January 18th, 2017.



The Motorcycle Industry Association is urging all those involved in the motorcycle industry to complete a DVSA consultation on testing and training, before the deadline on February 17th.

The consultation: Improving moped and motorcycle training has a wide range of questions and gives plenty of opportunity for individual feedback.

MCIA has prepared draft response guidelines, which give additional detail for each question, explaining why certain aspects of the testing and training regime need changing. The draft response also sets out the MCIA position on each section.

The DVSA is exploring possible changes to a number of areas, including removing the need to do repeated tests for those who want to upgrade to a bigger bike and offering a seven-hour training option to upgrade between license categories instead.

Changes to CBT are also being considered, including reviewing the syllabus, making protective clothing compulsory and asking whether some form of theory test should be taken before allowing people to ride on the road.

DVSA is also canvassing opinion on how best to ensure those who intend to ride a geared bike after CBT are trained on one. The current rules allow riders who do CBT on an automatic ‘twist and go’ to ride a geared bike without additional training and some training schools do not offer geared bikes to clients. DVSA is also asking whether a digital record of those who pass CBT would be valuable; this could, for example, help police with road side checks.

DVSA standards checks may also be extended to any sort of training. Checks are currently limited to CBT training and only take place routinely every four years.

The current testing and training regime is something many people have strong opinions about and this is an opportunity to share them with the DVSA.

Karen Cole, Safety and Training Director of the Motorcycle Industry Association, welcomes the consultation: “We are delighted to see DVSA has launched this consultation. The questions are worded to encourage respondents to provide their own views and suggestions and we would urge anyone interested in motorcycle training and the wider industry to complete the consultation.

“This is timely too, as we have recently launched a whitepaper with police chiefs and Highways England. The Motorcycle Safety and Transport Framework calls for greater use of motorcycles and scooters to combat congestion and for their use to be factored into mainstream transport planning. This must be done safely though and the consultation could help achieve this.”