DVSA fiddles while the industry burns.
With no indication of any plans by the DVSA to deal with the impact of any January "lockdown", and despite sources telling us even their own staff are looking forward to an extended Christmas Holiday, and wondering how they'll find the time to schedule in their annual leave on top of all the paid leave during lockdowns they've had this year, the latest email from the DVSA seems solely concerned with having us all help out with a survey on an EU project.
We have no preference one way or the other, but last time we looked we thought we were leaving the EU, but clearly the brains at DVSA HQ wanted to give us a final kick in the teeth after a year of mismanagement by sending us a survey to fill out, telling us how the few ADIs left will all be out of work when autonomous vehicles become standard!
NASP
NASP have been strangely silent having posted no response from the DVSA to their "six months later lets look like we're actually doing something and send a strongly worded email to the outgoing Chief Executive" press release.
It's well over a week later, and still no reply, perhaps it got caught in the spam filter?
Surely as a "major tier one stakeholder", and "our industry trade association" the DVSA would be firing up their email and getting straight on the case to reply?
Lets see how many ADIs NASP actually represent
NASP state on their website "Our combined membership mean that NASP is able to represent more than 20,000 driver and rider trainers"
Claims like this are subject to regulation by the Advertising Standards Authority.
If you have a spare couple of minutes please make a complaint here:
Make a complaint - ASA | CAP
referencing this NASP webpage: "http://www.n-a-s-p.co.uk/about-us/4589216312" on the grounds that the claim is unsubstantiated and that many instructors are members of multiple associations so simply adding up the individual membership of the three organisations is not sufficient.
Lets see if NASP produces the evidence to the ASA that they represent over 50% of the industry. They might find that another public body is not so compliant as the DVSA, and the question is also open that if ADIs were complicit in misleading the public, perhaps they are not "fit an proper persons" to remain on the register.
Finally the DVSAs refusal to carry out tests on a whim has hit the mainstream media, on this occasion from a test centre in Norwich: "
"They basically expect you to have a brand new car in order to take the test. ‘There was a little bit of mud in the footwell by the time we arrived, but we live on a farm, so there’s not much we could do about it....‘I basically begged the driving examiner to let me clean the car again then and there so that Leo could still take his test – but he said that it was too late".
Please continue to share the petition, if you've had a pupil who has gone to test in their own car and been turned away, as in the situation above send it to them to sign as well.