To improve road safety, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) is studying the feasibility of amending the minimum required age for applicants of heavy motor vehicle (HMV) drivers from 20 to 21 years old, a senior RTA official discussed at the first Truck Trailer Safety Conference in Dubai.
“All new HMV licence applicants must also go through articulated vehicle training and another important revision is requiring prospective truck and trailer drivers to get an LMV (light motor vehicle) licence before they can apply for an HMV driving licence, Arif Abdulkarim Almalik, RTA director of drivers training and qualifications, said at the conference organised on Thursday by Wabco Vehicle Control Systems and supported by the Dubai Police and RoadSafetyUAE.
“At present, applicants are allowed to get an HMV licence if they are 20 years old and they can apply directly even without an LMV licence. Under our new proposal, an applicant must be at least 21 years old and must hold a valid LMV licence,” Almalik explained to Khaleej Times.
“The heavy vehicles they will be driving during the training are also designed to carry goods of more than 3,500kg from the previous 2,500kg,” he added.
At the conference, multi-sectoral stakeholders discussed the importance of education and technology to improve road safety. They said that “truck accidents are caused mainly by trailer issues like trailers tipping in curves due to driver errors, trailer tyre bursts, faulty trailer braking systems and poorly maintained, old or technically unfit truck trailers”. More
By Angel Tesorero /Dubai khaleejtimes.com
