Transport minister Stephen Hammond has been a frequent face in the news recently with proposals to raise the motorway speed limit to 80mph, and he’s now gone one step further by focusing on the young drivers of the UK. At the forefront of the transport sector, Mr Hammond along with the Government are in talks, and considering making young drivers between the ages of 17 and 24 wait up to 9 months to take their driving test as a way of improving the standard of safety on the roads.
Mr Hammond has provided an exclusive interview advising that he’s spelled out a number of ideas which are currently being negotiated between himself and the rest of the Department for Transport, and making sure that young drivers have enough experience on the roads prior to taking their test is one of them. He’s been quoted as saying “It’s been recognised that they are an extremely vulnerable age group on the road, which has brought around some concern that once they’ve gotten their provisional licences and completed a crammer course some have passed there tests within a matter of weeks. After looking in to this in greater detail we’ve found some interesting evidence that would suggest that we need to have a period of time between gaining a provisional licence and taking a test, so that they are able to gain more experience on the road. A consultation document is going to be put out there and the time-frame will be left open to people’s suggestions, but I would suggest that between six and nine months is an appropriate period of time”.
As well as this Mr Hammond has also advised that they’re looking into a number of other areas for the young drivers on our roads which include working with the insurance industry to see if they could offer some sort of incentive to do a post-test lesson on the motorway or even night-time driving to try and bring their insurance fees down.
The Government are also looking into how many people should really travel in a young drivers car in the the first couple of years, as a way of minimising distractions. Mr Hammond has been quoted as saying “We do tend to see accidents with tragic circumstances where there are four or five young people in a car and the driver isn’t over the limit, but they’ve been egged on by a number of people in the car to not act in a sensible manner, this is why we’re also looking in to this side of things so that all aspects have been covered”.
With so much talk about improving drivers on UK roads over the last few weeks, this is definitely one area within the transport industry where improvements are high up on the Government’s agenda. This can only be a positive thing, as not only will it be beneficial to all the different types of drivers on our roads , but also to the companies on Delivery Quote Compare who spend most of their time on UK roads.