Wean motet
Page 65

If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Please raise a voice of protest in CM against the DTp's proposal to increase the hgv driving test fee from £24 to £33.50. It is only two years since the iniquitous rise from £8 to £24 was imposed with the same excuse that the test system should be self-supporting.
Its aim of relieving the taxpayer of the cost of the test is laudable, but surely misguided. Does anyone expect that the costs of the traffic examiners should be met from the fines imposed?
Surely the principal objective of the hgv test was to improve the standard of lorry driving with road safety in mind.
It is said we have the first lorry driver testing service in Europe and I do not doubt it. Certainly our lorry drivers have reached the enviable state of having less accidents per mile run than any other group of road users in the UK.
Surely the accident cost reduction achieved here can be set against the national road safety costs and not the individual testee's pocket.
Could it be that the DTp imagines all trainees can claim their test fees from their employers? Hardly so, I think. We have trained some 4,500 drivers in the last five years and in 1975 55 per cent of all tests through our school were privately paid for. In 1976 60 per cent of the people we trained also paid their own fees.
Only the DTp has the national figures, but I am sure a little research will prove that a very high proportion of testees are paying their own fees. These are the people who will feel the proposed rise most.
Such people cannot even claim against the revenue for tax relief, and if they have committed the grievous sin of trying to help themselves, by paying for a private course of training while unemployed, our grateful Government also stops their benefit payments.
If cost rises must be met, how about some further managment and productivity action? The test lasts less than two hours in practice, and hardly justifies £16 plus per hour with the testee providing the vehicle.
Without much alteration