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Janus comments
Page 134
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Showing the way out
WHAT happens to people after they have been trained is clearly not the responsibility of the Road Transport Industry Training Board. The report on the Board's first full year names two principal objectives which have so far been pursued: to establish a training organization and to convince employers in the industry of the value and the profitability of proper training.
Once this basis has been established the Board will no doubt be able to proceed more confidently with the practical task of providing facilities and encouraging employers who wish to provide their own. Due regard will be had to the needs created by legislation such as the scheme for vehicle plating and testing, the introduction of the transport manager's licence and the reintroduction of the heavy goods vehicle driving licence.
At first glance the progress made by the Board and the new demands imposed by the law seem to be marching hand in hand. In any circumstances it would be difficult to argue against the advantages of training and. education: and if the Board had not been brought into being by the Government the industry would have found it necessary to set up a similar organization itself.
Training will produce people with the right qualifications. But there is no guarantee that they will use those qualifications where they are most needed. The braindrain of scientists and doctors shows that when it comes to the point it is the remuneration and the conditions offered which chiefly determine the ends to which people put their skills and experience.
Possible comparison
An appendix to the Board's report shows the number of "establishments" registered in various branches of the industry and the total number of employees covered by the levy. Some comparison is possible with the number of people actually employed in each category and with the far greater number of people outside the Board's jurisdiction who may ultimately be affected to a greater or less degree.
In passenger transport the Board covers about 200.000 people as compared with about 265,000 in the whole industry. On the goods transport side (including warehousing and furniture removal) there are 192,000 employees shown in the Board's schedule from 24.500 establishments. Ministry of Transport statistics give over 40,000 hauliers operating under Aor B-licences and the Ministry of Labour figure for insured workers in the industry approaches 250,000. Beyond this inner circle are over lm vehicles on C-licence and the 10m or so private cars.
Another group distinguished by the Board is engaged in motor vehicle repair, distribution and sales garages, filling stations and factoring. There are 29,159 establishments and 360,000 employees. At June 1967, according to the Ministry of Labour, there were 427,600 people employed by motor repairers, distributors and garages.
Motoring schools, driving schools and local government transport make up the remainder of the Board's empire, bringing the total number of employees to 842,938.
There is sufficient-scope here for all the Board's energies apart from the possibility of a substantial influx of new clients from the field of C-licence holders when the Transport Bill comes into force and there is no longer a legal distinction between carriage for hire or reward and on ownaccount.
For the time being the Board will find growing support for its work. The shortage of trained personnel is increasingly being felt in road transport. Plating and testing is bringing the matter to a head. No sensible operator will waste time and money in submitting a vehicle to the testing station unless he is confident that it will pass.
This means grooming the vehicle with special care. All the points that may be examined at the station must be checked in advance by a man sufficiently experienced to know what he is looking for. The same kind of skill should remain available throughout the test.
The Ministry of Transport guide leaves no doubt about what is desirable. "If possible," it says. -send as driver someone with mechanical knowledge and tools or alternatively a mechanic or fitter with the driver." In this way, the guide points out, it may be possible to put minor faults right during the test itself or to make further adjustments in time for a re-test to be taken on the same day.
Increased demand
Operators with fairly large fleets are taking this advice seriously enough to arrange for a fitter to do nothing else but escort vehicles through the testing station. When this kind of precaution is thought necessary the likelihood of a greatly increased demand for fitters and mechanics is obvious. The present shortage may have been aggravated by the syphoning off of skilled men by the Ministry to staff the testing stations.
In this situation the more quickly the Board can get into its stride the better it will be. But already a problem arises which has nothing to do with the Board. Even with an accelerated training programme the shortage of fitters will still be acute. Does the plating and testing scheme ensure that they are being used to the best advantage?
The force behind the scheme is the need to improve road safety and the existence of a number of gravely defective vehicles revealed by roadside tests. It has been said more than once that the offending operators are a small minority or even a lunatic fringe. If there are to be any priorities in the advance towards better standards the first should be the elimination of those operators.
Borderline cases
Clearly a much less rigorous test than that laid down by the Ministry would be sufficient for this purpose and would fulfil it more quickly since it should be possible to increase the rate at which vehicles pass through the stations. There is also the likelihood that the operator whose vehicles may be described as borderline cases will have more opportunity to improve his own performance.
There is a danger of a situation developing in which the good operator whose vehicles are maintained at above the 'average standard will still think it advisable to take on more maintenance staff as an insurance against failure at the testing station and will thus diminish the chance .that the less efficient operator will be able to find anybody at all to look after vehicles which are so much more in need of attention. In this event the testing scheme will be having just the opposite effect to what is intended.
There may be an even more disturbing result. The shortage of fitters and mechanics in the road haulage industry is not unconnected with the fairly arduous work involved and the considerable responsibility they are called upon to bear. The need to get a miscellaneous fleet of vehicles through a stern test once a year may tip the balance for many skilled men and influence them to move to some other branch of transport. There is no lack of work on the repair and maintenance of private cars.
Other skilled personnel are equally in danger of disappearing. As they have so far been explained the plans for the transport manager's licence appear to impose obligations on the holder and expose him to legal penalties with no corresponding gain except the empty one of a title which is apparently heartily disliked by many of the people to whom it will be attached. The trained and experienced manager may be tempted to take his skills elsewhere.
Operators are entitled to complain that Government policy is exposing them to this kind of risk. They have grumbled at the amount of the Board's levy and particularly at the failure to discriminate between workers requiring a good deal of training such as mechanics and the majority of their own workers, drivers who acquire most of their skill on the roads in the course of their ordinary duty_ lithe Government insists that the general level of ability in the industry should be raised—and who could object to this as a principle?—it has some obligation to tone down measures which discourage people of the right calibre from entering the industry and drive out many of those who are already there. Training will not help the industry if it merely shows the way out.