A Motorcycle Safety and Transport Policy Framework
Summary
Post-test tuition should be managed in the same way as pre-test training. If an instructor is taking money for training then customers should be assured that they will get appropriate training for their needs from a qualified Instructor who is subject to continuous quality assurance.
DfT and DVSA both have tried to encourage riders to come forward and improve their skills post-test. Whilst this can only be applauded, currently a person with no proven experience or qualifications can take payment for delivering post-test training. This is unlikely to result in all customers getting the level of training they should expect.
Description
Research carried out by MCIA in 2015 demonstrated that worldwide, only a small minority of riders choose to take up any training after passing a test, regardless of incentives or cost. Even when offered free of charge take up is low. However those that do choose this route should be confident that they will receive high quality training by a qualified professional Instructor.
Post-test Training outside of the commercial sector
Post-test rider training is voluntary and the majority of this is carried out by 2 charities, IAM RoadSmart and Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). Care must be taken to ensure that any regulation does not curtail the valuable work undertaken by the volunteers who give up their time to help other riders. Agreed quality assurance regimes, perhaps administered by the charities themselves, could provide the solution. Both IAM RoadSmart and RoSPA have taken steps to ensure consistency of what is provided by local groups.
The DVSA’s Enhanced Rider Scheme (ERS) training is carried out by commercial Instructors who have registered with DVSA and at least meet the minimum criteria laid down by DVSA for registration. It is important that good quality commercial training can be provided alongside the charitable schemes. Funds for this scheme have been cut and MCIAC put forward a proposal to DVSA to ensure that the scheme can be supported in future. There has been little progress made on ERS during the last 5 years and in most areas this has all but disappeared, leaving many Instructors who signed up to join this register disillusioned and therefore not renewing their registration when it expires.
When Launched ERS had the support of over 20 brokers and underwriters, all of whom now regard the scheme as a failure. With no system to record how many riders have taken ERS training it is hard to judge the success, if any, of this scheme nationally.
There are also many Instructors offering escorted tours and post-test training services who are not affiliated to any scheme or registered with any organisation. The level and quality of this instruction and therefore the value for money offered is not known.
BikeSafe is a national Police led assessment scheme where police or trained BikeSafe observers assess the candidates’ riding ability and recommend areas of weakness that could be improved by further training via ERS, IAM or RoSPA. This is well supported by most but not all police forces and is proving to be very popular with riders, many of whom go on to take up post-test training opportunities.
Next steps:
- Continue to liaise with DVSA to ensure the future of some form of national posttest training scheme.
- Develop a DVSA compulsory register that can cover both commercial training providers and charities and voluntary organisations.
- Begin the process to change legislation to ensure that all Instructors offering ‘paid for’ on road pre-test tuition are DVSA approved.
- Begin the process to change legislation to ensure implementation of a robust Quality Assurance regime for all paid for post-test training carried out on road, including a robust Quality Assurance regime that routinely includes the intelligent use of customer feedback. This would also open up the possibility of insurance discounts for riders as the Insurance industry could check who had taken training.
Progress
UPDATE – Action 16 – Improving Standards of Post-Test Rider Instruction
Please note: This action originally contained suggestions to improve pre and post-test training. For the purposes of this rewrite these 2 areas have been separated
There has been no progress on this action since the MSTP was first published. DVSA priorities are currently focussed on improvements to pre-test training.
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