RoSPA Young Drivers at Work Report

Chapter 5
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Refresher training, including both the Highway Code
and practical driving skills:
“They [young drivers] learn to drive competently for
the driving test, they are taught well, and then
they immediately forget everything they’ve
learned. They themselves admit that the training
they’ve had with us reminds them of things
they’ve forgotten and builds on the skills they’ve
gained in the few years they’ve been driving, to
make a better driver. ”
(Transport Administrator for a voluntary
organisation, telephone interviewee)
“Renewal of being able to check a vehicle for road
worthiness. It’s frightening how many of them
have never lifted the bonnet since they did it for
their own driving test. ”
(Transport Administrator, telephone interviewee)
Driver responsibility: raising awareness of the potential
consequences of bad driving and the responsibilities of
driving. For instance, the consequences of speeding as
opposed to only learning about the relevant legislation.
The responsibilities of drivers for their passengers, as
well as for all other road users:
“What I would need; I would need some degree
of maturity because we’re talking about driving
a commercial vehicle that’s logo’d. They need to
be aware of the impact they may have with
regard to other road users, pedestrians and the
general public. ”
(Training Officer, telephone interviewee)
One additional skill respondents reported as desirable, and
which had not been previously mentioned, was awareness
and understanding of in-vehicle technology and safety
features, for example anti-lock braking systems (ABS).
Non-driving skills
Respondents were also asked what other skills, in addition
to driving skills, they would find useful in a driving
qualification. This was an open question although
respondents were offered manual handling and customer
service as prompts. 255 respondents made suggestions, as
shown in Chart 8 in next column.
Chart 8: The non-driving skills which would be useful in a
qualification or training programme (N = 407).
Courtesy to other road users
Accident or
breakdown procedures
First aid
Journey planning
Manual handling
Loading a vehicle
Vehicle checks
Customer services
Anger management
None
0 20 40 60 80 100
Number of responses
85 out of 255 respondents (33%) suggested manual
handling. One respondent qualified the answer by noting
that many staff had had handling and loading training but
forgotten it, and another highlighted that employees who
use vans will almost always encounter situations where
manual handling skills would be required. Respondents also
raised the issue of training being too generic and not
meeting their specific requirements:
“All these topics are done in-house to our own
desired and exacting standards and would
still be done irrespective of any vocational
training/testing. ”
(Questionnaire respondent)
“None. It would vary too much company to
company. I want customer service done my way! ”
(Questionnaire respondent, original emphasis)
“We prefer to provide this training in-house because
we can tailor it better to our individual needs. ”
(Questionnaire respondent)
This issue of duplication was also raised in the telephone
interviews. For example, manual handling was reported as
a necessary skill but one for which the majority of
organisations already supplied training:
“We would need focused training so there wasn’t
anything that was superfluous to requirements,
so it was bespoke to you the actual company.
We wouldn’t want a section on how to load a
lorry for example or anything like that. ”
(Business Systems Manager, telephone interviewee)
18 Young Drivers at Work Report