Little chance of CPC getting tougher
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HERE IS little likelihood of the Certificate of Professional Compeence standards being tightened in the foreseeable future, espe laity as a form of backdoor quantity licensing, the Organisation of 'eachers of Transport Studies learned last weekend, writes ALAN flILLAR.
Speakers from the Departnent of Transport and the Royal >ociety of Arts made clear that ecent changes to the CPC syllaws had stemmed from Junior "ransport Minister Kenneth :larke, as part of the Governnent's aim of helping small )usinesses, and that these had, f anything, made the examinaion easier.
DTp head of road freight Reg Dawson told OTTS members, -neeting at their annual conferance in Bromsgrove, Worces:ershire, that it was also highly unlikely whether any moves AmuId be made to implement the Foster Report recommendations on CPC.
No moves have been made at DTp to bring in an oral examination, and Mr Dawson suggested that it might well prove more daunting a prospect for a semiliterate candidate than a written examination. The exam had been made more practical — sections on axle weight limits have been dropped — largely on the insistence of the Government.
Nothing is intended on extending the CPC to the own-account sector, and he said that as CPC revocation would require legislation, and parliamentary time has still to be found for the sale of test stations, there is unlikely to be any move in that direction either.
While several delegates were keen for a higher, secondary level of CPC to be introduced, Mr Dawson saw little chance of this coming to anything.
"I don't think the Government will suggest it, as I haven't detected any great enthusiasm for the CPC among Government Ministers," he said.
RSA senior assistant secretary Janet Davidson brought talk of CPC down to earth with a bump, by reminding delegates: "The CPC is nothing to do with education. People need a CPC to work, and are not interested in it for education. It is just part of the licensing system."
She echoed Mr Dawson's points, by saying that the syllabus had been reduced in scope because the Government wanted to make conditions ea sier for the owner-driver, and said that the standard of the CPC could not be anything other than low.
The RSA had been told that the 65 hours' study time allowed for CPC was as much as the industry would bear, and any talk of excluding semi-illiterates from the industry would get nowhere because the present syllabus had been devised to help them.
Stressing that he was not advocating any change from the present regime, Mr Dawson said he was nonetheless surprised that the RHA did not ask Foster for quantity licensing, even' though neither the present Conservative nor the previous Labour Government had wanted it.