TAKEN FOR A RIDE
Page 48
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• One novice HGV driver spent most of his time learning to drive an artic in a public car park. Another was taught by an 'instructor' who had only passed his own HGV test 24 hours earlier. And one man had to share his week-long course with three other learners.
Not surprisingly, all of them flunked their driving tests at the end of their expensive HGV course training. Unwittingly, they had all given their money and their trust to the training cowboys.
People outside the industry would probably be surprised to learn that there is no law to stop such training schools from operating, but the problem of unqualified instructors is an old chestnut in the road transport industry.
Since the 1970s there have been calls for training to be properly regulated and now pressure on the Government is mounting, inspired by the imminent reduction of the HGV limit to 3.5 tonnes. Industry experts are warning that the inevitable increased demand for HGV instruction could be a cowboy's charter.
In a bid to tackle the problem the Road Transport Industry Training Board has revamped its HGV instructor register to try and raise the public's awareness of the problem: most professional HGV instructors insist that a compulsory register of trainers is the only way to rid the industry of cowboys. The general view is that the RT1TB's voluntary register is not doing the job. Reputable HGV instructors say they would like to see the CV training system run along similar lines to that governing car drivers' training.
To set up a car driving school a wouldbe instructor must go through the Department of Transport's Approved Driving Instructor scheme.
This includes a tough entrance examination, followed up by regular DIp checks. It has recently been made illegal to teach learner car drivers unless you are at least 21 years old with more than three years' driving experience.
However, a decision was made not to extend these regulations to the PSV and HGV sectors, because, "the Government expects the industry to ensure that learner drivers are taught and supervised safely without the imposition of legislative burdens," says the DTp.
That reluctance to control HGV or PSV training is also reflected in the Government's refusal to consider a compulsory register of either schools or instructors. It says: "We do keep the situation under review, but the case put by outside bodies concentrates on consumer protection rather than road safety.
"We are very worried about adding to the legislative burden and there is no evidence of worsening road safety," it claims. "We do feel the transport industry is in a position to monitor the training industry, and we feel it is doing that quite well at the moment."
Most reputable training schools disagree, and many of the instructors contacted by Commercial Motor have slammed the present system as idiotic and potentially lethal.
"How can this be a safe training system