THE IMPROVEMENT CONCEPTION OF DRIVERS TRAINING AND EXAMINATION SYSTEM IN LITHUANIA

!e current paper presents the structure of the drivers training and examination system existing in Lithuania and describes the interrelations between the institutions involved in the said process. In course of analysis of models of drivers training and examination systems of various countries, their advantages and imperfections are highlighted. !e experience of Germany, Holland, Sweden and Great Britain in the sphere of training and examination of motor vehicles drivers is described. In the end of the paper, conclusions and recommendations for improving the quality of drivers training and examination system as well as tra#c safety in Lithuania are provided.

In the majority opinion, a tra c event is only a collision of one or more vehicles when people su er to a certain extent. However, going deep to the problem, a tra c event is easily perceived to be much more complicated phenomenon that impacts not only some individuals but the whole state as well. In the year 2010, 300 persons perished and 4328 persons were injured in roads and streets of Lithuania, thus the total loss caused to the state treasury amounted to about 1.5 billion Litas (Lithuanian Road Administration under the Ministry of Transport and Communicationshttp://www.lra.lt).
One of the key problems of road transport is to ensure tra c safety in roads and streets of the country. In various scienti c studies, it was found that a majority of tra c events occurs through a fault of drivers and in particular -young drivers (Aufrère et al. 2003;Malik, Rakotonirainy 2008;Sadauskas 2003;Miškinis, Valuntaitė 2010). e object of this study is to ensure road tra c safety and improve versions for the drivers training and examination system.

Models of Drivers Training and Examination
In order to reduce the number of tra c events caused by the human factor, a great attention should be paid to improve drivers training and examination as well as their quali cation.
In some research works (Sadauskas 2006;Šliupas 2009;Miškinis, Valuntaitė 2010) found that drivers lack of knowledge related to safe driving of a vehicle and practical skills; they are not capable to assess a speci c tra c situation and the road conditions properly. At driving schools, future drivers are usually trained to the extent su cient only for passing the examination instead of training for safe driving and safe participation in tra c.
In Sweden and some other states of the world, no requirement on compulsory training of drivers before examination to gain a driver's license exists. In their study, Wolming and Wiberg (2004) explored an opportunity of introducing a two-phase training before examination for issuing a driver's license in Sweden. Striving to explore the dependence between examination of theoretical knowledge and practical driving on a road, the said authors carried out descriptive and logistic regression analysis. e results of the study showed that practical driving of future drivers on a road depends on the level of their knowledge in the theoretical test. In Wolming and Wiberg's (2004) opinion, a two-phase examination for issuing a driver's license should be suitable for Sweden.
In Sweden, there are two licensing institutions -Swedish Road Tra c Registry and Swedish National Road Administration Department. In the drivers training sector, the activities of the said institutions are bound with development of documents, registration of driver's licenses, training and examination of drivers (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institutehttp://www.vti.se).
e Road Tra c Registry is an extended part of Swedish National Road Administration. It is an agency involved in all matters related to vehicles and roads, including road building. Swedish National Road Administration Department is subordinated to the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications.
Swedish National Road Administration Department consists of the Vehicle Department and the department engaged in coordination of issuing driver's licenses. Both departments are responsible for formation of the policy and development of rights and regulations bound with vehicles and driver's licenses. In addition, the Vehicle Department controls tests of vehicles.
In this country, a person seeking to obtain a driver's license applies, rst of all, to the nearest branch. en he (she) can start frequenting a driving course at a driving school or taking private driving lessons. To begin with, a theoretical examination takes place; a er its successful passing, the date of an examination in practical driving is speci ed within the subsequent 8 weeks. When the examinations are passed, the documents of the candidate are sent to the Road Tra c Registry and the latter later sends the issued driver's license to the nearest post o ce. In the procedure of issuing a driver's license, the following institutions are involved: 91 branches involved in accepting applications for issuing driver's licenses; 29 testing centers of Swedish National Road Administration Department where examinations are arranged; the Road Tra c Registry involved in registration, production and issue of learner driver's licenses and usual driver's licenses; Swedish National Road Administration Department involved in control of training and examination of future drivers. e Road Tra c Registry is responsible for issuing the driver's licenses of all types. Information on issued driver's licenses is accumulated in the database; it is not a subject of selling. In Sweden, 5.3 million of driver's licenses have been issued. Mynttinen et al. (2010) examined the models of drivers training in Finland and Austria striving to nd the existing and new evidences for supporting the idea of the second compulsory phase of drivers training. Earlier studies showed that a bene t of the second phase of drivers training in respect of tra c safety is questionable. e authors state that the interval between the rst and second phases of training should not be too long. e empirical part of the said study consists of two individual questionnaires for novice drivers. e candidates who had completed the second phase of training in Austria caused less tra c rules violations and tra c events in comparison to those who did not complete it.
e used models showed that participants of tra c from Finland rapidly completed the second phase of training which acquired the economic driving skill only.
