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PSV costs could rocket

21st February 1991
Page 8
Page 8, 21st February 1991 — PSV costs could rocket
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• The cost of PSV driver training could be forced up after 1 April when a new regulation will prevent anyone except driving instructors from being carried on a training vehicle being driven by a trainee.

The new rule is part of Driver Licensing for Lorries and Buses in the 1990s which is published by the DLVC, Swansea. It is part of an EC package of changes intended to bring the British licensing system into line with the Continent.

The cost of five day's PSV driver training could rise from £500 to £700 if training has to be carried out on a one-to-one basis, says Brian Evans of Skillplace, Port Talbot, which trains bus drivers throughout South Wales: "I am greatly worried about my business. If I have to put one instructor and one trainee on every vehicle my costs are going to skyrocket," he says.

In-house training will also be hit by the rule, says Graham Varley of Bristol Cityline: "It will make our driver training arrangements impracticable. Our present practice is for two to three trainee drivers to go out on a vehicle with an instructor. It is just not practical to increase the number of driving instructors or the number of vehicles involved. It will significantly increase our costs." Varley and Evans have both written to the DLVC expressing their concern over the change and pointing out that under EC regulations trainee drivers can be defined as spare drivers and not as passengers.

'If you consider the definition of a passenger in the EC regs as 'a traveller in a conveyance other than the driver' I would suggest that trainee drivers can be carried on a training vehicle because they fulfil the EC definition as drivers and therefore cannot be deemed to be passengers," says Evans.

According to Eddie Gibbons, head of Policy Drivers 2 at the DLVC, the controversial rule was not queried during the consultation period which led up to the publication of the new regulations. However, his department is willing to consider the definitions suggested by Evans.

"We have taken on board the views which have been put to us," says Gibbons. "We can certainly see the strength of the argument and we are looking to see if something can be done under the rules as they stand. This should be a fairly simple amendment. We will do everthing we can to see that training organisations are not inconvenienced."


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