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"The Driver CPC might save hauliers money as well as making the roads safer"
Page 49
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Drivers already holding a valid licence do not need to worry immediately about the 10 September deadline because they will have acquired rights. But this does not mean they should do nothing.
Both new CPC holders and those with acquired rights will be required to do 35 hours of 'periodic' training over every five-year period in order to retain their CPC entitlement This equates to about five days training in total The Driving Standards Agency (DSA), which is administering the Driver CPC, says it envisages the best way to carry out this training would be one day a year. There are no tests involved in this training, it is just "a practical hands-on assessment" in the words of the DSAS chief executive, Rosemary Thew. Training will be carried out all over the country by training providers licensed by Skills for Logistics and Go Skills.
Buses lead the way
The introduction of the Driver CPC has the advantage that it follows exactly one year after a similar scheme was introduced for bus and coach drivers in 2008.
The DSA says that more than 3,000 bus and coach drivers (the PSV sector started CPC training one year ahead of road haulage) have already taken the new test and nearly 2,500 have passed it.
_ _ . . _ But for the haulage business, the plans are not without controversy concerning the detail of the Driver CPC. The most recent issue has been about whether or not fitters and mechanics should be exempt (see panel right), but more generally, hauliers have expressed concerns that the training programmes will not be tailored to their needs and that disreputable hauliers will simply avoid the periodic training altogether.
But the DSA insists that the new Driver CPC will not only improve safety and make for better drivers, but it will also raise their status, too. In short, it argues, a beefed-up professional qualification for truck drivers will be good news all round. •