Freight Transport Association awarded IRTEC approved centre

The Freight Transport Association is delighted to have been awarded ‘IRTEC approved centre’ status by the sector skills council representative, IMI Awards. FTA will be focusing on the new Inspection Technician Licence within the IRTEC programme. IRTEC is a scheme for the testing and assessment of the competence of technicians who maintain and repair vehicles in the heavy goods, service and passenger carrying industries.

FTA has provided technical training products for the last 10 years to operators of commercial and passenger carrying vehicles. Larger fleet operators completing these training programmes have shown a marked improvement, with reduced mechanical defects and improved OCRS scores.

Lawrie Alford, FTA Strategic Business Manager said:
"I am convinced that regular technical training and assessment of technicians will improve fleet standards and performance. By providing the latest support and resources to this sector of the industry, competence-based assessments will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of workshops throughout the UK and provide a clear direction for companies’ training requirements. This will benefit operators with in-house workshops and contract repairers seeking to illustrate compliance improvement to their customers."

FTA currently offers a three-day specialist inspection training programme and a one-day Technical OLAT (Operator Licence Awareness Training) course – all delivered nationally, engineer-to-engineer at the customer’s premises, minimising workshop downtime. Technician assessments can be enhanced to include a company’s bespoke features if required.