In Australia, as in a majority of states of the world, programmes of compulsory training for young drivers at driving schools are separated from issuing driver's licenses. Senserrick (2007) discusses the pre-learner and provisional phases of training for issuing driver's licenses and reviews the national system of issuing driver's licenses. In Australia, possibilities of starting to teach driving younger persons, to involve parents more actively in this kind of process and availability of a larger number of programmes at school were discussed with. Various measures, such as prolonged supervised practice and issuing a driver's license a er a longer period, which caused positive results, are reviewed. All said initiatives provide a hope that the number of persons perished and injured in tra c events caused by young drivers will be reduced in the nearest future (Senserrick 2007). e goal of drivers training set in North America is to train safer drivers, those who usually are interpreted as drivers less prone to cause tra c events. Mayhew (2007) discusses upon the level achieved by the drivers training up to now. e author analyzes the past experience, recent achievements and the trends of drivers training in the future and discusses to the extent of the concern of the said with licensing of the drivers trained at the schools. It is not proven yet that such programmes Transport, 2011, 26(2): 224-231 of instructional licensing increase the e ciency of safety -actually, some practices of drivers training, such as 'time discounts' , reduced the safety of youth. e current and future attempts to improve drivers training and to integrate it better in the training programmes for licensing should be assessed precisely to establish what does reduce and what does increase the frequency of tra c accidents caused by young drivers and to identify the causes of them. e programme of drivers training in Norway is intensive, systematic and comprehensive. Rismark and Sølvberg (2007) studied the situation in all spheres of the programmes of drivers training in Norway for over 5 years. In their study, the authors provide their ndings based on communication between instructors and trainees on practical driving and discuss how instructors would be able to use such a dialogue as an e ective training instrument. On teaching the trainees to be responsible drivers, the instructors use both 'clarifying' and 'elaborative' processes. Reciprocal understanding is a process of permanent dialogue where concepts turn into mediatory instruments. When the said conceptual worlds of the instructor and the trainee merge together, the basis for further processes in practical driving on a road appears.

EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE
In Germany, institutions of federal states care about licensing of vehicles. e scope of the activities of the vehicle licensing institution KBA (Kra fahrt-Bundesamt -Federal Motor Transport Authorityhttp://www. kba.de) established by them is much narrower as compared to analogous organizations of other countries. KBA is an institution for recognition of motor vehicles; in addition, it supervises and controls three federal registers. One of them covers registration of vehicles, and two others -the procedure of obtsining driver's license. KBA obtains the data for the registers from branches of federal states. In the rst register, information from 450 vehicles registering branches is collected and in two other registers -from 650 branches engaged in issuing driver's licenses. Actions of KBA are coordinated by the Ministry of Transport and Construction that is responsible for formation of the policy of the activities of this institution.
In Germany, the following procedure of obtaining a driver's license is valid. A candidate submits an application for issuing a driver's license at the nearest branch of KBA. en he (she) provides a medical certi cate. e data are veri ed in KBA central register (VZR and ZFER). In absence of any obstacles, the candidate is provided a series number to be xed in the local and the central registers. To obtain a driver's license, the theoretical and practical examinations should be passed. e procedure of drivers training and examination is set and their quality is supervised by the relevant institutions of federal states. Both private and federal companies are involved in training and examination (Kra fahrt-Bundesamt 2011).
In Holland, the administering institution RDW (Vehicle Approval and Information) is engaged in this sphere. In the sector of drivers licensing, the said insti-tution is engaged in issue and registration of driver's licenses as well as replacement of foreign licenses. Drivers are trained at accredited schools. Drivers' examination is carried out by CBR (Driving Test Organization) -organization for examination in driving (Federal Highway Administrationhttp://international. wa.dot.gov).
In respect of issuing driver's licenses, partners of RDW are municipal bureaus where such licenses are issued. RDW is an independent administrative institution (a kind of a governmental agency) subordinated to the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management.
