Let the industry decide on Driver CPC
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By Laura Hailstone
THE FREIGHT Transport Association (FTA) has told the European Commission (EC) that the freight transport industry is best placed to identify driver training — not politicians.
In its submission to the EC's consultation on the Driver CPC Directive, which closed last week (25 October), the FTA emphasised that driver training requirements should be led by the industry.
"The FTA is mindful that driver training must be right for the individual driver and their requirements.
"We realise that this may not be an easy problem to solve, but we don't believe that the answer should be 'onesize-f its-all', as it usually becomes 'onesize-f its nobody very well'," said James Firth, FTA head of road freight and enforcement policy.
If the specific training content is defined by politicians — either in Brussels or Westminster — we run the risk of drivers investing time and money on redundant training.
"For instance, a driver in the retail sector should not be forcibly required to be trained in loading and securing aggregates.
"There is a challenge still in engaging drivers fully with the Driver CPC, but insisting on irrelevant training is a sure-fire way to alienate them further." Although the FTA understands the EC has no specific agenda with regards to the
consultation, Firth said: "The EC is testing the water to taking more direct control over how we train our drivers."
He added: "There is a clear theme running through the consultation document — harmonisation — and that's what we want to raise concern about. There are a lot of UK operators who have put together quality, effective training based on the framework of Driver CPC.
"If you start saying 'there is a problem, so let's think of a law to resolve it', that's going to [have a heavy impact] on operators who have already got effective Driver CPC training in place."
The FTA is asking for Brussels to keep the flexibility that already exists within the directive, possibly even expanding it.
"We've given the same message to Westminster as well, and we're going to be working with the Driving Standards Agency [DSA], JAUPT, the Department for Transport [DfT] and all the other stakeholders, to make sure we can raise standards in the UK, without the need for laws from Brussels," added Firth.
The DSA's own consultation into the effectiveness of Driver CPC concluded on 16 October. Responses were due to be fed into the DfT's formal submission to the EC's consultation.
"I am going to be pressing the DfT to ask if we can see what they sent to the commission," added Firth.
The outcome of the EC's consultation isn't expected until the new year.