At the double
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IT MAY seem odd that the F Ld Transport Industry Training Board should have chosen the Midlands for a concentrated campaign to recruit more operators into the register.:d young heavy-goods-vehicle drivers' scheme, because that is where the delay in taking the basic driving test is longest. Candidates in Birmingham are waiting up to 46 weeks for the test, compared with the national average delay of 27 weeks.
The solution of the problem is the double L. Young drivers can hold two provisional licences, one for cars and the other for heavy goods vehicles, and take both tests together after three months of goods-vehicle driving. There is no queue for the goods-vehicle driving test.
Mike Leeds, of the RTITB, tells me that the Board has asked about 160 companies in the Birmingham area to register
under the young hgv drivers scheme and hopes to recrui• perhaps 60 of them by the enc of the year. It is a movement thaevery operator with suitablE facilities should support.