A PACKAGE has been developed to help lorry drivers in Europe deal with customs, police, breakdowns and other problems.

The Centre for Enterprise & Business Development, based at Canterbury Christ Church University College, has come up with a package called languages for special purposes.

It aims to create a self-study course of training designed to help the freight driver get through a working day and has produced audio cassettes and a series of 10 prompt cards giving key words and phrases for each of 10 situations.

These have been identified after consultations with transport associations and operators in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, the Netherlands, Poland and the UK.

John Faulkner, of the Kent Transport Distribution Group and chairman of Kent-based Inter City Trucks, has been closely involved in the development of the package.

He consulted many of his UK and continental drivers who said they were impressed by the light-hearted, practical approach to potentially serious situations.

He said: "The job of commercial vehicle drivers is greatly undervalued. They all face similar daily problems of delivering goods, asking directions and sometimes reporting an accident and requesting medical help in a foreign language.

"In Bulgaria road signs and buildings are in the Cyrillic alphabet and our Bulgarian drivers have the reverse problem when trying to decipher the Roman alphabet on Western European signs.

"Languages for special purposes gives them clear guidelines and the confidence to communicate in these situations."

The cards and courses will be tested late next year and if successful could provide models for other parts of the European market.