johnm wrote:This is simply the “free market” at work, though of course we can’t allow a level of freedom that gets us to the position where drivers are more or less guaranteed to fall asleep at the wheel
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[as this is in the GA Forum, a swerve back to a bit of aviation content .. longish
]
In my last few years (of >40) as an Air Cadet instructor, a number of trends came visibly together:
a. Stations hosting Air Cadet Camps could no longer provide drivers and coaches/minibuses to move Cadets around as required to complete the Camp programme, on and off the airfield.
b. Some would hire in minibuses, but Cadet staff had to provide drivers who had to have appropriate permissions on their civil licences AND (on some Stations, to drive on airfield roads) pass a military minibus driving test with a MT Section Examiner. Obviously, this took Staff away from their often intense Camp tasks.
c. Some Stations required this to be retaken even if the driver already had a generic military test pass from elsewhere (as I did). But MT Section was not open until Monday morning, and Cadets arrived and left on a Saturday, so movement on Sat-Sun was challenging, especially on Stations where Cadet accommodation was (literally) miles from Airmens' Mess, too far for Cadets to march for meals several times a day.
d. Cadet units were therefore encouraged to bring their own unit minibuses (which many had), to Camp, with Cadets on board, rather than (or as well as) chartering coaches to bring most Cadets and equipment. Often these were long journeys, such as (from Gloucestershire) St Mawgan, Valley, Coltishall, ..
e. so (for sound fatigue reasons) two Staff drivers were needed on each minibus, as well, possibly, as the Staff needed as supervisors on the chartered coaches.
f. but only the older (and increasingly getting older and fewer) Staff had by default minibus permissions on their civilian driving licences; so younger Staff had to be encouraged to train for and take the minibus test. In some Counties (including Gloucestershire) to take school-age children in minibuses required a regular retest with an Examiner assigned by Shire Hall and a basic medical with an assigned Nurse*. Both these cost both the Unit and the young Staffer time and money.
* The Shire Hall Nurse was happy that my recently completed CAA Class 2 Medical sufficed, saving both me and her bother
g. Also, some younger Staff (especially teachers, of whom there are many in the Air Cadet movement) were reluctant to take on this training, as they did not want to become one of those on whom their schools would call to drive school minibuses on extracurricular or evening/weekend occasions (sports, theatres, field trips ..). thereby exposing them to career-limiting or -ending and even criminal court consequences in the event of any mishap.
Upshot: driving Air Cadets on minibuses was becoming the preserve of fewer, older Staffers, or contracted out to fewer, older professionals. I gather that driving larger PSVs and HGVs maybe reflecting similar trends, and this has suddenly become visible in the 'free market'.
[By contrast, for the first Camp which I staffed (1972, IIRC): Cadets and Staff had Rail Warrants from our local Station (requiring a slightly fraught change of train/platform at Birmingham New Street, which on a summer Saturday at midday was full of small people in RAF hairy blue battledress with adults making sure that all their dozy charges stayed together and didn't join the wrong group by mistake!). RAF 'buses with RAF drivers met the Cadets at the railway station closest to the RAF base. Transport in, around and from Camp was provided entirely by RAF personnel. Some was, by modern safety standards in retrospect, somewhat fraught: no seat belts, 'crew' minibuses, or totally seatless backs of military trucks - which the Cadets usually enjoyed! ]