Driver CPC Training

North West CPC Training Centre CIC

Driver CPC – competence with confidence
The primary aim of Driver CPC is to improve road safety by training better qualified drivers to help reduce road casualties. Here, the Professional Drivers Association (PDA) maps out its support for this formal qualification and explains how it sees it improving the knowledge and skills of lorry drivers.
Training for vocational drivers has often been viewed as unnecessary and is generally only offered by larger companies. The PDA welcomes the introduction of Driver CPC for lorry drivers, which will take place from 10 September this year. The PDA sees this formal qualification replacing the less than reliable learning curve many professional drivers have to face alone, giving them more confidence in the knowledge and skills they’ve learned.
The wide range of modules available means that drivers and employers can adapt training to suit the individual needs of each operation.
Futureproofing skills
No matter how long a driver may have held their licence, there are always advances in technology and changes in legislation to contend with.
The training not only improves the knowledge and skills of newly fledged lorry and bus drivers, but also ensures that those skills are maintained and developed throughout the driver’s working life.

Getting new drivers on the road
Driver CPC introduces a new initial qualification for drivers entering the industry from 10 September 2009 which they must complete as part of their training in order to drive professionally. From a new driver’s point of view, the qualification will ensure that prospective employers have far more confidence in them, based on the knowledge that the basic procedures have been effectively covered during this training.

Training requirements
Driver CPC will require all category C and D licence holders (including C1 and D1) to
take part in 35 hours’ training every five years to maintain their qualification. It is estimated that this will affect approximately one million professional drivers and require around three million periodic training hours annually to ensure that regulations are met.
However, drivers have flexibility as to how they take the 35 hours’ training during the fiveyear period, providing training occurs in blocks of at least seven hours at one time. Alternatively the driver could leave all 35 hours to do in the fifth year.
So, although it is easy to sit back and wait, it’s not a good idea to wait too long, as many courses will be fully booked, and failing to complete this training removes your vocational entitlement to drive.


You can find out more about Driver CPC, including approved training courses, at www.drivercpcperiodictraining.org

Fixed penalties level the playing field
A fine June morning at Leatherhead saw VOSA Chief Executive, Alastair Peoples, brief representatives of the trade press, trade associations and the Irish Road Safety Authority on plans for the Graduated Fixed Penalty and Deposit (GFPD) scheme for the coming year.
Those present learned that GB and international traffic will be targeted in line with their risk to road safety, regardless of nationality.
Steve Hesmondhalgh, the VOSA Area Manager covering the Leatherhead site, was enthusiastic about what GFPD can do for enforcement. ‘This is a great opportunity for VOSA to make sure that the enforcement action we take is consistent across the board, irrespective of nationality,’ he said. ‘Graduated Fixed Penalties and Deposits reduces the amount of red tape in the system and allows VOSA and the courts to work more efficiently. The ability to immobilise dangerous vehicles will help us to meet our goal of reducing the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on British roads.’
The monies collected from the GFPD scheme are not retained by VOSA but are deposited into HM Treasury, in the same way that court fines are.

Good work on the day
As part of the press day, VOSA inspected total of 30 vehicles and trailers.
he examiners issued five prohibitions for overload, two delayed and five immediate mechanical prohibitions, and one prohibition for a drivers’ hours offence.
Nine deposit notices were issued for some f these offences. An immobilisation device was fitted to a Bulgarian vehicle, whose
driver was unable to pay the fine issued for a tyre bulge and overload .The driver received immediate prohibition notices for these defects and the vehicle remained on site until lunchtime the next day, when the driver had paid the fines and rectified the defects.
It takes two
These two linked but separate initiatives – the GFPD scheme and vehicle immobilisation
– have already proved their effectiveness. Although still in their early stages, these schemes have seen over 1,000 fixed penalties issued – over half of which went to drivers for foreign companies.