Opinion / Columnist
VID's retest is an unworkable law and a deflection towards traffic safety
29 Mar 2015 at 09:58hrs | Views
I have to say that as a Zimbabwean and as a human being, I am very concerned about traffic safety in Zimbabwean roads and in the world at large. This is practically the main reason why I would like to discuss certain issues regarding traffic, drivers, driving and traffic laws in Zimbabwe. I do believe that traffic safety is very important and that both law enforcement and the public should participate fully in ensuring safety in our roads. However, I do not understand the relevance and appropriateness of some traffic laws and I feel that some traffic laws were made based on misguided perceptions rather than significant facts.
To specify, I do not understand the retest law in Zimbabwe and would like to probe questions to the relevant officials. The law states that in order to drive a haulage truck, one should have a 'retested' class 2 driver's license, medical certificate and a defensive driving certificate. My focus is the retest because I have reason to believe that it is irrelevant, erroneous and has no positive impact to traffic safety. Honestly, this law does not sound like a law that was planned, designed and enforced correctly.
I understand that this law was passed after a series of road accidents involving haulage trucks and I assume that it was concluded that the reason behind several haulage truck accidents was that the haulage truck drivers were to blame because they were young or rather 'inexperienced'. My first argument is that there is no proof that the government conducted research that proved that indeed inexperienced haulage truck drivers were the cause of the national road carnage prior to passing the retest law. If the research was conducted then it should also provide a reason why the haulage truck drivers before were not causing accidents and what led them to start causing accidents.
Secondly, this law has been operative for a number years and this meaning that one can confidently state that all haulage truck drivers on Zimbabwean roads have retests with some having been retested twice or thrice but yet we still have a lot of fatal accidents involving haulage trucks. If this law was efficient and effective then why do we still have a lot of accidents involving haulage trucks and buses? There has not been any improvement. As a matter of fact, I personally lost a truck driving uncle and a friend in an accident along the Harare-Masvingo road last year. Both of them had between 20 and 35 years truck driving experience.
Thirdly, driving is a manoeuvring and operating a vehicle safely, efficiently and effectively. Driving is not based on experience but skill. If haulage truck driving is based on experience as the government has put it then I would like to know which kind of experience they are talking about. Well, one can argue in favor of the government saying that an experienced driver knows how to respond correctly to certain situations. True, experience is the best teacher but it is not the only method of teaching. Yet again, when we are we talking about situations during driving e.g brake failure, tyre blow-outs, slippery roads, loss of traction, jack-knifes or situations that come with the job, e.g loading, offloading, weighing? If we are talking about situations during the actual driving, are they saying that they only want haulage truck drivers who have experienced accidents (brake failures, slippery roads, jack-knifes) before? I doubt because that would mean the government is encouraging such accidents that give the driver the 'experience'. In addition, it is unfortunate that some truck drivers have never lived to either tell the tale or learn from the experience. My argument is that you do not have to experience something to learn and this is why there is training where trainers teach students what to do in different situations. If it was the case then one can question the relevance of the Defensive Driving Course. In other words, Zimbabwe already has supportive initiatives such as the Defensive Driving Course which teach/ train both experienced and inexperienced drivers how to respond to certain situations and therefor the retest system is just a contradicting redundant system.
Fourthly, the process of acquiring a retest is illogical and very confusing. What I do not understand is that in order to acquire a retest one has to produce proof that he or she was driving a heavy vehicle for 5 years before. How am I going to get this 5 years of experience when I can't get employed in the first place because I do not have a retest. Again, I think it's bizarre that the government finds it reasonably to test a driver that has been driving a loaded haulage truck using an unloaded 7 tonner truck. I also don't understand that after acquiring a class 2 driver's license, one is allowed to drive any heavy vehicle such as a 20 tonner tipper or a 7 tonner truck towing a 4 tonner trailer but not a horse and trailer despite the similarity of the vehicles' purpose and tonnage. It doesn't make sense to me that a driver holding a Defensive Driving Certificate and a Class 2 Driver's License without a retest is permitted to drive a heavy vehicle (x) with a yellow number plate but not permitted to drive the same heavy vehicle(x) if it has red number plates. The term public service vehicle is also confusing to me because I no longer know the difference between a commercial vehicle and a public service vehicle. I remember a public service vehicle being a vehicle that transports the public such as a bus or commuter omnibus.
