These two articles were sent to us by Loz Williams of 2wheelskool.co.uk in Bradford.

If you'd like to add your comments to these articles please email us (or copy and paste mail@begin-motorcycling.co.uk into your email address box and make the subject New Test) and we'll post them here.

HOW MUCH HARDER CAN THEY MAKE IT

The DSA (Double Standards Agency) have arbitrarily decided to make the new motorcycle as tough as possible for riders.

Firstly the legislation from the 2nd European directive which insisted on 4 mandatory exercises has on the DSA’s interpretation turned into 11. That is how many are included on the off road part 1 test.

Secondly the part 2 road ride has effectively been extended by remaining the same duration. The road ride will now include around 6/7 minutes of extra observed riding which will equate to covering a couple of extra miles. On a normal 30 minute ride that is a 20% increase. Extended tests are usually for bad boys who have had a ban or their licence revoked, not anymore it seems.

Finally the DSA have reduced the amount of minor driving faults that can be committed by a massive 30% from 15 to 10. There has been no consultation over this dramatic reduction. It is not anything to do with the EU directive that has imposed this ridiculous new test on us it is purely the DSA’s decision. They have not given any valid reason for it except to say it should not influence pass results too much (so don’t be nervous) and that anyone committing 10 minor faults should not be given a licence any way. If so why is it not the case NOW

This is not a vocational test like LGV or PCV. The nearest comparison is the car test. So a motorcycle rider has to take 87 minutes worth of testing (car 57 minutes), do an extra 20% observed road ride (car remains the same) and have their margin for minor errors reduced by 30% to 10 ( car allowed 15). It would be much simpler just to ban motorcycles all together, which seems to be what some of the people behind these unfair decisions want!

Loz Williams Bike instructor.

THE NEW MOTORCYCLE TEST - OR LACK OF IT!

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 (now deferred until 27th April 2009) 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 was 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. The MPTC's are large off road areas where the new motorcycle test can be conducted.

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. I.E. 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, 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 70-90 mile round trip to get to a Motorcycle test centre. With learner riders, no motorway use and clogged up city centres to get through, it will be at least a 4/5 hour turnaround to do a test. Most training schools take 2 students out so with the extra hour test time (and that is only if both tests are one after the other) it will be a full day.

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 once but to retake it your test fee is £80, a full day bike hire and accompanied instruction £230 please sir!" For the poor individual turning up on his 125 it's not going to be a case of having an hour off from work or a late start. They will need a full day, so a full day's loss of pay before they even take their test. 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, 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. 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 the motorcycle training industry supported the DSA doing it as 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. 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!

Loz Williams

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If you'd like to add your comments to this article please email us (or copy and paste mail@begin-motorcycling.co.uk into your email address box and make the subject New Test) and we'll post them here.

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REPLIES

hiya

i have been asked to pass on details of a demo about motorcycle test centres closing all over scotland and the uk - 64 now down to a max of (maybe) 12

please look at the link

hope you can help as this will change the future of biking as we know it

many thanks

seth

Bob

Perhaps you are unaware of the monumental mess which has been created by the Driving Standards Agency which at present is preventing the Motorcycle Training Bodies all over the country from continuing with our respective businesses.

In 2000 an EU directive called for new motorcycle tests throughout the EU, the DSA eventually deciced that this directive should be implemented by Oct 2008 but inorder to carry out the new style motorbike tests the DSA knew that new Multi Purpose Test Centres would be required as the design of part of the test would not be possible to carry out on the road therefore they would need to provide the new test centres. This has still not been accomplished by the DSA and yet they are still insistent on the 29th Sept 2008 to implement these tests!!!

Neither the training schools nor the general public can at present book a motorbike test because the DSA simply do not have a clue as to where and when most of these new test centres will be built let alone opened. On 22nd July we should all have been able to book motorbike tests for the week beginning 29th Sept. but we couldn't and were told we would beable to do so on 4th. Aug - we couldn't. Now we are told to wait until 18th. August so it's plain to see even to a blind man that the DSA haven't got a clue what to do inorder to clear up this pile of red tape EU garbage. anyone other than a civil servant would figure out that a simple decision to delay the implemetation of this test until all the required test centres have been built would be the answer.

We as a small business are being strangled by the DSA, we are fully booked up with training and tests until 24th Sept and have been for many weeks, we cannot offer motorbike training courses to anyone as we cannot tell the customer when or where we will be training in respect of when and where the training days will be necessary so as to fit in with the at present non existent tests. The DSA came up with one brilliant notion which was to send us from the depths of Cornwall [we are based 10 miles from Lands End] on a 240 mile round journey to Exeter so that our trainees could be tested! So the whole of Cornwall, Devon. Somerset and part of Dorset were all going to descend on Exeter, but now a new thought has come upon the DSA and that is to open our one and only VOSA site so that they may and only may beable to offer motorbike testing facilities to all of Cornwall at this possible one site but it will only be available on a Saturday afternoon and on Sundays - this should give us 10 test slots for us all to share. Somewhere the DSA has managed to forget the fact that at present Cornwall offers 31 motorbike test slots to the training schools and general public so quite how we are all going to share the possible 10 has yet to be figured out - consequently the stranglehold on us all.

