FleetWatch Online - 48-Trainers Speak Out

As much as drivers are the 'heart' of the transport industry, trainers are the 'heart' of skills development. It is these people who will educate and inspire learners to become true road transport professionals. It is trainers who put the training material together, drive it through the hellish task of accreditation by TETA, who train other trainers, who ultimately determine whether skills development succeeds or fails. They also have a close-up view of the 'unacceptable face' of skills development, and the odd glimpse of light in the proverbial tunnel, writes Paul Collings.

"Every month, transport companies are asking for hundreds of drivers," says Edwin Stafford-Northcote, MD, SA Training Services. "The industry is losing its experienced driver base between the ages of 35 and 50 to Aids, and not replacing them with new guys. The road freight sector needs 1500 new drivers every year to cover the drop out rate, never mind demand from industry growth. Between 400 and 500 learnerships were conducted in 2005 but that is insufficient to fill the gaps."

Stafford-Northcote believes that while larger companies can afford to pay good salaries and recruit and retain quality drivers, smaller operators are taking in anyone with a licence, irrespective of their levels of training, driving record or experience. "In five years' time, we'll be having 2 or 3 major truck accidents every month as a result of driver incompetence," he says.

The lack of accredited and audited heavy truck driver training institutions is not the only problem. "Drivers aren't being trained on interlinks. The road freight industry needs to work with TETA to identify needs and set goals. What's needed now is a short programme to get the basics in place - a Code 14 with one or two unit standards, using artics," says Stafford-Northcote.

‘20% of truck drivers
on the road do not
know what they are
doing’

Edwin Stafford-Northcote
MD, SA Training Service

No uniformity
Dave Marais of NAVCAT (National Vehicle Capacity Assessment & Training) says, "TETA is not setting a uniform driver training standard. Who at TETA follows up on training, visiting so-called accredited training organisations and auditing their 'graduates'. One has to ask the question: are we training to make money or to properly skill people?"

A massive bugbear for Marais is the fact that TETA's Standards Generating Body (SGB) does not include an individual with first-hand truck driving experience. "The subject matter in the Unit standards (US) doesn't correlate with what is needed in reality, while really skilled advisors are denied access to the SGB. To make matters worse, TETA does not screen trainers for actual training skills. It simply accredits trainers according to what's written on an applicant's CV."

New driver standard
The TETA SGB has, according to Marais, put together a set of new Unit Standards for drivers of heavy duty commercial vehicles. "Looking at the new proposed 'National certificate: Professional Driving' just proves how out of touch the compilers of this programme are with the reality of the literacy of drivers in SA. The job of a driver is to drive, not to analyse, do 2-3 dimensional calculations, investigate financial aspects of personal, business and national issues, conduct basic financial transactions, conduct a financial analysis of a small business, develop a business plan for a small business, investigate the possibilities of establishing and running a small business enterprise (SMME), manage finance in a small business, perform financial planning and control functions for a small business, use a Graphical User Interface (GUI)-based word processor to create and edit documents, handle a crime situation and to do research. That is why we have fleet managers, fleet controllers and senior managers in place in this industry!

"It will take the industry in general a very long time to come up with the material and personnel to eventually train in these very complex issues. Facilitators and assessors will have to be trained (over 3 years to gain the required experience) before being able to present and assess the latest standards. It could have been a valid proposal if these Unit Standards were relevant to the job of a driver; they rather belong at managerial level. It is only certain individuals/Service Providers that will benefit from the development of these Unit Standards as it appears that most of the criteria have been "adopted" from far more developed countries. I have no doubt that the majority of our developing road freight industry will be disempowered instead of being empowered!"

Training safer drivers for improved efficiency and lower insurance premiums: (from left) Pieter Smit, NAVCAT project manager; Dave Marais, NAVCAT ceo and Basil Mann.

‘Are we training to make money or to properly skill people?’

SAIA intervention
While government continues to allow the skills development process to flounder in a bureaucratic quagmire, the transport industry battles on, with the ever-present threat of driverless trucks hanging over it. To make matters worse, plummeting skills levels mean an increase in operational risk and as such, higher insurance premiums. To thwart the growing tide of truck accident claims, the South African Insurance Association (SAIA) has joined the skills development fray, setting its own training standards for commercial truck driver training courses. NAVCAT is SAIA Approved and according to Basil Mann, defensive driving partner to SAIA, "the insurance industry has in the past loaded premiums on young drivers. Because of the driver shortage problem, SAIA has set training standards in defensive driving techniques. Any driver under the age of 25 who gains a SAIA-Approved certificate in defensive driving will not have a loading on premiums."

This is an interesting development. Money will always be an incentive and if operators can save on insurance costs through training, even the nay-sayers may change their tune.