Home Affairs Minister clamps down on waiver for inexperienced truck drivers

– laments number of young, inexperienced truck drivers on roadways; enforces training requirement

In light of the road carnage across Guyana and the prevalence of accidents involving trucks, Home Affairs Minister, Oneidge Walrond, has taken action to scale back on the number of licences being issued to young, inexperienced truck drivers.

During a recent appearance on the Starting Point podcast, Minister Walrond lamented the number of young and inexperienced truck drivers on Guyana’s roadways.
“Too many young people were allowed to drive these huge cantors and the big vehicles without the requisite training. But I understand the need at the time because we are in a construction boom. We are out of truck drivers, and so we needed to have more drivers on the road. But I believe that that needs to be scaled back,” she contended.
This publication understands that to qualify for a motor lorry driver’s licence, an applicant must be at least 25 years old and possess a minimum of four years’ driving experience.
However, Minister Walrond revealed that there are dozens of applications to waive that experience requirement – something which she is clamping down on.
“When I got into this portfolio, I realised that there were too many applications for waivers from very young people for the requirement for the two-year or five-year requirement to drive a motor lorry…”
“But I believe that that needs to be scaled back. They need to have the requisite training. And so, those waivers have been slowed down. They have not been granted. It’s going to be the insistence that you have to have the necessary number of years before you can qualify [for a truck driver’s licence],” she stated.
In fact, the Home Affairs Minister noted that since her refusal to grant these experience waivers in an effort to dial back on the scourge of too many young, untrained drivers driving on the roads, there are little to no applications being made to waive the experience requirement, compared to the high numbers when she assumed office last month.
“Within the first two weeks, there were too many [applications for waiver]. I think the message was sent very quickly that I was not doing them anymore. So, I don’t see them coming,” she noted.
Moreover, Minister Walrond disclosed that she had been working with the Police Commissioner, Clifton Hicken, to ensure those persons applying for motor lorry licences undergo the requisite procedure to ensure they are equipped with the experience needed to operate trucks.
“The [Police] Commissioner and I have had that discussion. We’ve said we’re going to make sure that they go to the training before they can apply for a motor lorry licence,” the Home Affairs Minister stated.

Reckless truck drivers
Only earlier this year, President Dr Irfaan Ali had raised concerns about the reckless behaviour of truck drivers on the roadways, citing the fact that too many of them are young and inexperienced.
“There is not a single person in this room who will tell me there is not an element of uneasiness if you have to drive to the airport, and it’s not [only] during the day; it’s 24/7 with the trucks… We have to implement strong measures to limit the speed of those trucks, but we also have a problem – the average age of a truck driver years ago might have been 30 plus; today, it’s 22 or 23,” the Head of State had noted at the Guyana Police Force’s Annual Officers’ Conference in February.
President Ali had pointed out that these young drivers do not have sufficient experience on the roadways before being allowed to drive trucks, which he noted are completely different from driving a motorcar, especially taking into consideration braking speed and the load factor.
In the same breath, however, the Head of State too had acknowledged that there is a gap in the human resource assets in Guyana’s rapidly growing economy. He noted that in order to continue this development trajectory, law and enforcement will play critical roles in ensuring these truck drivers adhere to rules and regulations when operating on the roadways.
Meanwhile, the Private Sector Commission (PSC) had previously proposed a review of the issuance of driver’s licences, particularly for heavy-duty truck drivers, as well as an amendment to the Motor Vehicle Act to increase the minimum age to 21 years for commercial vehicle driver’s licences (trucks, buses, and taxis).
In recent years, the Guyana Government has rolled out a number of initiatives aimed at curbing the reckless behaviour of road users.
Earlier this month, Cabinet approved a series of new rules for trucks on roads and bridges nationwide, including a 15-tonne per axle limit for trucks as part of efforts to curb damage to infrastructure by heavy-duty vehicles and to improve transportation safety.