LEARNING CURB
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• The No Learners — HGVs Excepted" signs at the start of motorways have not yet been changed, but learner truck drivers have actually been barred from motorways since last April. The reason: a bizarre quirk in the wording of a law.
As Commercial Motor revealed last week, this probably means that hundreds of training schools and their pupils have technically been breaking the law for 12 months. Although motorway driving is not part of the test syllabus for trucks, trainee truck drivers are frequently put through their paces on busy motorways.
The Driving Standards Agency, which sets driving test rules, is keen for this practice to continue. It put out a consultation paper in February which recommends all LGV learners having day and night-time driving experience on motorways. The Department of Transport admits that the ban is an unintended result of last April's amendments to the Road Traffic Act which introduced new categories of driving licence, and changed the HGV and PSV licences to LGV and PCV.
The gaffe came to light only a few weeks ago — via the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency — and the DTp says it is "looking into it", A spokeswoman says she expects the mistake to be corrected soon, but "cannot commit a future government to something in an election period". She will not confirm whether signs at the start of motorways will be changed.
Despite its proposals, the DSA says it has been aware of the mistake since last year, and told examiners in December that learner truck drivers were now barred from the motorway network.
Few training establishments, however, seem to have picked up this fact. Five driving schools Commercial Motor spoke to last week had not been told. Two, Al in Biggleswade, Beds and
Commercial Transport Training in Leighton Buzzard, had heard informally from local examiners. But no official notice had been sent.
The Road Transport Industry Training Board, which has 80 accredited driving schools and group training associations on its books, says that it is aware of the anomaly, and is advising its members to "obey the law".
It admits that because of the time it has taken to get clarification it has only just begun to inform members: "1 must stress that we are not an enforcement body like the Vehicle Inspectorate," says marketing manager Andrew James. "Individual firms do have to be responsible for their own actions."
Following changes to the Road Traffic Act 1988, licensing now comes under part three rather than part four of the act — and all licences issued under part three ban [earners from motorways under section 11 of the Motorways Traffic (England and Wales) Regulations 1982.
Both the Freight Transport Association and Scotland Yard also claim to have spotted the mix-up. The Freight Transport Association is highlighting the anomaly in its April edition of its in-house journal Freight.
Don Webster, who monitors new transport legislation for the Metropolitan Police, says he found the anomaly 'tucked away in the sidelines" a few week ago and informed the DV LA. He now plans to inform the Association of Chief Police Officers.
The question which must worry many is whether police will prosecute, and magistrates will convict, firms which now take trainees on motorways, whether inadvertently or not. Ignorance of a law is never a defence.
Webster says he is not aware of any police forces taking action, and senior traffic officers at Kent said they were not yet aware that LGV learners were banned from motorways.
The RTITB's Andrew James, however, says he has heard "hearsay" that some police forces have been cautioning instructors they have spotted with LGV trainees on the motorway and telling them to leave by the next exit.
The Freight Transport Association is recommending to its members that they should not break the law, but it hopes "the police will show discretion given the circumstances". It adds: "We never say turn a Wind eye to the law, but given that this seems to be unintentional, we hope that this is the exception that proves the rule."
The Road Haulage Association is furious that the anomaly has not been discovered until now. It insists that police and courts should recognise the ban as a drafting blunder and urges the DTp to correct the mistake as soon as possible. "If the police were to prosecute under this legislation, it would make an ass of the law," it says.
Nick Smith, owner of the West Thun-ock-based Roadtrain driving school, is worried that while police and
magistrates might be prepared to overlook the anomaly, it might provide insurance firms with an escape route when settling after an accident.
"Imagine Joe Bloggs haulier, who hasn't heard about this, taking his 2I-year-old son on his first HGV driving lesson on the motorway," says Smith. "He has a bad shunt and is sued. Although you might not be prosecuted by police, or you might get an absolute discharge in court, your insurer might not pay up. It could mean a company going out of business."
The law is causing confusion among other driving schools. Andrea Landborough, partner in Crewe-based TKL, says local examiners occasionally take trainees on motorways and she has heard nothing of the ban. "We're an RTITB-listed school," she says. "You'd have thought they, or someone else, would have told us."
Steve Farley, owner of Haslemere, Surrey-based SPF says he takes trainees on the M27 to the test centre near Southampton and has not received notification that the law has changed. But he says that he will stop. "Training schools are always the last to know about these things," he says.
by Murdo Morrison