The DSA came up with "FACT" that if they did not implement this EU directive they would be fined by the EU for failure to do so. According to the MEPs this is not a fact as there is no mechanism in place to implement such a fine and as most of Europe has already stated including Ireland - forget it we are not doing it or are not yet ready WHY are we! The Double Standards Agency has acknowledged that the lack of test centres even when they are all built will force 20% of training bodies out of business. With everyone struggling to make a living why are these wretched halfwitted civil servants who are I'm sure secure in their work forcing many of us out of work and onto the dole queues?

Many emails have been sent to the DSA, our local MPs, MEPs Ministry of Transport etc. but it seems as though heads are being buried in the sand as no one appears to beable to get a commonsense reply and the wretched government departments are hiding behind the "necessity to have the EU directive inplace by Oct. 08."

Can you please help by making this a very public issue and shame the DSA and government into being truthful and admitting that they have got it wrong and delay the implementation until they have got their house in order. We want to continue in our businesses and have the right to expect the DSA to provide us all with the means ie tests in our own areas. At present they are being obstructive to the detriment of both the general public and to motorbike training schools. None of this applies to any of the other driving tests.

Yours faithfully
Carol and Alan Parker
Cornwall Bike Training
Albert St.,
Penzance
Cornwall
TR18 2LR
tel no. 01736 333226
EMAIL cbt.training@btconnect.com

24th April 2008

Dear Alex,

I think, but I am not sure, that you are the originator of the petition to delay the introduction of the new motorcycle test until all the test centres are built. If you are then thank you very much. I hope you don't mind (in fact I am sure you won't) but I have forwarded the petition to 550 motorcycle training schools. However, the credit for this idea is yours for which I am very grateful. The petition stands at 309 this evening (24th April 2008) but it is my intention to send it to Motorcycle News for publication etc. Any thoughts please let me know.

Kind Regards,

William

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3rd May 2008

hi, william,

well petition stands at just over 800, I have just emailed my MEPs requesting whether or not our government will be fined by the EU if our live date for the new test is postponed. If they reply then at least I will know who to have a go at next.

alex @ OYB

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3rd May 2008

HI Alex,

I can answer that for you. The government will not be fined if the new test is not introduced on time. However, the government is liable to prosecution by anybody who is effected by either its non implementation or the its bad implementation. This means that if an individual or company was adversely effected because the new test was not in place then they could seek damages from the government. I have thought very hard about this and I can not think of anybody who fits this criteria; on the other hand I can think of lots of training schools that will be effected by its “bad” implementation. I have correspondence relating to this from the DSA from late last year – if I can find it I will forward it on to you.

Essentially the nub of this is that the government are more concerned about losing face in the European parliament because they may be non-compliant than they are about saving lives. No ones life will be saved if this test is introduced on the 1st October, whereas it is possible to predict that many lives will be lost if the training industry is devastated and people can’t get trained or have no test centre to take their test at – the prospect of people riding without a licence or training is very real.

The question you need to ask is who will benefit from the test being introduced when nearly half the test centres are not built or ready?

Kind Regards,

William

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1st Sept 2008

try this

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/DSAsCEOtoresign/

alex @ oyb

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1st Sept 2008

Hi Alex,

You have read my mind! See attached letter.

I have contacted a barrister friend and have details of a good London firm of solicitors who have dealt with class actions against the government before. In the meantime I am trying to persuade the MRTA to front a claim as they will have a bank account etc to deal with the money needed to make such a claim. In the first instance we can expect to pay about £100 per training school (with about 60 on board) to get an opinion, and then less than £1,000.00 each to make a claim should the barrister deem that we have a sufficiently good case.

More details to follow.

Kind Regards,

William

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1st Sept 2008

We at OYB are completly in agreance with williams letter and am willing to back him all the way Alex @ OYB

THE DEFERRAL

Posted 20 Sept 2008

THE DEFERRAL. A U TURN TOO LATE

My name is Loz Williams and 2Wheelskool is a motorcycle training school in Bradford, which employs 3 other instructors

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 “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 merges 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.

Regards L S Williams

Posted 20 Sept 2008

THE NEW MOTORCYCLE TEST IS FUNDAMENTALLY FLAWED SCRAP IT!

My name is Loz Williams and 2Wheelskool is a motorcycle training school in Bradford, which employs 3 other instructors.

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 DSA’s ability as an organisation to provide it.

The test is fundamentally flawed. Having listened to numerous delegates and the replies given, I have realised that this fiasco is not going to improve riding standards in the UK and was probably never meant to. 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 could actually 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, when unelected European bureaucrats imposed this directive on us? Yet another unsafe and illegal practice, teaching students to speed!

