Training Skilled Drivers
Page 73
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REFERRING TO the report in the March 18 issue of the meeting of the Association of Industrial Road Safety Officers, I note that the officers were disappointed in the lack of weight given to the training of drivers in the original plans for the Road Transport Training Board and were agreed that letters on the subject should be drafted to the Training Boards for their own industries.
My own particular interest in the training and supply of skilled commercial drivers leads me to endorse the statements and intended action of the Association.
I recently attended the Annual Convention of the Motor Schools Association, where Mr. Devey, of the Ministry, spoke on the subject of the RTTB but could give no definite information on the training arrangements. His only advice to the MSA was that it should write to Sir John Hunter (chairman of the RTTB) stating its case.
, The TRT A and the RHA also are most concerned that a satisfactory means of training and supply of proficient drivers should be established and that this should be administered under the same control. The MSA and the British School of Motoring have the means of training personnel, but must have the direction and financial support to develop facilities.
It is obvious, therefore that the disappointment felt by the AIRSO is shared by other interested bodies, and the results of my research convince me that all are striving for the same objective. If only some form of concerted representation could be made it may yet be possible for these essential training arrangements to be included in the scheme.
It does appear to me to be absolutely essential that a driver should be classified as a skilled operative, equal to those in other industries—such categories of workers as, say, machine operators and minders—who are amply covered by training facilities under the Industrial Training Act. Compared with these operators— in industries where conditions of employment, safety measures and so on are suitably covered—the commercial vehicle driver is left entirely to his own devices in handling a vehicle costing perhaps £5,000 to £10,000 in difficult and sometimes hazardous conditions.
There must, then, be standard and official methods of training to cover the various types of commercial vehicle, with ample instruction on rules and regulations and certain mechanical and maintenance requirements, in order to qualify drivers for the heavy goods vehicle test which should include oral, written and practical examinations.
B. A. THOMPSON, Transport Consultant, London EC2