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Roadtrain needs special skill
Page 28
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FURTHER TO Stan Robinson's latest mission to introduce roadtrains onto the national highway network (CM 15 September). It would appear the government is looking sympathetically at these proposals and the Driving Standards Agency is of a belief that no new licence would be required to drive these one of these larger vehicles (Sunday Times 11 September).
While it's one thing having roadtrains on the highway, confined to the motorway or not, it's an entirely different thing to allow anybody with a C+E licence to drive one.
The skill level required to manoeuvre one of these larger vehicles has been recognised by the Australian government (they run road trains all the time and must be the recognised experts in the field) as warranting a special HGV licence called Multi-Combination. It's a licence that cannot be obtained without at least a year's C+E experience.
Given the current skills shortages and the absence of a consistently skilled workforce who can drive artics at any sort of standard above the basic, you see the problem we might face.
I would hope that while there may be a role for roadtrains, the likelihood that a C+E is enough to handle this sort of vehicle is straight out of the realms of cloud cuckoo land.
Moreover, as we are already beginning to hear rumbles of discontent about the industry having to comply with the new training directive and the general lack of training of any sort, what hope is there that the industry will respond willingly to the higher level of training necessary or that the poor bloody driver will be able to afford it?
Or is the industry seriously contemplating a situation where a roadtrain can be driven by the sort of nugget who, as we read this week, didn't want to slow down as it "would take for ever to speed up again"?
Robert Roweth County HCV Route Manager Huntingdon, Cambs