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Trainers will pass on river CPC price hike
Page 6
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by Roanna Avison THE COST OF Driver CPC training could spiral after Skills for Logistics (SfL) introduced a huge hike in the amount companies have to pay to get a course approved.
Previously, its cost £250 to get a course checked by SfL, regardless of the length of the training, but prices have now been hiked to £36 per hour.
This means a training company will still have to pay around £250 to get a one-day course approved, but a five-day course will cost £1,260, John McKenna, a partner at Flint-based Chevron Training, which plans to offer CPC training for LGV and PCV drivers, says the industry was given less than 24 hours' notice. "SfL and DSA claim there was a consultation and everyone agreed with it, but I've heard nothing about it before now.
"The course takes 15 days to approve, so there's no way I can submit my course in time."
McKenna says the 400% rise in cost to register a course will force him to pass the increase on to customers.
Ed Parteger, managing director of Leatherhead-based EPTraining, also says he heard nothing about a consultation and did not know about the price rises until 24 hours before they came into force.
"We had been taking the time to ensure our courses will be what the customers want before submitting them for approval.
"Now we will have to pay more than £1,200 to have the courses approved. I don't know how they can justify that cost for someone to spend a few hours checking a course complies with the syllabus."
Parteger also says he will have to pass on the extra cost to customers, but says the big problem is that it is an upfront cost, and there is no guarantee that SIL, will approve the course.
Rachel Taylor, programmes and quality services manager at SfL, says: "At the end of 2007, the DSA carried out a consultation on various aspects of the Driver CPC. Part of this consultation looked at the cost of course approval. It was decided that approval for courses lasting five days should not be charged at the same rate as approval for a one-day course that would then be run each year for five years.
"The option of one-day training per year is the route suggested by stakeholders as industry best practice. The cost implications of running the courses in this way would differ greatly, as would the income received by the training providers, and therefore the DSA set a charge of £36 per hour of training."