RHA and DVSA job shadowing for National Lorry Week

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) have hosted directors and members for the day to mark National Lorry Week.

The shadowing opportunity, designed to increase understanding and strengthen ties between the logistics industry and the enforcement agency, saw DVSA’s CEO and two directors, two RHA directors and two members spend the day with each other. 

With six days of swaps overall, they were able to experience first-hand what a day at DVSA and a haulage firm is like.

With a particular focus on skills and careers, to tie in with National Lorry Week, which takes place this week, the RHA directors and members discussed how organisations in the logistics industry go about employing people with the right skills, or training staff.  

DVSA showed how it brings colleagues into the agency through an apprenticeship scheme, which puts its Vehicle Standards Assessors (DVSA employees who carry out lorry MOTs) through a training programme and sees them qualify as workshop fitters with an IRTEC certificate.  

Loveday Ryder, DVSA’s chief executive, said: “We are better when we are working together towards shared goals.  

“At DVSA we want to be even more collaborative and have more partnerships with the industries we work with.  

“Projects where we get to spend time with some of the industry’s key people, learning and sharing knowledge, are invaluable.  

“My thanks go to the RHA and its board of directors, whose enthusiasm and expertise were so apparent and who made this a great way to mark National Lorry Week.”  

Tim Wray, vice chair of the RHA, who is also managing director of Multi Modal Logistics in Felixstowe, hosted Loveday in Felixstowe and spent the day with her at DVSA’s roadside site in Leatherhead on the M25.  

He said: “Providing the regulator a view into the commercial world feels like giving the logistics industry a voice. It is vital that decision makers in the public sector can see the level of detail and hard work that is undertaken in a challenging working environment.  

“I was heartened to hear about DVSA working alongside haulage and maintenance firms to bring new talent into the industry through apprenticeships. 

“Skills and careers need to be talked about more openly and at every level which is exactly why we have the subject as a key focus of National Lorry Week this year.”  

Marian Kitson, DVSA’s director of enforcement, spent the day with RHA director Claire Logan, who will also spend the day with Kitson in Bristol. 

Logan has recently completed three years as RHA’s regional chair for Scotland and Northern Ireland and is Long Lane Deliveries’ operations support manager.  

Ross Edden, who is an RHA member and is MD of TWE Haulage in Banbury, will host Richard Hennesey, DVSA’s director of services, who in turn hosted Edden in Bristol and South Wales.   

As well as discussing skills and training, DVSA took their guests out on the road to experience how DVSA is clamping down on non-compliant drivers and operators. This included an overseas lorry which had dodged the user levy, overloaded 3.5 tonne vans and others who undercut legitimate operators on price by deliberately and consistently cutting corners on compliance.   

In return, DVSA’s directors saw first-hand the pressures haulage firms are facing, especially those with trucks coming into or out of ports such as Felixstowe.  

The visits were also an opportunity for directors to better understand other areas affecting the haulage industry, such as driver recruitment and the current financial pressures on firms.