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TRAINING: ON THE ROAD TO RUIN

26th February 2004
Page 10
Page 10, 26th February 2004 — TRAINING: ON THE ROAD TO RUIN
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Do you think Brussels is the root of all that is evil and profit-eating in the world of road transport? And do you ask when the rules and regulations coming out of the European Commission are going to stop?

Of course, the EC has (some) good points. It's just they don't often seem to apply to the road transport industry; all we ever seem to get is more legislation, which costs us even more money. So no change there, then, when the EC decides to introduce its driver training directive in 2006.

It won't come into force until 2009, but when it does we will be faced with training learner drivers for much longer periods of time, and ensuring all drivers have at least one weeks' training every five years (see page 50).

It's not as if all the training will be useful plenty of people are questioning exactly why drivers need to know about rail freight in detail. Will it help them do their jobs better? No. So is training them about it a waste of time? Almost certainly, yes.

If European Commission mandarins had to run a business they'd realise that with one stroke of their solid silver fountain pens they can put entire companies out of business by demanding expensive, irrelevant and ill-thought-out training. If this directive becomes law as it stands, the only letters EC will stand for in UK transport arc Economic Crisis....

• Speaking of financial penalties, what's going on with the price of diesel? The dollar is at an all-time low against almost every currency in the world, yet diesel and oil price don't budge. Yes, we know 74.9% of the cost of fuel is duty -that's 47p/lit but is it too much to ask for those, albeit small, savings to be passed on to the punter. When the boot's on the other foot prices are quick enough to rise...

• We still have some spaces left for the FREE legal advice at the CV Show in March. We'll begin to advertise the Legal Clinic in earnest next week and expect the spaces to fill fast. To take advantage of this fantastic offer book your slot on 020 8652 3337.

Tags

Organisations: European Commission
Locations: Brussels

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