Time for change
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A new campaign to ensure the industry makes the most of the Driver CPC has been launched
steve.hobsoniarhi.co.uk THE PROBLEMS WITH the Driver CPC are legion and that's why CM and its sister title Motor Transport (MT) have launched the Make It Work! campaign to ensure the initiative is rethought so that the road transport industry can actually benefit from it.
The campaign makes demands not only of those that govern and administer Driver CPC. but also those who are compelled to meet its obligations operators and drivers (see box).
Driver CPC came into effect on 10 September 2009. Most of the 500,000 drivers of HGVs over 3.5 tonnes must undertake at least 35 hours of training approved by the Joint Approvals Unit for Periodic Training (JAUPT) by September 2014 to continue to drive professionally. A similar requirement for passenger service vehicles (PSV) drivers came into effect in September 2008.
Major concerns • Many operators fear that tens of thousands of drivers especially the self-employed in their late 50s will decide to quit the industry rather than put themselves through the Driver CPC.
• Responsible fleet operators are spending millions of pounds with quality training providers to ensure they and their drivers get the maximum benefit from the Driver CPC. They are being undermined by rogue operators and drivers who are abiding by the letter, but not the spirit of the law.
• Vetting of those supplying apparently JAUPT-accredited training is simply nowhere near robust enough. Getting JAUPT approval to provide Driver CPC training involves no more than submitting the right paperwork and writing a cheque for iL500, and this has allowed low-quality training to be delivered both by operators and inexperienced training providers. JAUPT was set up by the two sector skills councils involved in commercial vehicle driver training, Skills for Logistics (S1L) and GoSkills. At the end of April, JAUPT had approved 821 training centres. of which 90% offer LGV only or both LGV and PSV training. JAUPT also approved 1.786 Driver CPC courses, 80% of which were LGV or both LGV and PSV. With only eight auditors. JAUPT can inspect just a small proportion of these centres, and says approved centres may receive an inspection visit sometime before 2014.
• Drivers can also get away with just turning up because they are not required to undertake any test or assessment al the end of a course to prove they learned anything. While some of the better training providers do offer employers the option of a test. this must be carried out after the seven hours' training if the course is to count towards the Driver CPC.
• JAUPT will only respond to written complaints about poor quality training.
• Astonishingly, given the importance of getting 500,000 LGV drivers through the Driver CPC by September 2014, the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) does not differentiate between LGV and PSV drivers who undertake courses. So while the DSA reveals that 180,614 drivers attended 20,603 courses between September 2009 and 5 May 2010, there are no accurate figures for the rate at which LGV drivers are clocking up the hours and whether the industry is on track to hit the target of 35 hours for every driver by 2014.
• While major own-account and haulage fleets have put in place plans to either deliver the Driver CPC in-house, through consortia or via third-party training providers, there are concerns that smaller operators and self-employed owner-drivers remain largely ignorant of the Driver CPC and what it means for them. This is because of a blase attitude among operators and drivers, and because the DSA has failed to put in place any largescale marketing campaign to explain the importance of the Driver CPC and the consequences of missing the deadline.
• Another weakness of the Driver CPC scheme is that there is no requirement to undertake one day's training per year or to undertake a variety of courses over the five-year period. As the scheme currently stands, there is nothing to stop a driver doing five consecutive days on the same course and walking away with a Driver CPC valid until 2019.
If the Driver CPC is not to become a huge missed opportunity. the weaknesses in the scheme must be addressed, operators must ensure training is relevant and of high quality, and drivers have to ensure they are undertaking periodic training, not leaving it to the last minute.
• See the 21 June issue of MT for an interview with Mick Jackson, chief executive of Sit and a director of JAUPT.