Fifthly, it is known that the department of transport has a history of passing irrelevant, inefficient and ineffective laws which have been discarded over time. For example, at one time the Ministry of Transport had introduced a redundant system whereby driver's license applicants would undergo a driving test conducted by the CMED officials and would have to undergo the same test driving test conducted by Vehicle Inspection Depot officials. Again, the Ministry of Transport once introduced a barn to the importation of left hand heavy vehicles which was then dropped upon discovery that the law was irrelevant and immaterial to its purpose. Why do I find Zimbabwean traffic laws as difficult and bewildering as compared to other laws in other countries? For example, drivers from Zambia, Botswana, South Africa or Namibia use their SADC license easily when driving in any other SADC country and yet Zimbabweans need a 'briefcase full of papers' to drive in another SADC foreign country.
Sixthly, I think such laws are propelling the levels of unemployment in Zimbabwe particularly towards the youth. In Zimbabwe, there is a huge number of youths that roam around the streets with neither plan nor hope of acquiring any sort of job. In Zimbabwe, we have encouraged a negative perception about young people and responsibility. The Ministry of Transport has denied employment opportunities to young people who want to become haulage truck drivers by enforcing laws such as the retest. It is not accurate concluding that young people are irresponsible as the government might have assumed. For example, the National Railways of Zimbabwe recruits enginemen/ train drivers as young as 16 and these young men and women have proven to be responsible by working safely. Another example is me, I am a graduate aged 23 but earning a living as a truck driver in South Africa. I do not have a retest but I have been driving 40 tonner haulage trucks in the steep terrains in SADC region for 3 years. Most drivers including myself use the Botswana route when I am driving to Zambia from South Africa, so as to avoid Zimbabwean traffic laws. I am positive that this has resulted in less revenue for Zinara and Zimra but we do not have much of a choice.
However, I think the driver retest was an idea that was incorrectly implemented. Instead of conducting the same test as the one conducted when testing a learner, the retest should focus on testing the driver's vision. The retest must not be a test but rather a renewal of the license and preferable after 5 years. The government should revisit the retest law and permit individuals of the age 18 or more to drive haulage trucks and renew their driver's license after every 5 years. The government should either introduce a haulage truck driving tests where a empty haulage truck is used to carry out the test or outsource the haulage truck driver certification to companies such as Colbro, Whelson and Sabot.
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Sean Mukasa can be contacted seanmukasa1@gmail.com
To specify, I do not understand the retest law in Zimbabwe and would like to probe questions to the relevant officials. The law states that in order to drive a haulage truck, one should have a 'retested' class 2 driver's license, medical certificate and a defensive driving certificate. My focus is the retest because I have reason to believe that it is irrelevant, erroneous and has no positive impact to traffic safety. Honestly, this law does not sound like a law that was planned, designed and enforced correctly.
I understand that this law was passed after a series of road accidents involving haulage trucks and I assume that it was concluded that the reason behind several haulage truck accidents was that the haulage truck drivers were to blame because they were young or rather 'inexperienced'. My first argument is that there is no proof that the government conducted research that proved that indeed inexperienced haulage truck drivers were the cause of the national road carnage prior to passing the retest law. If the research was conducted then it should also provide a reason why the haulage truck drivers before were not causing accidents and what led them to start causing accidents.
