Focus on the Third EU Driving Licence Directive

You may remember a couple of weeks back the launch of the Riders Are Voters campaign in preparation for the General Election next year.

The aim being to get feedback from motorcyclists on issues that concern them to build into an action campaign, to get our voices heard by those likely to be in power.

One of the issues definitely on the agenda is the proposed radical changes to rider licensing.

There was a comment in the motorcycle press a couple of weeks ago about the average age of visitors to the NEC Motorcycle show being over 40 and asking where all the young riders are.

Rather depressingly the answer is in the ever stricter testing and licensing imposed on us by the European Commission and how those rules are being interpreted by our Government.

The new testing regime, imposed by the last EC directive,  has not yet been in place for one year and with reduced test centres and questions being raised about whether the EC directive was interpreted too strictly by the DSA there has already been vastly reduced numbers of riders taking the test.

So, now we are faced with another round of legislation in the form of the Third EU Driving Licence Directive.

This from Nich Brown, General Secretary of the Motorcycle Action Group:

One of the first things the next government will have to do is decide how the UK will implement the Third EU Driving Licence Directive. In fact, they will have less than a year to change the regulations.

The DfT have finally published the long-awaited proposals for implementing the next round of changes to bike licensing from Europe. Although the Directive was passed in to European law at the end of 2006, member states have until January 2011 to figure out how to interpret it and make their own laws to give effect to the new rules.

There are no changes proposed to the rules for driving licences to ride Mopeds and 125s, but the introduction of a new ‘A2’ licence category for medium-size motorcycles will bring with it new tests and training programmes for riders who want to progress in stages to the larger bikes (currently, access to bigger bikes comes automatically after two years’ experience on less powerful machines).
At the same time, the minimum age for Direct Access to the largest bikes will rise from 21 to 24 years old.

From January 2013, the driving licence categories for powered two-wheelers will be:
‘AM’ Mopeds, small tricycles and light quadricycles. 16 years.
‘A1’ Machines up to 125cc/11kW with a power/weight ratio not exceeding 0.1 kW/kg (including motor tricycles up to 15kW). Minimum age 17 years.
‘A2’ Machines up to 35kW with a power/weight ratio not exceeding 0.2kW/kg and not derived from a vehicle of more than double its power. Minimum age 19 years.
‘A’ Unrestricted motorcycles above 35kW (including tricycles over 15kW). Minimum age 21 years (24 years if Direct Access)

NB: Driving licence entitlements obtained prior to 19 January 2013 are not removed or restricted by the new Directive.

The main battle-lines are all about how riders can move through Driving Licence entitlements to ride bigger bikes.

Currently, unless a rider gains their motorcycle licence through Direct Access, they are restricted to a 35kW/46.6bhp machine for two years, after which their licence automatically allows them to ride any size bike. Under the new rules, riders will have to take essentially the same test if they want their licence to allow them to move on to a bigger bike after two years.

The content of the test is laid down in the Directive, so we know it should be the same at each stage. The purpose is supposedly to show the rider can handle a bigger bike, but because the test at each stage is essentially the same it has been criticised as re-testing by the back door and, in the absence of any similar requirements for super-cars producing many hundreds of BHP, as a measure targeted against riders.

DSA have stated explicitly that they do not intend to ‘gold-plate’ the Directive by adding cost or complexity (just as they did while they were inventing the Multi-Purpose Test Centre fiasco). But it seems likely that DSA will go beyond the Directive when devising the tests for bigger bikes, on the basis that bigger bikes are more demanding and the new tests have to reflect that.

The idea of progressing to bigger bikes via a re-test has been widely criticised because it adds nothing to the rider’s skills, so the Directive allows for riders to progress to the next level of licensing by taking a minimum of seven hours training which could help them improve their riding where it counts the most.

DSA claim that riders are more likely to opt to be re-tested because riders will see that as the cheapest and quickest option compared to taking further training. However, it seems likely that riders will soon discover that they will have to find an MPTC each time they take the test, which they will probably stand a better chance of passing the re-test if they pay for coaching to help them prepare for it, and that they may well fail in any case. So DSA’s plans may be based on false assumptions.

Of course, DSA are the only organisation that can offer riders a test so they something of a commercial interest in building a system that assumes riders will opt for testing rather than training.

However, DSA are consulting on the options to allow training as an alternative way to progress through the licence categories. The main proposal is to introduce a cumbersome and expensive administration system. This will require massive investment in new computer systems for DSA, DVLA and each trainer to update DVLA records once the training has been completed. There would be further costs to pay for regular checks that trainers are doing their job properly.

Intriguingly, there is another proposal to allow riders to move on to the next size of bike, riding on ‘L’ plates after taking a DSA ‘Familiarisation’ training course.

The result could well be that the cost and complexity of progressing through multiple tests and/or further training will be to push everyone toward Direct Access. This may be an opportunity lost: progressively moving from small to large road-bikes, starting with a moped a 16 years old or a 125 at 17 years old, allows new riders to grow into biking. By making this route so much less affordable the new rules may well prevent the next generation of riders from finding their feet in biking until they can take the Direct Access option later in life, or may squeeze them out of biking altogether.

The proposed changes in Great Britain are contained in a DfT online consultation paper www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/thirddirective/consultation.
A separate consultation process is planned for Northern Ireland.

MAG is seeking views from riders across the UK to inform its response and future campaigning work. Let us know what you think. e-mail: nich.brown@mag-uk.org or write to; MAG 3DLD, PO Box750, Rugby, CV21 3ZR.

You can also take part in the Riders Are Voters campaign by expressing your views at http://www.ridersarevoters.org/contact-us/