For obtaining a driver's license, a candidate should frequent a driving course at an accredited driving school. At school, the candidate submits the application for passing examinations in driving theory and practice. CBR supervises driving schools and coordinates their activities; it arranges the examinations as well. e driving right remains in force until the person becomes 70 years old; however, the driver's license should be replaced once in 10 years in order to replace the photo and update the personal data. Driver's licenses are issued by municipal bureaus (municipalities). About 900000 licenses are issued annually.
What is more, in Holland, the Central Register of Driver's Licenses managed by RDW exists. In the Register, the data of a driver's license and its bearer are collected. e data come to the Register from municipalities, courts and supervising agencies via computer networks. Information stored in the Register is usable by various public institutions, such as police, municipalities, the Ministry of Justice. Such information is not accessible to an ordinary citizen. Total about 9 million of driver's licenses are registered.
In Great Britain, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLAhttp://www.d .gov.uk/dvla) is involved in drivers and vehicles licensing. e key tasks in the sphere of vehicle licensing include registration, taxation, search and maintenance of vehicles. A majority of the said activities are coordinated and carried out by the central o ce of DVLA.
DVLA is one of four agencies of the Transport Department. Each agency is subordinated to the public sector. DVO (Driver, vehicle and operator) group of agencies includes the following agencies: Driving Standart Agency (DSA) involved in development of driving tests and supervision of driving schools and about 31800 driving instructors; Vehicle Certi cation Agency (VCA) involved in technical examination for substantiation of certi cation; Tra c Area Network (TAN) involved in issuing licenses for vehicles and bus companies; Vehicle Inspectorate (VI) involved in regulation of technical examination. In April 2003, TAN and VI merged together. In Great Britain, a driver's license may be issued to a person being at least 17 years old. However, until a driver is under 18 years old, the vehicle he (she) drives should be marked with the letter 'L' (learner) and the person is issued with a license of a learner driver. Foss (2007) states that the training phase of graduated driver licensing (GDL) system should be long enough for providing the comprehensive introduction to the peculiarities of driving for novice drivers. On the second or interim phase, the known risk conditions are required for making the novice drivers to feel responsible for the vehicle. For improving GDL functioning, it is necessary to perceive better driving by teenagers, so further results will depend on the attempts to become more aware of the real causes of accidents made by teenagers as well as the nature and the types of non-safety of juvenile drivers. e driving examination consists of the theoretical and practical parts. A er their passing, the person is provided a certi cate that remains in force for two years. If the person does not collect too many penalty points within the said period, the above mentioned document is replaced for a usual driver's license. Otherwise, the whole procedure is repeated from the start. e documents and applications for issuing driver's licenses are sent to DVLA by mail. e driver's license remains in force until the person becomes 70 years old. However, the photo in it is replaced once in 10 years. At present, DVLA issues 930000 new driver's licenses annually. Information on 38 million driver's licenses is collected in DVLA database. Hedlund and Compton (2005) carried out studies on the risk factors of young drivers, assessments of GDL programme, the role of the parents in training young drivers and education of drivers. e obtained results con rmed the importance of the said licensing and a necessity of limitation of night-time driving and the number of passengers; in addition, they supported a necessity to prolong a supervised driving practice.

e Structure and the Functional Links of Lithuanian System of Drivers Training and Examination
e today structure of Lithuanian system of drivers training and examination is provided in Figure  e Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania sets the qualifying requirements for drivers of motor vehicles and motorcycles, the conditions and the procedure of drivers training to obtain a driver's license for certain categories of vehicles, the standards for enterprises engaged in drivers training or instruction in driving.
e Ministry of Interior of Republic of Lithuania sets the conditions and the procedure of examination to obtain a driver's license for certain categories of vehicles, formulates the standards for enterprises engaged in drivers' examination, organizes initial training and improvement of quali cation of examiners.
e Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania sets the requirements and the procedure of medical ex-amination for drivers as well as the procedure of teaching participants of tra c to provide the rst medical aid.
Medical and health care institutions examine the health status of candidates for drivers and of drivers, assess their ability to control vehicles, set restrictions for driving certain categories of vehicles and a periodicity of medical examination of drivers.
e State Road Transport Inspectorate under the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania controls an observance of the provisions of the quality standards of training at driving schools and of their training facilities as well as satisfaction of the conditions for training drivers of motor vehicles.
State-Owned Enterprise 'Regitra' (http://www.regitra.lt) is involved in theoretical and practical examination of future drivers. Candidates for drivers pass the compulsory examinations (one examination in the theory and two phases of examination in practical driving: the phase one -examination of the maneuvering skills in a closed ground or an autodrome; and the phase two -driving in test itinerary upon the real tra c conditions). ose candidates who passed the compulsory examinations, the State-Owned Enterprise 'Regitra' issues driver's licenses for a period of 10 years.
