DVSA: compliance with Driver CPC rules ‘near total’
The vast majority of truck and bus drivers have complied with Driver CPC regulations and undertaken 35 hours of approved training or passed the necessary test modules when acquiring their licences, according to the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA).
Periodic training regulations came into force on 10 September 2014 at the end of the first five-year training period for truck drivers. Drivers of lorries, buses and coaches must now complete 35 hours of training every five years to stay qualified, and newly-qualified LGV and PCV drivers must pass modules two and four of the vocational driving test before they can drive commercially.
More than 89,000 roadside checks were carried out by the DVSA between 11 September 2014 and 31 August this year. Only 1,400 Driver CPC-related offences were recorded and the majority of these appear to relate to a failure to produce the qualification card when required rather than driving while unqualified.
DVSA enforcement service manager Gordon Macdonald said: “We are very pleased that the evidence from our roadside checks shows the vast majority of professional drivers have completed Driver CPC training as required.
“CPC training helps all professional drivers to keep their skills and knowledge fully up to date. It also allows them to gain new skills such as first aid or eco-driving techniques, and can help to improve road safety as well as saving money for operators.
“DVSA enforcement officers will continue to routinely check the Driver CPC status of professional drivers, and anyone in breach of the rules risks being fined or prosecuted.”
Traffic commissioner for Scotland and lead commissioner on DCPC, Joan Aitken, said: “This is welcome news and is consistent with the limited number of occasions when TCs have needed to take action against operators and drivers.”
James Firth, head of licensing policy and compliance information at the Freight Transport Association, said: “FTA is pleased to see these figures today which reflect what we had expected. Since the September 2014 deadline passed the picture from the DVSA roadside checks has been that compliance levels are high, and these figures illustrate the message the freight industry has embraced Driver CPC.
“There have been some massive changes in legislation affecting drivers in the past 12 months, so whilst industry is compliant we believe that the best way to keep up-to-date with this is to take Driver CPC at a day a year.”
The FTA has launched a new Driver CPC prospectus for this five-year training cycle with a plea to operators to keep their training programmes up-to-date.
FTA training manager Keith Gray warned that leaving Driver CPC training to the last minute next time round could create a bottleneck at the 2019 deadline. The first deadline on 10 September 2014 saw a rush of drivers registering for training with just weeks to go.
Mr Gray said: “It’s hard to tell if operators are being quicker on the uptake this time round, but we do know that a significant number of Driver Qualification Cards (DQCs) were issued after the September 2014 deadline. This would suggest that not all of the training in 2015 has been those starting again.
“If we are slower to get started, it will mean that the peak experienced in 2014 will be even greater. Supply will rush into the market to satisfy the demand but this can have an adverse relationship with availability, price and quality of training provision.”
The FTA has launched its own training consortium so members can either use FTA material and administrative support to deliver training using their own staff, or gain approval for their own material and develop courses that exactly match their own training needs.
