E-Training World has given a cautious welcome to government plans to allow learner drivers to have lessons on motorways.

Graham Hurdle, managing director of E-Training World says that he supports any new initiative that will improve the standard to driving on our roads – but he is concerned that the ‘optional’ tuition may lead to false expectations among companies when employing new drivers.

The plans have been unveiled by Road Safety Minister Mike Penning MP in an attempt to cut the number of young drivers being killed and seriously injured on Britain’s Motorways each year – between 2006 and 2010 a total of 82 drivers aged under 21 were involved in fatal motorway crashes.

However, Hurdle is worried that as motorway driving won’t be included in the driving test, for the practical reason that some areas are too far from a motorway such as Cornwall and the Isle of Wight, that driving instructors won’t spent much, if any, time teaching motorway driving.

“I would not want business to think that just because learners will be able to learn on a motorway that they are going to be fully prepared to cope with driving on business. There is more to driving than motorway driving which in any case statistically has the least number of fatalities.”

Graham advises that any new driver to a company should be properly assessed for their abilities before being put behind the wheel of a company car and that additional training including, but not exclusively, on motorways, should be encouraged.

Another new proposal from the Roads Minister has Graham’s full backing – that is banning trainee driving instructors from giving lessons unless they themselves are supervised by a fully qualified colleague.

Currently trainee instructors can give tuition and the only indications a pupil has that the teacher is not fully qualified is a small screen sticker.