There has not been enough research done 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, as most bikes in this group are unlikely to be able to achieve the speeds necessary? Wet weather is also a massive issue, no compensation is made for this. It is a psychological fact people cannot go as fast in the wet as in the dry. The DSA claim that MPTC’s have super grippy tarmac with excellent wet weather properties is irrelevant. The proposed temporary, emergency sites are going to be stadium car parks covered in parking bays, Vosa sites made of concrete slabs! Sites of which examiners have no control and where everyday traffic drops its usual residue. The DSA produced the layout and format of the off road element of the test with out consultation. They claim to have tried and tested it and maintain this will improve road safety for riders. By what means? Making them crash so they give up biking? Or making them safer by not acquiring a licence at all!

What the breathing space provided by the 6 month deferral should address is a complete overhaul of 2DLD, the directive that has brought this about. It is implied this new test will make motorcyclists safer riders, yet there is absolutely no evidence to support this. Making school exams harder would not necessary make children smarter, it will just make less of them pass. So if the exam changes the teaching also needs to be addressed and supported. None of this has happened with 2DLD, the training industry has been hung out to dry. 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 the front brake alone, back brake only, get up a gear, use your clutch.” 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, it is unnecessary, unworkable and directed at the wrong area of rider safety.

Regards L S Williams

From Sandy Allan 22 Sept 08

Hi, I read your message board and this is what I have been doing to undermine the DSA & the complete waste time that is the new test!! I have done my best to rally the political elements in this area, and have had a couple of big hitters let off at the DSA and minister in charge!! Malcolm Bruce, my local M.P is raising the question at the next sitting of the House of Commons!! I cannot wait!! Ms Thew's coat is now on a very shaky nail..........

We need to have a local & national forum of training schools so that the bully boy tactics employed by the DSA are no more!

We as the trainers need a more active role in saying what we think the testing syllabus should be, not some guy who passed his bike test as a career move within the civil service! Operating on a driving premise, that has its origins back to 1936. Pupils should be taught to ride safely, not on some airy-fairy notion, were every bit of perceived wisdom is ignored, at the expense of lives lost!!

It is well known that the only way to beat a bully is to stand up to them. Let's do it on mass. They need to realise that we are their customer base!! We keep them in a job, not the other way around!! If we treated our customers in this manner, we would be going down the tubes! Oh wait a minute, isn't that what the DSA are trying to do to us all? Let's get it sorted!!!

Regards Sandy Allan

For Sandy Allan's correspondence with MPs, official bodies and others click HERE

From Slinkey, 5th of November 2008

hi there im 17 and live in wakefield and found it very convienient that the test center for the old test is just a few mile from me but in august 2008 after spending around £700 form my test i was told if i was to fail i would not be able to retake or get any other motorcycle test at all as the new test only took place in rotherham. as if the nerves from the actual test wernt enough this added alot of pressure to pass. unfortunatly i failed and tried for another 9 week to book a test the phone bill for this alone added up to a large amount but finally i did get a test which i will be taking soon. to be totally honest i dont see whats wrong with the old test it seems to be good enough and i think the younger riders that cannot afford such an expensive test will simply just take thier L plates off and illegally ride without a full test. i am totally outraged about the fact they think a more expensive test will make better riders but they forget one key thing.... you only need to be sixteen and have around a hundred pounds to take a CBT so it will deter inexperienced riders to gain better riding knowlage which could potentially add to more accidents and more goverment badmouthing towards how dangerous bikers of all riding standards are.

i apologise if i just seem to rant on but from the young perspective of me and many of my friends the new test idea simply will not work

thank you very much for letting me vent my frustration

slinkey

Posted 23 June 2009

I would like to reply to some of the points raised by Loz Williams.

Firstly the amount of DRIVER FAULTS has not been reduced but they have been moved about so that the maximum allowed on MOD 1 is 5 and the max allowed on Mod 2 is 10 so the total remains the same , allowing for the fact that the special exercises take place on MOD 1 now instead of on the main test this seems resonable enough to me, 35/40 mins is the average ride time on a test, if a rider cant do the extra 6/7 mins without making 10 mistakes then perhaps they should not be on the road anyway.

Slow riding, uturns, emergency stops have allways been carried out during the practical test - but never on such a good surface as now , no cambers,pot holes, pedestrians or other vehicles to contend with.

The main problem does still seem to be the traveling for MOD 1 and also the Hype that has been whipped up by some elements of the motorcycling press which does put people off MOD 1

Keith Lewis, DAS Instructor in South Wales

Posted 14 Oct 2009

Hello having failed my mod 1 last week for going 3kmh to slow for the swerve test i was furious. And have been looking around the Internet for peoples stories etc, and am clearly not alone. However today just about said it all about this ridiculous test, having had a bit of an argument with my instructor this morning because i told him i was going to dispute my test because 3kmh under speed has nothing what so ever to do with safety, It's just to create revenue for the money wasted setting this farce up. Anyway this morning i met with another fellow taking his second mod 1 and he our instructor and i went over to Erith, he again failed because of his speed 2kmh to slow. Now this person is a squaddie just back from Afghanistan he has travelled from Belgium where he lives with his wife to do this test, because wait for it they don't do this test in Belgium. How on earth can the EU in Belgium set up and EU law that they don't have to use . Gary Butler