UHRICEK, Vladimir
Czech Technical University, Faculty of Transportation Sciences, Prague
Abstract: The technical development of the whole national economy in the recent years has been accompanied by the growth quantity and quality of the university educated specialists in the branch of machinary, civil engineering, chemical industry, agriculture etc. The result of such phenomenon for the transport industry was the establishing of the Transport and Communication University in Zilina and later in the Czech Republic Jan Perner's Transport Faculty by the University Perdubice and Transport Faculty by the Czech Technical University in Prague. Management of the road transport industry requires the knowledge of the carriage, therefor it demandes the multidisciplinary education (technology, economy, legal prescriptions, management, information system etc.), and the knowledge of or several world languages. Very important part of the education in the time of preparation of the Czech Republic concerning the access to the European Union are the international multilateral and bilateral agreements, international standards and prescriptions. Graduated road transport specialists have the possibilities to become private road transport operators, to be employed by the road transport industry, research institutes, central state and regional authorities, traffic police etc. or can continue in scientific studies.
Keywords: transport, road, specialists, university, education
The new phenomenon has appeared in the transport during the recent decades. It was the needs of the university graduated specialists for the management staff of transport organizations, industrial organizations, regional administrative authorities, state authorities, traffic police etc. These needs were the result of the technical development, the centralization of the operation and maintenance of the technical means, the establishing of the new transport systems, demands concerning the increasing of enonomic effectivity, demands concerning the increasing of the traffic and transport safety and the increasing of the international trade. Except for above mentioned the pressure on the high professional level of the management staff of the road transport industry has been the permanent growth of the national and international legal prescriptions and the number and the volume of the international agreements. This facts has been accompanied by the demand on the knowledge of the foreign languages. The fairly big reason was also the fact, that in other branches of our national economy the activity of which are wery closed with the transport, it means the civil engineering, bulding, industry, chemie, national and international trade, agriculture etc., the management has been formed by the university graduated specialists. From the point of view of psychology this fact has been the next reason for the transport organizations, for the road transport industry and for the road transport operators to try on the professional equality with these branches.
Referred situation in the former Czechoslovakia has conduced to the establishing of the Railway University in Prague and its changing to the Transport University in Zilina, which has extended its scope on the branch of communications by its changing on the Transport and Communication University (today's University Zilina). Already in this time the territorial excentricity of this University had the influence namely in the road transport. Students of this University have hailed particurarly from Slovakia and from the east side of the imagin line Ostrava - Brno - Znojmo. The enterprises and organizations of the road transport in the west and south Bohemia have had not enough of the university graduated managers specialised on the road transport. This shortage has been solved either by the graduated specialists from the mechanical, economic, agricultural, juridical or other faculties, which had not specialized on the road transport before the praxis, or by the graduates of the foreign universities, in particurarly of sovietic universities.
Essential changes have come out after the dividing of Czechoslovakia into two independent states. Till this time has been no university intempted on the transport. Several technical universities have attemted to solve this shortage and prepared the proposals to establish the transport faculties. After the discussion of the possibilities and needs in this branch were established Transport Faculty of Jan Perner by University Pardubice and Transport Faculty by the Czech Technical University Prague and gave them the so called "acreditation". The inclusion the transport managment into the program of the technical universities acknowledged also the demands on the persons interested on twosemestrs postgraduated study ensured by the American Rochester University and London School of Economic, which prefered the graduates of the technical faculties having a knowledge of the professional acticity, they would manage. The education of the specialists in the technical universities specialized on the road transport industry has the multidisciplinary character mainly intended on obtaining technical knowledges necessary for the control of the road transport operation, technical maintenance, optimalization of the fleet of vehicles and the traffic and carrige safety. The contemporaneous education has to be intent on the management of the main activity, it means on the technology of carriage of load and persons. The complication of these problems comes out from the reality, that the road transport carries practicaly all substantial, alive and not alive, what exists on our planet. Such activity assumes the knowledge of physical, chemical, biological and other features carried loads from the point of view their carriage. With this must be connected the study of basic legal, financial, taxation, accounting guestions, informatic, computer technic and other knowledges necessary for the management of the transport activity. The transformation of our economy having passed in the recent years, which had been demonstrated by the privatization and decentralization, has increased the needs of such educated specialists. About forty thousands private road transport operators are registred today, what from the point of view of the head representative of International Road Union (IRU) stands great task before our road transport to increase the professional level of the road transport managing staff. Former great national enterprises of the road transport, which had e.g. ten thousands emploees and several thousands of road commercial vehicles, buses and coaches, could finance several university graduated specialists, whose activity was dedicated to the special problems and which controled the activities of other departments of the enterprises. Contemporaneous small road transport operators have not such possibilities already.
In the recent time and in the future even more will be accent the professional level of control and responsible staff. Already today is prescribed in Czech Republic by the law concerning the road transport No. 111/1994 Sb. with the changes of the law No. 3O4/1997 Sb. and their executive prescriptions for the operation in the international road load transport, in the international bus transport, in the public bus transport and in taxi transport to prove the professional qualification by passing through the examination in writting at the local authorized regional transport authority. Graduates of the transport faculties of universities are liberated from this examinations in the case of fullfiling the conditions refered in these laws. Slovak Republic is in this way further, because in the law concerning the road transport No 168/1996 Zb. prescribes to prove the professional qualification for the operation of all kinds of road transport by the examination in writing. This examination compensates the university or high school education in the field of road transport and the practice of the operater having worked in the management of road transport not less than five years.
In this time and mainly in the future preparing years to access of the Czech Republic to the Europian Union, when will be realized the harmonization and unification of Czech juristic prescriptions with prescriptions of EU, will be accentuated the basic knowledge of international agreements concerning technology, operation, carrige and safety of road transport. Very important will be in this connection the study of foreign languages, namely English, French and others. Today's and future graduates of the transport faculties, specialized on the road transport will be able to assert themselves as the enterprisers, operators and head employees in this kind of transport, as the managers of the transport enterprises, in the design, research and development organizations of the transport, civil engineering, bulding, machinery, in regional and central state authorities, inspection authorities, traffic police etc. or can continue in the PhD study.