A driving school provides services in theoretical and practical driving to candidates for drivers and prepares them for the examinations. A driving school is an economic subject registered according to the procedure established in laws; in the documents of its incorporation, the activities of training in driving courses should be legitimated and it should obtain a certi cate for such activities (from the State Road Transport Inspectorate under the Ministry of Transport and Communications) con rming the adequacy of the conditions for training drivers of road vehicles and organizing special courses for drivers involved in transportation of dangerous cargoes according to the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR).
Training the drivers of motor vehicles should be arranged only a er expert's examination of the training facilities and only in the case of positive conclusions of such an examination. An examination is carried out after a submission of all duly executed documents.
A driving school is involved in training drivers of motor vehicles and should: conform to the provisions of the Regulations for Training and Improvement of Quali cation of Drivers of Motor Vehicles approved by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania; submit the following documents and information to the regional branch of the State Road Transport Inspectorate under the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania: ◆ an application for carrying out an expert's examination of its training facilities; ◆ the certi cate of registration of the driving school and its bylaws or another document where the activities in drivers training is legitimated; ◆ the documents certifying the right of ownership for the premises for drivers training, the autodrome or the driving ground or copies of contracts on lease or gratuitous use; ◆ a copy of the permit -hygienic passport issued by a public health center to certify that the training premises conform to the requirements of sanitary and hygiene. If the premises are granted on lease or for a gratuitous use, a copy of the permit -hygienic passport issued to the owner of the premises should be submitted. An observance of the conditions for training drivers of motor vehicles is controlled by the competent institutions (a competent institution is an institution authorized to arrange qualifying examinations for issuing a driver's license according to laws or other legal normson the base of the concepts identi ed in the order No. e task of a driving school is to prepare a driver that would cause no danger for him (her) self and other drivers while driving the vehicle, would not impede the tra c stream, would cause no damage to the environment and help to ensure safety of all tra c participants upon an observance of the driver's ethics and culture of driving, avoiding any violations of the tra c rules and following the instructions of tra c policemen.
e key criterion for assessing the quality of the activities of driving schools is the results of examinations of future drivers. Because of this, driving schools o en emphasize the theoretical knowledge of the graduates (not the practical skills in driving) striving to the maximum possible results of the examination, i.e. the maximum possible number of graduates having passed the examination on the rst try. Later the data on the results of schools are systematized and schools gain their ratings.

e Trends to Improve the System of Training and Examination for Drivers of Motor Vehicles
e preconditions for improving the system of training and examination for drivers of motor vehicles: it is necessary to develop a system of training for persons employed at motor transport enterprises to improve their quali cation to the level of the initial quali cation of drivers and transport spe-  to develop the competence and practical safe trafc skills of amateur drivers (in stress-related situations, upon infavorable weather conditions and so on), ensuring of certi cation/examination of the knowledge and skills of amateur drivers on a regular basis. e functions carried out by the safe tra c training system and the services provided by it. It is proposed to improve the safe tra c training system as follows: the system should involve all age groups of tra c participants; it should implement in practice a requali cation of professional drivers according to the requirements to the level of the initial quali cation of drivers and transport specialists and the regular training of them set in EU Directives 2003/39/ EC, 96/26/EC, and 2003/59/EC, i.e. a system of regular training and examination of professional drivers should be introduced and used; it should improve the competence of amateur drivers and develop their practical driving skills upon complicated tra c conditions: ◆ voluntary safe tra c courses for amateur drivers; ◆ a er enactment of the relevant legal normsintroduction and application of a systems of training and certi cation / examination of certain amateur drivers on a regular basis; it should form motivation for permanent safe traffic learning and developing practical safe driving skills in the community (participants of tra c in all age groups): ◆ dissemination of information on the status of safe tra c in the state; ◆ demonstrative events (such as contests, safe tra c competitions) that form the community's motivation for deepening the knowledge and improving practical skills in safe tra c; ◆ out-of-class activities (safe tra c circles, safe tra c courses) and events (safe tra c competitions) for children of pre-school and school age.
Candidates to safe tra c schools: Amateur drivers voluntarily striving to develop their practical skills in safe tra c / safe driving. At present, the number of M1 class vehicles registered in Lithuania exceeds 1.7 million. According to the pessimistic presumption, no more than 1.5% of amateur drivers, i.e. about 25 thousand drivers a year will frequent training arranged by safe tra c training centers.
