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| 06 Oct 2008 12:58:31 pm |
 Not tested, not safe, not ready, revise it or scrap it! |
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I have attended many meetings and done a fair bit of research into the new motorcycle test and I am writing to put a few different slants on this fiasco.
Firstly as with any EU legislation it is a case of one size fits all. The directive that is imposing the new test on us, 2DLD is all about harmonisation. However has there ever been any thorough analysis that this is required in the UK. We have one of the toughest, most heavily controlled, rider training systems in Europe already in place. Our roads are one of the safest in Europe. Our problem is more to do with large capacity bikes and more mature riders isn’t it? Surely attitude and post test training is required. What’s needed in Portugal and Spain may not be required in Scandinavia!
Not tested. There has not been enough research into the variances of machines and people likely to attempt this test, specifically low power, small capacity bikes. Will this now see the demise of the A1 category licence? Most bikes in this group are unlikely to achieve the acceleration and terminal speeds necessary. Wet weather is also a massive issue. The DSA claim that MPTC’s have surfaces with excellent wet weather properties. However this claim is totally irrelevant. It is a psychological as well as physical fact people cannot go as fast or brake and corner as hard in the wet as in the dry. (Check out Motogp lap times when it rains!) No adjustments or compensation will happen during the off road manoeuvres, however on the road you will be expected to ride to the conditions. So regardless of the weather half of your test will be taken in “dry mode” and the other half in “adjust to the conditions mode!” The temporary/emergency sites DSA are proposing are going to be stadium car parks covered in parking bays, Vosa sites made of concrete slabs! Sites where examiners have no control over access. Sites where everyday traffic is free to drop its usual residues. The DSA produced the layout and format of the test with out consultation. They interpreted 2DLD which consists of 4 exercises and made it 11. They claim to have tried and tested it by letting some people have a go. These people were not novice riders on the first rung of the ladder under pressure of a test. Ask for a report or survey or analysis and you won’t get one, is this research?
Not safe. The test is fundamentally flawed. IT IS ACTUALLY A TEST OF UNSAFE RIDING. I have conducted this test on a 125 and 500cc machine. To achieve the high speed manoeuvres taken at 50kph (31.5mph) you have to accelerate hard coming off a sharp bend in low gear and then swerve and brake once up to speed. This is a practise I would never teach a student under any circumstances. It implies a total lack of awareness to accelerate so hard and fast in a situation you should not. It also smacks in the face of this governments and the DSA’s obsession to place ECO driving on the agenda. What hypocrisy! You would fail the road ride if you demonstrated such harsh acceleration and lack of planning. Why was the breaking of our national speed limit never challenged. This is one of the reasons the high speed manoeuvres cannot be conducted on public roads and these massively expensive MPTC’s had to be built. Yet another unsafe and illegal practice, teaching students to speed! If a student does over cook it on the high speed manoeuvres, the spill could be quite serious, low or even high sides are possible. Also the locking of the front wheel at 50 kph is a very unpleasant scenario, easily done especially when wet. I have no idea of the first aid facilities at these MPTC’s and I doubt the examiners have either. It is the same as this test not thought through enough.
Not ready. The MPTC build programme (new test centres) has already been covered and was one of the reasons for deferral. However my slant is on the research aspect and preparation for the test itself. There simply has not been enough. I can see examiners having to fix issues on the job! Even some Examiners are sceptical. They are confused over some of the pass fail criteria aspects and highly dubious of the allotted time for each candidate. When do they decide a candidate (who has paid £80, probably lost a days pay at work and travelled miles and miles to the centre) is unsafe to take on the road ride. A very grey area. Clip a cone, wobble a cone or knock a cone over. All very different interpretations by very different examiners. Even in the U turn box confusion reigns. You are allowed to go on the white boundary lines but which part of your bike, your tyre, handlebars, pannier, must not go outside the box? Why cant things be simple! Examiners had better get fit as well if they are to keep test slots on time. You only need one or two students to retake the speed parts (you are allowed 2 attempts, both exercises) or struggle to interpret the course layout and get lost in a sea of cones and bang go their lunch breaks.
The call for a two part test is becoming ever more attractive! (Watch this space!)
