Driving Licence for transport vehicles: Class 8 will no longer be a mandatory qualification
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under Nitin Gadkari is set to remove the requirement of minimum educational qualification for transport vehicle drivers. Currently, Class 8 pass is the minimum requirement for Driving Licence. The move will benefit skilled persons in economically backward areas, the government said in a release.
The decision is also expected to help meet the shortage of nearly 22 lakh drivers in the transport and logistics sector, which is hindering its growth.
However, while removing the requirement of a minimum educational qualification, the Ministry has strongly emphasized upon training and skill testing of drivers so that road safety is not compromised in any way. Anyone applying for a driving license will have to mandatorily pass a stringent skill test.
The Ministry has emphasized that training imparted by a school or establishment as mentioned in the the Motor Vehicels Act 1988 should ensure that the driver can read signs and perform logistical duty such as maintenance of driver logs, inspection of trucks and trailers, submission of pre-trip and post-trip records, determination of discrepancies in paperwork, effective communication to report safety hazards. Moreover schools and establishments which are providing vocational training and skilling facilities are subject to regulatory control by the states. Hence, the training imparted should be of high quality covering all aspects of driving a particular type of motor vehicle.
The Ministry had already proposed the removal of requirement for educational qualification in the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill that got passed by the previous Lok Sabha. The subject was also deliberated upon by the Standing Committee and Select committee of the Parliament.
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