Probing Questions on the Transport Training Board
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T° a questioner who doubted whether the much canvassed figure of £25 to cover training of one employee per year would be adequate in the road haulage industry, Mr. M. J. J. Rolt, deputy technical adviser on training, Ministry of Labour. suggested that this sum might not be so inadequate as it appeared. It should be remembered, he said, that this sum, or whatever figure was finally determined, would be spread over the working life of an employee. So perhaps as much as £1.000 would be spent on training over a period of years; the money collected by the levy on employers would be spent on a minority of employees at any one time.
Mr. Rolt was speaking at a forum arranged by IRTE in London as reported last week.
Regional System Asked how the Board would be organized, Mr. Rolt said it would cover the whole country and if it wished it could set up regional offices. The engineering industry training board was setting up a regional organization in eight regions, with a senior training officer in each; the constructional industry was thinking on the same lines.
Would the training board help in the professional training of students? Mr. Rolt said that one of the boards now established was considering giving awards to students on completion of their training.
Was there not a risk of protracted litigation on the interpretation of clauses in the Act, some of which were ambiguous, with compulsory and optional features?
Mr. Rolt did not think this very likely, because of the care taken by the Ministry in selecting Board members in the first place. Prominent leaders on both sides of the industry would be sought. A great deal of "shopping around" to find people of the right personal qualities who would make decisions acceptable to the industry was to be expected. Hence anyone wishing to contest particular features of the Act would tend to find himself at loggerheads with the leaders of his own industry.
Vehicle Problem One questioner suggested that professional hauliers could not afford to use expensive licensed vehicles for training. Mr. Bolt said this was a difficult problem but he believed the road haulage industry could perhaps learn from other industries, such as aviation. The airlines employed simulators to economize in the cost of training air pilots; he thought it not impossible to save a lot of expense in driver training by the use of simulators.
In reply to another query, Mr. Rolt said that C-licensed operators would be covered by some industrial training board; the larger operators, with big driving and engineering establishments, could participate in the best training facilities available.