A manual of management
Page 35
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DAVID LOWE can justify his Study Manual of Professional Competence in Road Transport Management (Kogan Page; £14.50) on page 15. There, he reports that the June 1983 pass rate for the National (Certificate of) Professional Competence examination was as low as 44 per cent.
This is the fourth edition of the book and was published this year. It is based on the CPC syllabus as decreed by the Royal Society of Arts, which is the examining body.
Inevitably, some of the information from the same author's Transport Manager's Handbook is duplicated in this book, but it is none the worse for that. It is divided into two sections, one for the National CPC and the other covering the International CPC syllabus.
The National CPC section has chapter headings which cover road safety, technical standards and operational aspects, access to the GB market, business and financial management and law. The law section, for example, includes topics such as conditions of carriage, health and safety at work, industrial relations and — somewhat ominously — liquidation of a company. In the international section can be found details on permits and how to acquire them, Customs documentation and information on foreign weekend and night-time lorry bans.
At the end of each chapter there are relevant and typical CPC questions to help the prospective examination candidate. The book is written in the same style as Lowe's Transport Manager's Handbook; plenty of subheadings and numbered lists in order to present a mass of information as clearly and concisely as possible.
It is pretty well up to date, covering the sideguard legislation but missing the draft spray suppression standards. There are 365 pages.
Obviously useful for the CPC student, this professional competence manual also deserves a place on any transport manager's bookshelf on the grounds that you can never have too much information.
Kogan Page, 120 Pentonville Road, London Ni.