Driving for work comes under DSA 'safe driving for life' spotlight
Driving for work is one of the four post-driving test development areas being studied by the Driving Standards Agency as part of the organisation's ongoing 'safe driving for life' strategy review...
That work will culminate later this year in the publication of a consultation document, probably in the autumn, that will focus on a fundamental review of the current leaning to drive process.
The Government has already placed action to stem the death and injury toll among young drivers on its list of key issues within its road safety agenda. Speculation has focused on the possibility of raising the legal driving age from 17 to 18 years and putting curfews on young drivers because many crashes happen at night.
Road crashes are the single biggest killer of young people and every hour of every day a person under 25 is killed or seriously injured in a car crash. In the last four years, the death rate amongst young drivers has more than doubled, while the overall number of deaths and serious injuries has fallen.
Meanwhile, the House of Commons Transport Select Committee is presently conducting an inquiry into novice drivers and is expected to make a number of recommendations to reduce the crash rate involving new drivers (RoadSafe: spring 2007).
The second three-year review of the Government's road safety strategy 'Tomorrow's Roads - Safer for Everyone', which was published earlier this year, made a trio of future policy recommendations designed to cut the number of newly qualified drivers involved in crashes.
The review said: "We have concluded that the time has come to reform fundamentally the way people learn to drive. The system must ensure that learners can drive safely, not just master how to control a car. The system needs to be rebuilt on a modern template, consistent with vocational frameworks now being established across the education system and in industry.”
The review said that the three main elements must be:
- A new competency and knowledge framework setting out what a candidate must know and be able to do
- A modern training syllabus setting out what a candidate needs to learn
- A systematic assessment criteria setting out how the testing stage will establish that a candidate has covered the syllabus properly and can demonstrate the required level of competence.
The fundamental reform of learning to drive - young drivers are tomorrow's company car, van and truck drivers ' will form the focal point of the expected consultation document.
Additionally, the DSA is reviewing the measures in place for driving for work, older drivers, remedial drivers and advanced drivers.
The three-year review said 'much work has already started on strategies to create a culture change in the way employers engage with driving for work issues'. These include the Department for Transport's Driving for Better Business programme, which is managed by RoadSafe, and its van driver focused 'Driving for Work' campaign launched earlier this year (RoadSafe: spring 2007).
While those driving for work initiatives have already been launched there are no programmes currently in place focusing on the other three development areas.
It remains to be seen whether the post test driving development recommendations are included in the overall learning to drive consultation document or will be published in a separate document.