Positive side of the Driver CPC
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I WRITE AS AN owner-driver and Driver CPC trainer. I’ve completed my 35 hours of training for which I’ve had to go to other trainers because I can’t count hours I spend delivering training towards my required total. It has given me the opportunity to assess other trainers.
I’ve had various amounts of abuse at the start of a course, usually along the lines of “I’ve been driving for 25 years, what the f*** are you going to teach me?” I’ve also had the satisfaction of those same drivers coming up to me at the end of the course, shaking my hand and saying: “Thank you, I have learned something.” I understand that few people like spending money on something being forced on them which they see as pointless. However, my own experiences tell me that there is room for the Driver CPC.
The industry hasn’t been great at ensuring the correct information is dissipated correctly and fully. The secret is to see the Driver CPC as something positive and try to select good trainers and courses that will be of value – which might not be purely driving related; first aid for example.
Selecting good trainers is more difficult, there are some who don’t know their stuff well enough. A driver told me he’d been on a course where he was told you have to show 15 minutes on a tacho at the start of a shift, which is wrong.
We now have the prospect of an online anti-Driver CPC petition on the basis that classroom lessons tell them things they already know (CM 24 May). If a course at least confirms that what you think is right is in fact right, then it has been worthwhile. My experience tells me that people don’t know fully what they should.
The thing that devalues the Driver CPC is that one could do the same course time and again, which is stupid, as well as not making full use of what is a necessity.
My only concern looking towards the 2014 deadline is that the powers that be decide to extend the deadline because not enough people have got on with their training. That would be a slap in the face for all the drivers who have spent money in an effort to comply.
Vernon Hill