DRIVING STANDARDS BODY EXISTS • Mr Douglas and other likeminded
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readers (CM July 19) may be surprised to learn that there is now an organisation whose avowed aim is to improve driving standards and, what is more, has firm ideas on how this can be achieved. It is also unafraid to criticise those who do not meet the required standard. The organisation is the newlyformed Confederation of Road Transport Operators (CORTO).
The intention is that CORTO's services will be so valuable to operators that they cannot afford not to be members of the organisation.
The next step will be to persuade members to sign and operate to a Code of Conduct which will include a requirement that the CORTO badge will be prominently displayed on all of their vehicles.
Encouragement to sign the code will be by way of special extra services which will not be available to those members who do not sign. Once the code is operative, those attaining the highest standards of driving will be rewarded by the offer of valuable prizes at the end of the year, while those who have been found wanting will be encouraged to improve, If necessary, they will be reprimanded to bring them into line or even, in bad cases, it could lead to the operator himself being denied membership of CORTO and the benefits that membership brings. By this means there is encouragement to drivers to maintain a high standard and an incentive to operators to ensure that their drivers keep to those standards. It should also lead to all concerned taking great pride in the privilege of being able to display the CORTO badge which, in turn, by making them something special, should lead to more favourable reaction from customers.
Of course, being only four months old, CORTO is not in a position to introduce this scheme immediately. But it will come. Benefits are already substantial, even in this short time, and CORTO is obviously living up to its aim of providing extensive benefits at low cost — just over 21 per week for an owner driver.
Sponsorship would, however, enable the scheme to be introduced earlier: and if anyone out there has any ideas on this, I would be delighted to hear from them. I would also welcome further comments on the scheme which in my view is in the interest of everyone who gets behind the wheel, particularly those who drive for a living. Albert Simpson, MInstTA, Confederation of Road Transport Operators Ltd Heage, Derbyshire.