What a way to implement the biggest overhaul of our motorcycle test since 1989, when the pursuit test was introduced. What the breathing space provided by the 6 month deferral should address is a complete overhaul of 2DLD. It is implied this new test will make motorcyclists safer riders, yet there is absolutely no evidence to support this. Making the exam harder does not make people smarter, it just makes less of them pass. Could this help to reduce road casualty figures for riders I wonder? If you change the test the training to achieve it also needs to change. None of this has happened with 2DLD, the training industry has been hung out to dry. No support, no funding. Imagine how many teacher training days there would be if a school exam changed. Students see the test as a hurdle to overcome to get their licence. It is their training that influences their riding. I still get students from years ago telling me they can hear my advice in their head. “Leave that front brake alone, get up a gear, look where the f**k you are going!” I have never heard anyone say their riding test influenced their riding career in any way. We are spending millions and changing something that is totally without foundation, not researched, not ready, not necessary, and directed at the wrong area of rider safety.
Loz Williams - www.2wheelskool.co.uk |
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By : admin
| Category : Motorcycle Training |  Comments [0] |  Trackbacks [0]
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| 06 Sep 2008 12:55:48 pm |
| The Deferral - A U Turn Too Late |
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Having just attended the MPTC Outreach event in Harrogate, I feel compelled to write to let people know what is going on. It was hosted by a fairly heavyweight delegation from the DSA including their Chief Executive Rosemary Thew.
I have come away from the event more concerned about the implementation of the new motorcycle test than before, and more disillusioned about the DSAs ability as an organisation to provide it.
This deferment came about because of lack of coverage and the unsafe and unacceptable distances people would have to travel. In January this year at a trainer’s conference I posed the question. “If the MPTC programme is not ready is it still going ahead in October?” The DSA categorically stated it would. No deferment, no change! So this organisation has misled us all year. Their response this time is the same, no plans for further deferment before March 2009. By their own admission they will only manage to have a handful of extra MPTC’s ready. So by March next year if you are in an area of the country still in the same position as now, they will impose the test on you when it is still too far away and unsafe to travel to.
This sort of reply gives you a very uneasy feeling about the organisation in charge.
If this is true then they are showing total disdain to the British public they are supposed to provide a service to. Or are they misleading us all again?
The other issue is provision. With the closure of so many local test centres the new reduced programme cannot cope with demand. Availability of tests dramatically reduced and waiting times escalated well beyond the DSA mandate to provide. The trainer booking system they have in place is incapable of dealing with it.
The way this should happen is to produce criteria for implementation. This must be agreed at consultation, and only when that is met should this be imposed on the British public. Well we have one and it is the usual political swing where the word “most” is used. The DSA criteria is that travel time should be no more than 30-45 minutes and distance no more than 20 miles. They are basically covering their corner and can claim they have met their target because “most” of the British public can achieve this. No figures, no percentage of population just the word “most”. This is unacceptable and should be measured and quantifiable. This should apply to the entire country not “most” of it. This is what was understood at initial consultation. It is the reason most training schools and independent concerns accepted the DSA’s proposed format on such an important issue.
This has already cost the industry millions of pounds, and local businesses have spent fortunes getting ready for a test that has not happened. Delegates told of how they had modified bikes, upgraded fleets so they could attain the dramatic acceleration and speed necessary. Training schools have purchased vans and trailers ready to ferry bikes hundreds of miles to test centres, all for it to change at the eleventh hour. 17 days prior to D day was when the decision to defer was made. 6 months is not going to change a lot. The deferment should have been 2 months ago and for a minimum of 12 months. It has even sent the DSA’s systems into melt down, no one can book a test at the moment and their examiners have not got a clue where they will be working in 2 weeks time. However the DSA have no need to worry, they are planning on recouping their losses. The test fee is going to rise to £80 from the 29 Sep 08, regardless of the fact students will not be taking the new test. This was a shock to us all. We assumed if they are not providing the service they cannot charge us for it, with any other business in the world this could not happen. Why are the monopolies and mergers commission not investigating this? How can an organisation with such a profound monopoly charge what they like for a service they are not providing!
To the training industry this deferment is a huge relief but we are still on death row. I fear that in 6 months time in large areas of the country that knock on the cell door and final walk will come. Or maybe we will have another u turn and spend a month in total chaos again. The organisation in charge of this is responsible for the testing of the nation’s future drivers and riders, and an independent inquiry should now take place into the implementation of this event.
Loz Williams - www.2wheelskool.co.uk |
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By : admin
| Category : Motorcycle Training | Comments [0] | Trackbacks [0]
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| 06 Feb 2008 12:53:05 pm |
| The new motorcycle test - or lack of it! |
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This article should be on every motorcycle web site in the UK. I am writing to inform readers of the terrible position many trainee motorcyclists and training schools will be in come October 2008 when the new motorcycle test commences.
You may think this does not affect you unless you are a new rider wanting to get your licence. Think again it is going to affect the whole bike industry. If it becomes too expensive and too difficult to get a licence then the trickle of new bikers will dry up. Look at the housing market take out your first time buyers and it cascades up the chain affecting everyone, owners, trainers, dealers, publishers, even manufacturers.
