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148 
SAY YES, MINISTER
Page 5
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• It is now three months since Commercial Motor wrote to Transport Secretary Cecil Parkinson with irrefutable evidence that the majority of Britain's transport training schools want provisional HGV Class 1 drivers to be taught and tested on laden vehicles. Given recent changes at the top of the DTp we had honestly hoped that there would be some flexibility on this issue, not least because 83% of all prominent RTITB-approved HGV training schools want it. Some hope. It seems that the logic of the DTp, and in particular of Transport Minister Robert Atkins, remains as obtuse as ever.
After accepting that the handling characteristics of a laden HGV "can be different from those of an unladen one" (can be!), and that "I have heard it said that some hauliers are reluctant to employ newly-qualified drivers because of their lack of experience in driving laden HGVs" (for "reluctant", read "categorically opposed"), Atkins says that "insisting on a laden vehicle (for a test) would create practical difficulties".
According to Atkins: "There would need to be verification that the load met a minimum weight and that it was secure and safe. That in itself would be time-consuming, would entail extra cost and the load would have to be suitable to withstand the requirements of the test which includes a braking exercise." He continues: "This would create difficulties for particular hauliers, bearing in mind the wide diversity of loads. The Department could not accept responsibility for 'goods' carried and therefore it is likely that, in some cases, there would be extra insurance costs for the applicant or his employer."
For once and for all, enough of this nonsense! The solution to laden training is simple. Put someone from the British Standards Institution in a room with the RHA, PTA, RTITB, DTp HGV examiners and the UK trailer makers to come up with an agreed standard test trailer, with properly fixed weights, which can be used by the HGV training schools for training and testing. Then make it the law that all provisional Class 1 drivers should receive tuition on a laden vehicle and that they should be tested with that standard trailer. If a large haulier wants to train its provisional HGV Class 1 drivers on its own laden vehicle, that's fine — just as long as that driver turns up at the test centre on the big day with a BSI-approved test trailer.
Better yet, why not have a standard test trailer at each test station for provisional drivers to use, maybe even for a small fee? Using a teststation-supplied trailer would answer any doubts an examiner might have over suitability. Then testers could also see whether a provisional licence holder really could couple and uncouple a trailer safely. '
Even Atkins sees that our suggestion could work: "The problems might be overcome for training vehicles in the way you suggest, ie by devising a British Standard," he says. But he still sees enough of those "difficulties" to add that "there are sound reasons to continue to require unladen vehicles for driving test purposes". The good news is that Atkins "will look at this matter again alongside the other responses to our consultation document".
Please Minister, say yes.