Teach them well
Page 15
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The importance of the proper training of HGV drivers was stressed by West Midland Licensing Authority Ronald Jackson when he dealt with a number of applications for professional HGV driving licences at a Birmingham public inquiry.
In granting 10 of the 11 applications Jackson said HGV drivers are professional drivers who are a cut above other drivers and they need professional instruction. It costs money but it was well worth it to be properly trained. Going out with friends or relatives who are HGV drivers is not always the best training and it could easily lead trainee drivers into bad habits. A professional driver should be professionally trained.
Drink correctness
Ten of the applicants had been called to the public inquiry because of drinking and driving convictions and the 11th, Mohamed Ashraf of Birmingham, was seeking his ninth provisional HGV licence. Ashraf was first granted a provisional licence in 1978. He has taken four HGV driving tests and failed them all.
In granting Ashraf s application Jackson said he had no power to refuse it but it seemed to him that Ashraf was pouring good money after bad. If he did not pass on the next occasion he thinks that he should call it a day and try something else.
William Braddock of Stokeon-Trent had declared a drinking and driving conviction at Leeds in February 1984 on his application form. However, said Jackson, he had been convicted of a similar offence at Stoke in November 1983.
Braddock said his father had suddenly died of a heart attack and he had gone off the rails. The two offences had actually taken place very close together.
Two-year wait
Refusing the application, Jackson said that if every time someone's father died they went out and got plastered twice it would it would be a sad and dangerous world for everyone. He was not prepared to grant a licence at this time, though he would be prepared to consider a further application after a period of at least two years. If he granted Braddock a licence now he would be letting down every HGV driver in this country.
Drink warning
Jackson granted the other nine applications with a warning that he did not expect professional drivers to commit offences such as drinking and driving and that it cut no ice with him to be told they had only been driving private cars.
The Licensing Authority warned that if any of the applicants had any further such convictions their licences would go and stay gone.