Secondly, this law has been operative for a number years and this meaning that one can confidently state that all haulage truck drivers on Zimbabwean roads have retests with some having been retested twice or thrice but yet we still have a lot of fatal accidents involving haulage trucks. If this law was efficient and effective then why do we still have a lot of accidents involving haulage trucks and buses? There has not been any improvement. As a matter of fact, I personally lost a truck driving uncle and a friend in an accident along the Harare-Masvingo road last year. Both of them had between 20 and 35 years truck driving experience.
Fourthly, the process of acquiring a retest is illogical and very confusing. What I do not understand is that in order to acquire a retest one has to produce proof that he or she was driving a heavy vehicle for 5 years before. How am I going to get this 5 years of experience when I can't get employed in the first place because I do not have a retest. Again, I think it's bizarre that the government finds it reasonably to test a driver that has been driving a loaded haulage truck using an unloaded 7 tonner truck. I also don't understand that after acquiring a class 2 driver's license, one is allowed to drive any heavy vehicle such as a 20 tonner tipper or a 7 tonner truck towing a 4 tonner trailer but not a horse and trailer despite the similarity of the vehicles' purpose and tonnage. It doesn't make sense to me that a driver holding a Defensive Driving Certificate and a Class 2 Driver's License without a retest is permitted to drive a heavy vehicle (x) with a yellow number plate but not permitted to drive the same heavy vehicle(x) if it has red number plates. The term public service vehicle is also confusing to me because I no longer know the difference between a commercial vehicle and a public service vehicle. I remember a public service vehicle being a vehicle that transports the public such as a bus or commuter omnibus.
Fifthly, it is known that the department of transport has a history of passing irrelevant, inefficient and ineffective laws which have been discarded over time. For example, at one time the Ministry of Transport had introduced a redundant system whereby driver's license applicants would undergo a driving test conducted by the CMED officials and would have to undergo the same test driving test conducted by Vehicle Inspection Depot officials. Again, the Ministry of Transport once introduced a barn to the importation of left hand heavy vehicles which was then dropped upon discovery that the law was irrelevant and immaterial to its purpose. Why do I find Zimbabwean traffic laws as difficult and bewildering as compared to other laws in other countries? For example, drivers from Zambia, Botswana, South Africa or Namibia use their SADC license easily when driving in any other SADC country and yet Zimbabweans need a 'briefcase full of papers' to drive in another SADC foreign country.
Sixthly, I think such laws are propelling the levels of unemployment in Zimbabwe particularly towards the youth. In Zimbabwe, there is a huge number of youths that roam around the streets with neither plan nor hope of acquiring any sort of job. In Zimbabwe, we have encouraged a negative perception about young people and responsibility. The Ministry of Transport has denied employment opportunities to young people who want to become haulage truck drivers by enforcing laws such as the retest. It is not accurate concluding that young people are irresponsible as the government might have assumed. For example, the National Railways of Zimbabwe recruits enginemen/ train drivers as young as 16 and these young men and women have proven to be responsible by working safely. Another example is me, I am a graduate aged 23 but earning a living as a truck driver in South Africa. I do not have a retest but I have been driving 40 tonner haulage trucks in the steep terrains in SADC region for 3 years. Most drivers including myself use the Botswana route when I am driving to Zambia from South Africa, so as to avoid Zimbabwean traffic laws. I am positive that this has resulted in less revenue for Zinara and Zimra but we do not have much of a choice.
However, I think the driver retest was an idea that was incorrectly implemented. Instead of conducting the same test as the one conducted when testing a learner, the retest should focus on testing the driver's vision. The retest must not be a test but rather a renewal of the license and preferable after 5 years. The government should revisit the retest law and permit individuals of the age 18 or more to drive haulage trucks and renew their driver's license after every 5 years. The government should either introduce a haulage truck driving tests where a empty haulage truck is used to carry out the test or outsource the haulage truck driver certification to companies such as Colbro, Whelson and Sabot.
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Sean Mukasa can be contacted seanmukasa1@gmail.com
Source - Sean Mukasa
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