Growth in Driver CPC training demand stalls

2014’s growth in Driver CPC training stopped in April, with levels of hours delivered and cards issued during the month falling back to numbers less than those recorded in February. April 2014 was, however, still up on January, and considerably higher than April 2013.

April 2014 saw 762,312 hours of periodic training logged, and 32,548 cards issued to drivers who had completed their 35 hours of approved training. In contrast, March had seen 894,834 hours undertaken and 38,148 cards issued to drivers after 35 hours of training. April 2013 saw 625,382 hours logged and 18,964 cards issued on completion of 35 hours of training.

A number of factors could be at work here, including the ‘spending out’ of training budgets during March leading to a surge in demand before the end of the financial year, and the Easter holidays in April meaning that drivers were away on holiday and not able to take part in training.

The number of new drivers acquiring the qualification through examination also declined from 1,956 in March to 1,628 in April.

Training capacity appears to have topped out too. The number of training centres actually fell during April from 1,463 to 1,460, although the number of approved courses rose from 4,014 to 4,049.

The last time approved training centre numbers declined was in September 2013, when numbers fell by 46 to 1,415 following the end of the first tranche of PCV driver training.

The indications are that there will be a much greater decline in September of this year, when the first cycle of LGV training is completed.

A total of 749,491 drivers were active in the Driver CPC system (that is to say they had at least undertaken some training or acquired their card through initial qualification) at the end of April 2014.

In April 2013, that number stood at 624,931, indicating that during the last year over 10,000 drivers have engaged with the system for the first time each month.