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Price hike will cut exam entrants
Page 16
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A HUGE HIKE in ADR exam costs could encourage operators to ignore training requirements for carrying dangerous goods, a training consultant warns.
Ken Wannell, who runs Safety Solutions (Somerset), believes many operators are already flaunting the ADR regulations because they are not enforced properly.
His warning comes as City & Guilds, the sole provider of ADR exams, increased the fee from £5.50 to £9.The rise was postponed for a month to the beginning of November following protests from training providers.
Wannell says drivers need to take at least three ADR exams to qualify for an ADR certificate and some take as many as 12— a total of 1108 in test fees.
"All these things push costs up and cost pressures in transport are enormous," he adds."If a company is under pressure money-wise, one of the first things to go is training."
Wannell points out that training for ADR exams costs a minimum of £200 per driver.
However, Derek Carnegie, transport manager of DM Carnegie in Aberdeenshire, says it could not haul fertilisers or other hazardous goods unless its drivers were properly qualified for the work.
'At a lot of places we go to, the drivers have to show their ADR certificate or they don't get loaded," he explains.
Kirsty Finch, City & Guilds product manager in charge of ADR exams, says the price rise is needed simply to break even: "For many years it has been running at a loss and was subsidised by the rest of our income."
She adds that a big increase in the number of drivers taking ADR exams is anticipated because van drivers carrying dangerous goods will be required to have ADR certificates from January 2007.