Training of unemployed drivers
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• Following discussions between the RTITB and the Department of Employment, agreement has been reached on the level of assistance the Department will provide towards the Board's experimental scheme for training unemployed men as hgv drivers. The Department will refund to the RTITB an amount equal to the training allowance which will be payable under the Government training scheme for a trainee under similar circumstances.
Payment of allowances to the trainees will be made by the Board through the agency of the GTAs—or the Motecs if the training takes place there. The RTITB will then claim back the amount expended from the Department of Employment.
The effect of this new arrangement is that the Government will be making a fairly substantial contribution towards the training of hgv drivers for the industry. Not only will it provide the allowances for the trainee during training but it will continue to make a contribution towards the running costs of the GTA—and of the Motecs—which are met by the RTITB under normal circumstances. Thus, the road haulage industry will be receiving an injection of skilled manpower at a relatively low cost.
Manchester tops 500
• Of the 116 RTITB groups now existing in the country, Manchester Transport Training Group. with a membership of 52 companies, is the first to reach the 500 mark in the number of trainees passing the driving course. This milestone was reached last week when Mr David Smith. a Scot living in Failsworth, near Manchester, successfully completed his course. obtained his hgv licence and took up employment with one of the group's seven founder members. H. Currie Ltd. hauliers of A rdwick.
To mark the occasion both Mr Smith and the group training officer. Mr Jack Wood. were presented with suitably inscribed leather bound book maps by the director-general of the RTITB, Mr Eric Tindall. who congratulated the group on its fine achievement. Also present at a special luncheon was Mr H. Bradley. of Salford. who is the country's first unemployed man to be selected for training as an hgv driver under the recently announced plan from the DoE. He will begin a two week course with several other selected unemployed from the Manchester area on August 16 and is guaranteed work in haulage when he successfully completes it.
The group has. in fact. already been inundated with calls from unemployed men in their 30s and 40s anxious to take up a new career in the haulage industry, but the scheme is being handled entirely through the employment exchanges who guarantee both married and single men a wage during the training period plus expenses and also meeting the cost of the course thus not being an expense on the Board levy.
In addition to the 500 trainees, the group has also successfully completed 100 senior management courses in transport and carried out 200 MoT tests—a remarkable record considering that it was only founded on May 5, 1969. Mr Wood believes that by this time next year the group will have passed the 1000th trainee mark. Nearest rivals are Hull where, it is understood. some 447 trainees have successfully completed driving courses.