide such extensive facilities for training as the larger ones.
An extension of the engineering student apprenticeship training schemes would be desirable, he thought, and could provide practical engineering training for boys who had slightly higher educational standards than those required for the ordinary trade apprenticeships. This would particularly apply to grammar school and technical school boys who were largely lost in the, road passenger transport industry under present arrangements.
'Regarding traffic student apprenticeship schemes," said Mr. Hall, " there is no doubt that those operated by the B.E.T. and the nationalized groups are admirable. They have all the advantages of the large industrial organization schemes with opportunity to 'advance, in fact, almost a reasonable guarantee of a relatively senior post at the end of the training.
"The Municipal Transport Executive Training Scheme, although very much in its infancy, represents a new departure, which is to be encouraged. It does suffer, however, from two obvious defects in that trainees are expected to transfer from one undertaking to another, which may be some considerable distance away, entirely at their own expense. Moreover, there can be no guarantee of a suitable appointment immediately on completion of training, due to the number of separate local authorities who may be involved in the scheme. Both these factors must inevitably limit applications for places in the Municipal Scheme and some thought must be given to methods of overcoming these difficulties."
Personnel Exchange Apart from the recognized training schemes, Mr. Hall felt that much could be done by exchange of personnel between undertakings for a limited period of training. Often a young man was unable to gain practical experience in another branch of his own undertaking for various reasons, but could be accommodated in another organization somewhere nearby.
Mr. Hall went on to consider the purposes of all the various training schemes. He said that they should provide equal opportunity to existing members of the staff to participate, as well as outsiders, provided, of course, they reached the standards laid down, because it was only by this means that the scheme woiild have the full backing of everyone concerned.
In conclusion, he said that it was evident that road passenger transport offered opportunities for the young man starting out on his career, and the training schemes which are available, whilst perhaps not so comprehensive in extent, stood comparison with many of those in other industries.