Should Government mandate towing licences?

This takes his total GCM or rig weight – in many cases – to somewhere between 5.0 and 6.0 tonnes.
 
Then, with virtually no real-world experience of towing a big rig, he sets off to travel to the hot coastal fishing ports, at speeds up to the legal limit, often on badly-maintained roads.

When the inexperienced long-distance driver gets tired and encourages a changing over of wheel duties, the rig and their lives are entrusted to someone whose driving experience has probably been limited to suburban roads, often in a small front-wheel drive hatchback.
 
Reduced road grip (rain), visibility (fog or darkness) or attention (via fatigue or perhaps a dispute over directions or travel plans), multiply the risk factors.

A B-Double blasts past; the vacuum between the two vehicles sucks the boat towards the truck; the inexperienced driver panics and over-corrects, has a ‘tank-slapper’ and leaves the road. It’s a disaster.

OK, this is a worst case scenario, but still typical. Many boaters will embark on such journeys, especially with caravans as couples but also with large trailerboats with van-like accommodation.
 
So is it time for a towing test and an endorsed licence for everyone towing a trailerboat or caravan weighing, say, 2000kg, or perhaps a tow vehicle and trailer with a combined mass of 4500kg?

I hear the roars of protest from experienced towers of big trailerboats, vans and horse floats. But I’ve turned a deaf ear to them, because if you fit the typical inexperienced scenario I’ve described above, you’re endangering the lives of yourselves and all road users.

The idea of endorsed licences for people who tow big loads is not new and has been bandied about for many years.
 
This article was originally commissioned for our carvanandcampingsales.com.au sister site. The Caravan Council of Australia has been calling on regulators as well as insurers to make it mandatory for all 'vanners to pass a safety training course before hitting the road.
 
In the UK, where towing safety is a bigger government priority, since 2013 those issued with a regular car licence and who want to tow a trailer over 750kg as part of a rig weighing more than 3500kg, have had to pass an additional test.
 
In Victoria, the issue has been put on the table several times for discussion by the Caravan Industry Association of Victoria (CIAV) as part of its ‘duty of care’ to caravan purchasers seeking to ‘live the dream’.

However according to CIAV CEO Rob Lucas, who took over this hot potato around five years ago, it has had little real support.

It was not unexpected that experienced caravanners and their clubs would view it as an unnecessary and time-wasting impost, but Lucas said he was surprised that the Victorian Government, through VicRoads, was also "cold" on the idea when he broached the subject.
 
Yet it remains a requisite that road users have an endorsed licence to ride a motorcycle or pilot a heavy truck.

This vexing issue has cooled following the introduction about two years ago of Electronic Stability Control systems from Al-Ko – and now Dexter – that take the ‘wag’ out of vans and boats created by poor loading, incident avoidance and side winds.

But these are band-aid measures that only mask the problems that inexperienced drivers in charge of heavy rigs represent.

"They said ‘show us the death statistics that prove that caravanners are a danger to themselves and others’, but this is not the CIAV’s primary role," said Lucas about his industry. "However I’m sure the problem can be quantified by the caravan repair industry and insurers if required."
 
What do you think? Are untrained and inexperienced towers of boats, vans and trailers a major menace on our roads?