Are your drivers compliant before the deadline?

If you employ professional drivers that operate a bus, truck or coach, they must complete 35 hours of periodic training every 5 years to keep your Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC). The time has come around again for CPC training and the deadline is 9th September 2019. If you do not, you can be fined up to £1,000 for driving without Driver CPC.

Find Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) periodic training courses at approved training centres if you’re a lorry, bus or coach driver. Only approved courses taken with approved training centres count towards periodic training.

Recent EU legislation means that driving big vehicles now is regulated.

So how does Brexit affect this?

With many questions surrounding leaving the EU, mainly for hauliers and transport businesses. One of the most asked questions surrounding CPC training was about whether Brexit would affect it, the training service has said “We have already received calls from people asking whether they should book their Driver CPC Course or not. Some even thought the Driver CPC would now be cancelled because the UK has voted to leave the EU Let’s face it – Driver CPC came from the EU didn’t it? The answer, for now, is quite simple; The vote to leave the EU will have absolutely no impact at all. For DRIVER CPC nothing has changed.”

In summary, regardless of all speculation of CPC training being scrapped due to Brexit – this could not be further from the truth. CPC Training is mandatory and needs to be completed before the deadline.

Who doesn’t need the full Driver CPC?

You don’t need the full Driver CPC if you:

  • don’t want to drive for a living, for example, you want to drive for a hobby or carry passengers or goods non-commercially for personal use
  • drive in certain other situations, such as taking your vehicle for a pre-booked annual test (MOT)

What are the exemptions?

Drivers do not need a Driver CPC if the vehicle they drive:

  • has a maximum authorised speed not exceeding 45 kilometres per hour
  • is used by, or under the control of, the armed forces, civil defence, the fire service and forces responsible for maintaining public order
  • is undergoing road tests for technical development, repair or maintenance purposes, or is a new or rebuilt vehicles which have not yet been put into service
  • is used in states of emergency or assigned to rescue missions
  • is used in the course of driving lessons for any person wishing to obtain a driving licence or a Driver CPC
  • is used for non-commercial carriage of passengers and/or goods or for personal use
  • is carrying material or equipment to be used by the driver in the course of his or her work, provided that driving the vehicle is not the driver’s principal activity
  • is on a technical road test (to diagnose a fault or validate after a repair)

You still need to pass part 1 (theory) and part 3 (driving ability) tests of the qualification.

For more information on CPC please visit the GOV Website – www.gov.uk/driver-cpc-training

Source – Exemption