Requali cation of drivers of trucks and buses of all types once in 5 years for implementation of the provisions of EU Directives 2003/39/EC, 96/26/ EC and 2003/59/EC on the initial quali cation of drivers and transport specialists as well as their regular training. At present, there are over 1500 carriers, i.e. transport enterprises, in Lithuania, and they have total over 15000 cargo-carrying vehicles and over 3000 buses. If we assume that one vehicle is used by 2 drivers on the average, there are total no less than 36÷40 thousand drivers of cargo-carrying vehicles and buses in Lithuania. It was estimated that events organized by safe tra c training centers would be visited by 7000 employees of the transport sector per year on the average, including 5000 drivers engaged on international itineraries. Drivers from special services (such as police, emergency medical aid, re-extinguishing service and so on); for them, development of practical driving skills should be compulsory. It was estimated that this target segment of safe tra c training centers would provide 500 drivers a year. Causers of tra c events (compulsory frequenting a safe tra c course plus examination). Because about 74% of all registered tra c events occur through a fault of vehicle drivers (drink-driving, exceeding the safe velocity, violation of the maneuvering rules and ignorance of tra c signs), it is estimated that this target segment of safe tra c training centers would provide 5000 participants of safe tra c course annually. Total the target market of safe tra c training centers would involve 37000 visitors annually. Other potential segments of participants of training courses arranged by safe tra c training centers: children of preschool age and of school age up to the 8th form (weekend safe tra c schools, safe tra c competitions), pupils from the 8th form (safe tra c courses and practical seminars as a supplement to the initial driving and trafc lessons at school), pupils of the 9÷12th forms voluntarily involved in development of practical driving skills. It is estimated that such clients of safe tra c training centers from the above-listed supplemental segments of the market can form about 15% of the target participants or 13000 persons annually. e total market of safe tra c centers would involve about 50 thousand visitors annually.

Conclusions and Recommendations for Improving the System of Training and Examination of Vehicle Drivers
1. For reducing the accident rate, Lithuania should pay a greater attention to propagation of safe tra c, development of safe tra c programmes, introduction of a safe tra c training system, development of practical and safe tra c skills in drivers, training of safe tra c professionals and improvement of their quali cation. e system should ensure improving the quali cation of drivers, continuous training of drivers and examination of their knowledge as well as development of safe tra c knowledge and skills in tra c participants of all age groups. 2. e experience of foreign countries shows that it is purposeful to issue a nal driver's license a er supplemental theoretical lectures in safe tra c, group conversations on issues related to tra c psychology, examination of driving skills by high-quality instructors, a er 1÷2 years, if too large number of penalty points is not accumulated. 3. On driving practice or an examination, a candidate does not meet into collision with a real danger, so there is no possibility to assess his (her) reaction and the actions carried out in such a situation, there re it should be purposeful to examine the psychophysical and psychomotor skills of candidates at certi ed laboratories using the special equipment for this purpose (in respect of drivers of vehicles of C and D categories such examination should be carried out on a regular basis). 4. One more problem is caused by motor vehicles of B1 category. Today in Lithuania, 1763 licenses for driving vehicles of the said category were issued. However, only 8 vehicles allowed for driving by drivers of category B1 were registered. So, it is doubtful that all drivers of category B1 drive vehicles of category B1. According to EU Directive 93/439, the category B1 is not compulsory. If this category is remained, the requirements and control in respect of training of drivers of category B1 should be toughened up. 5. To toughen up the control of complete implementation of programmes by driving schools, it is proposed to inspect the maximum possible number of driving schools by the institutions responsible for controlling the drivers training and to publish the results of such inspections. 6. EU Directives clearly describe the contents of the practical examination and the required inspections.
In the European Commission's Directive 2000/56/EC, the obligatory manoevres to be carried out by a candidate to drivers are set. However, some inspections are impossible under Lithuanian legal norms related to drivers training and examination. So, such legal norms should be improved taking into account EU Directives. 7. In addition, the examination procedure of vehicle drivers of higher categories should be toughened up as well. e experience of foreign states shows that the questions of the tests are provided publicly. However, rst of all, the set of questions of a theoretical examination should be at least doubled and then supplemented quarterly with new questions. In such a way, the candidates should be provided a motivation for learning. 8. In order to ensure a continuous improvement of quali cation of tra c participants, taking into account the integration of EU Directive 2003/59/EC in the national legal norms, establishing safe tra c training centers for improving the quali cation of drivers and their practical training as well as their requali cation would be purposeful in Lithuania.