The EU is proposing to stop drivers from having more than one seven hour training session on the same subject during any five year period
The European Union is to consider a number of changes to Driver CPC legislation, including prohibiting the same training content being delivered more than once within the same round of periodic training.
The proposal has drawn criticism from the industry, because of some drivers benefitting from more complex subjects being revisited over the five year period.
Alec Horner, CEO of the Association of Trainers, made a detailed response to the proposals: “Although Driver CPC may not be perfect, I believe the UK adopted the Directive as well as any EU state and the proposals do not make life any easier.
“While many people criticise the fact that you can do the same course five times, if drivers did drivers hours and tachographs once a year for five years, many of them still wouldn’t fully understand. If regulations change, say for the new tachographs being introduced in 2019, a driver might not be able to be trained under Driver CPC, so it will actually increase the amount of training drivers have to do.
“Also, a First Aid certificate only lasts for three years, so valid First Aid training will have to be dropped for part of a driver’s five-year cycle. An alternative I would propose is that you can’t repeat a course within say two years.
“Another issue is who is going to check what courses a driver has done, especially if they’re self-employed and attend five courses at five different training providers. Is the driver going to be fined for completing the same course twice?
“As to the proposal for including a course on ‘road safety,’ this is rather baffling as I believe that the majority of current courses are road safety-related. Who will decide what qualifies and who will monitor that a driver has completed one of the specified courses – more bureaucracy I fear!
“The likely timescale for implementation these proposals appears to be quite short, but whether or not they’re introduced before Brexit remains to be seen.”
The Freight Transport Association said it was concerned that proposed revisions to Driver CPC could limit operators’ ability to provide relevant training for their drivers.
It said Driver CPC is valued by FTA members and the wider road freight industry as a means of recognising driving as a profession and demonstrating and benchmarking the skills required.
Chris Yarsley, FTA’s EU Affairs Manager, commented: “Driver CPC is one piece of EU legislation that our members are very keen to preserve because it validates the role of the driver and gives individuals a sense of professional worth.
“However, one of the proposed revisions prevents training on the same subject within the five-year period. Therefore, an unintended consequence could be that a driver would undertake training that was less relevant to his or her role just to fulfil the statutory requirement.”
