Road hauliers combine to start driver training programme

25 Aug 2000 - By Staff reporter

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A CONSTANTLY growing demand for qualified drivers - able to competently handle the technologically-advanced vehicles and equipment of today - keeps driver training at the forefront of transport industry thinking.
Determined to meet this need, the Road Freight Association (RFA) and
the Road Transport Industry and Educational Board - in conjunction with the Department of Labour - introduced a driver training programme three years ago.
The primary aim is to equip the unemployed with marketable skills - and the integral elements of the programme are: road safety, efficiency, and the ability to operate the technology embodied in new vehicles.
The 53-day programme, funded by the Department of Labour, is presented by service providers such as the Professional Driver Academy (PDA).
Playing a role as a facilitator of resources, the PDA forms alliances with experts in the various sectors of the transport industry - such as one recently formed with Maxiprest, a specialist in the provision of tyre management solutions.
The company now presents the tyre management curriculum.
And, said Maxiprest's Roy MacFarlane, this is both a safety, and cost-saving exercise. With tyres rated as the second-highest variable operational cost next to fuel, he told FTW, securing a professional driver approach towards tyre operations ensures improved management of tyre costs.
This element is only one in a whole series of training areas - designed to ensure overall driver competence in the safe and efficient handling of a modern-day commercial vehicle, according to Max Boulogne, curriculum consultant to the PDA.
Professional drivers need professional skills, he told FTW, and technologically-advanced vehicles need drivers who understand the technology, and are able to utilise it.
To do so it is necessary for industry leaders - as demonstrated by Maxiprest - to assist in the development of drivers.