Most of you may be unaware that this legislation to change the current motorcycle test is not UK legislation. It is being introduced by our government because they allow EU directives to influence our driving test rules and laws. Most of the rider training industry was against it but it was pushed through regardless and the DSA (Driving Standards Agency) were tasked to provide the new test by Oct 2008. The criteria they had to fulfil were that no one was to have to travel more than 20 miles or 30-45 mins to get to a test centre. However in large areas of the country this is not going to happen. By the DSA’s own appalling admission only 31 of the proposed 66 MPTCs’ (Multi purpose test centres) will be online to commence the new test. That is less than 50% and they have had 5 years to arrange this.
So there are vast areas of the country where the new motorcycle test will not be local anymore. It is West Yorkshire (a population of 2.2million people) that personally affects me and my business. There will not be a single MPTC online for October. In fact there is a virtual blackout from Hull to Liverpool (the M62 corridor). I have made a rough estimate that last year there were between 2,600 and 2,900 tests carried out in West Yorkshire spread between 4 test centres. So where are these going to go now? The test centres that are currently running are based around customer demand. They serve the main population areas and are reasonably local to them. The new MPTCs’ are being deployed purely on where they can build the cheapest. Imagine a ski training school setting up on a beach it wouldn’t last 2 minutes. If the DSA was not a monopoly it would not get away with this, however there is no choice there is no other provider.
For my position as a training school in Bradford, the nearest MPTC is 43 miles away in Rotherham. So most individuals and training schools in West Yorkshire are going to have to travel in the region of a 70-100 mile round trip to get to a Motorcycle test centre. That means, no motorways, clogged up city centres, rural B roads and all as a learner rider. It will be at least a 4 to 6 hour turnaround to do a test. In other words a full day. I know many training schools only offer 2/3 hour packages as they believe concentration, resilience and fatigue negate any longer. Unlucky, customer considerations of this nature are not going to be a thing of the past.
The costs for all this are going to be enormous. I envisage my fuel bill will more than double, bike maintenance costs the same, the days of a 2 hour lesson are gone it will have to be a full day or nothing. The test fee itself is rising a massive 30% to £80. Imagine someone failing their test to be told “Sorry mate I know you only forgot to cancel your indicator but to retake here is a breakdown of costs; Test fee £80, full day bike hire and accompanied instruction £150, that will be £230 please sir!” For the poor individual turning up on his own 125 it’s not going to be cases of asking for an hour off from work either. They will need a full day, so a full day’s loss of pay.
It is ironic they are triumphing these new centres as ECO friendly, yet bike schools and individual test candidates are going to be racking up huge mileages, using vast quantities of fuel and oil, squaring off tyres and pouring out clouds of emissions to get to them!
The DSA have declared that the majority of the centres not online by October will be within 3-6 months. I am not convinced if they have only managed 50% in 5 years I doubt the rest will follow so quickly. 9 (This has proved to be true1) The other problem is that they are going to force many training schools out of business. A school travelling an extra 90 miles everyday is going to become uncompetitive to schools in the vicinity of these MPTC’s. They will probably have to close and then when the centre in their area comes online there won’t be any schools around to train with.
My individual problems are great but not as bad as some areas where they don’t even envisage building an MPTC, Central Wales, vast areas of Scotland, most of Cumbria the borders, South London, some areas of the home counties etc…When this proposition of making the new test a single test and keeping the DSA in charge of it was made, most of the motorcycle training industry supported the DSA. The main reason was they assured us of those two main criteria (20 miles 30-45 mins). They are not going to deliver; they have failed as providers to make the criteria they promised. Had the industry known this was going to happen back in 2001 I am sure we would have campaigned for a different option.
This whole fiasco has come about by our Government being weak and allowing European rules to dictate how we as a country do things, by not providing adequate funding to provide the new test they had submitted to. By not monitoring the incompetent Agency they appointed to provide it and by not having the guts to admit it is badly prepared and they should postpone until it is ready to be introduced fully, and within their own stated criteria, nationwide. 9Again proved to be the case!) As usual this government ignores, dismisses and blatantly discriminates against motorcyclists. It would not dare to attempt this with the national car test, what a vote loser!
One final parting shot is that in the December issue of Despatch, the DSAs’ propaganda magazine. Under their Agency performance section they claim they have already met the target of providing the new test, a blatant lie how can they get away with publishing this stuff! |
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By : admin
| Category : Motorcycle Training | Comments [0] | Trackbacks [0]
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