hope anyone who thinks this proposal is a good idea has a sympathetic bank manager.'
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6 n the face of strenuous opposition From
I the majority of training providers, the Driving Standards Agency announced a so-called alternative to the LGV/PCV driving test Block Booking arrangements that have served the industry well for over 25 years. But an alternative which doesn't give trainers the flexibility to move appointments without forfeiting fees, will increase costs for everyone, except the DSA, and would therefore be no alternative at all.
As part of its .propasals, the DSA says that it doesn't intend to put fees up for lorry and bus tests in 1995/96. It does expect to receive additional revenue from Premium Fees. This money is additional to that which they received from lorry and bus testing in 1994/95. This is a price increase! It is an increase the unemployed or those seeking to improve their job prospects will have to pay.
That's not the end of it. Under the Block Booking system, trainers had an assured programme of tests for up to 12 months in advance. They could plan their programmes by offering a variety of dates to potential trainees and then pay for those tests four weeks in advance of the appointment. Now trainers are being told they can only offer training dates up to 10 weeks in advance and that the cash they have to find to do that will more than double. I hope anyone who thinks this proposal is a good idea has a sympathetic bank manager. The only winner will be the Treasury, The DSA, when it mooted the idea of changing the Block Booking system, placed a great deal of store on freeing-up tests for private individuals, who they said were finding it difficult to obtain appointments.
Wrong. The DSA 1993/94 achievements against target state that the average waiting time for a lorry or bus test is one week against a target of four weeks. In April 1994, the DSA said that it wanted to introduce efficiency savings by ending Block Bookings and closing the public counters and that 2148,000 a year would be saved as a net result of these measures. The closing of the public counters was estimated to save almost £70,000. As part of the package, it intended to computerise LGV and PCV driving test bookings. We are now being told the additional costs associated with a trainer booking system for lorries, buses and motor bikes will amount to £373,000 a year and that a Premium fee of £5 per test will be necessary. The numbers don't seem to add up, do they?
Interestingly, few people will have realised the level of this Premium .ee will vary annually depending on the number of tests sold via the Trainer Booking System and what the DSA says it costs to administer the scheme. The DSA has set the proposed Premium fee expecting to sell 70,000 tests via this new scheme. If this is inaccurate, (you may wish to ask yourself at this stage how they ran up an £8.7m deficit if their forecasting was on the ball), the Premium lees could escalate to mammoth proportions. One thing that we can be sure of. The DSA, in its monopolistic role of supplier of driv;ng tests, won't have any competition. It will continue to charge us what it likes without having market forces as an arbiter of its service levels.
Do we really want this or should we now be talking about those who charge a Premium Fee providing a Premium Service?,
• if you want to sound off about a road transport issue write to features editor Patric Cunnane.