I noticed this open letter on Grant Shapps’ twitter from a couple of days ago. Apparently an open letter to the “UK Logistics Sector”.
The joint letter says the way out is to be “led by industry”, but with the government there to help. No recognition then for the private individuals who have funded licences purely for use in haulage for the last significant number of years. If it wasn’t for these individuals this country would surely be well and truly on its knees.
No indication of any foresight on this issue when the tests were cancelled last year. At the end of March 2020, even a relatively obtuse truck driver like myself could see potential issues with cancelling tests:
Time lost, but how do you reconcile the impact on transport?
It also doesn’t really take a genius to work out that Brexit may well result in qualified drivers vacating at short-notice. It is not as if there wasn’t time to start the apprenticeship schemes earlier or start to think about recruiting more examiners earlier. But no, the government will wait and wait and make sure the horse has not just bolted, but has been running around in the paddock for a significant amount of time before doing anything. It takes Haribo hitting the headlines for them to wake up from their dazed confused state.
Now there is talk of giving provisional C+E without C being held purely to reduce the number of tests. So why were people having to sit C for the last significant number of years then? Was this to keep examiners busy or what? Well, dear government please contact all those who have passed C (and subsequently moved on to C+E) in the last twenty odd years and refund their test fees, vehicle hire fees and instructor fees for the test days. You may as well throw in reimbursement for the retests (if applicable) too.