DOT launches consultation on HGV training regulation • Regulation of
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HGV driver training through the creation of a statutory register of instructors has come a step closer with the launch of a Department of Transport consultation process with the road transport industry.
At the Driving Standards Agency conference Safe Driving for Life, Roads Minister Baroness Hayman said it was not right that training for lorry drivers remained unregulated, unlike that of car dri vers and motorcyclists.
Hayman is also keen to introduce a legal requirement that learner lorry drivers should "only be accompanied by those satisfying a minimum experience requirement in driving such vehicles".
She wants to stop the present practice of a dri ver being able to pass his test one day and supervise a learnerdriver the next.
Instead, Hayman proposes that a "minimum three-year licence requirement should be imposed" in such cases. The DOT will consult the DSA on this issue in the autumn.
The DOT will also consult on its plan to expand the HGV theory test to 35 questions, with more emphasis on loaded and unloaded vehicles.