In a bid to get more truck drivers on the road, the Government has revealed plans to merge the separate tests for driving rigid and articulated trucks and axe reversing exercises and uncoupling and recoupling from the main test.
To free up testers, it will also scrap the need for car drivers to take a separate test to tow a large trailer or caravan.
But UK delivery expert ParcelHero warns that these are potentially dangerous and short-sighted reactions to the truck driver shortages created by Brexit.
The Government says 50,000 more HGV tests will be made available because of its changes. However, ParcelHero warns it is a grave reduction of driver testing standards. For the first time in a generation, it will now be lower than the rest of the European Union’s requirements.
The company’s head of consumer research, David Jinks, said: “Of course, everyone is concerned about the growing truck driver shortage, which is creating empty supermarket shelves and threatening to blight Christmas. However, splicing and dicing the HGV test is, quite frankly, an astonishing ‘solution’ to the problem.”
And he added: “After most ‘non-skilled’ EU citizens returned to their home countries in the wake of the Brexit vote, we warned the Government of a shortfall of up to 100,000 drivers. Those warnings fell on deaf ears. Combined with the Government’s dogmatic refusal to allow EU-based drivers to return under temporary skilled-worker permits, the UK’s entire supply chain is consequently on the verge of a major crisis.”
