What is CPC Driver Training?

What is CPC driver training?

It’s that time of year again that we felt we needed to speak about CPC training again. As you may already know, if you are driving a Lorries, coaches or buses for financial gain you are going to need a valid CPC. The CPC is now a requirement for anyone operating commercial vehicles in excess of 3.5T or more than 9 passengers for buses.

The CPC in the UK was put in place as part of a European Directive in 2009. Since that day employers and the government have been reminding drivers about this certification.

For drivers of buses, coaches and other passenger vehicles, the deadline for the CPC was 10 September 2013. On the other hand HGV drivers where given an extra year to complete the CPC. This means that every person operating a vehicle has now been qualified for CPC for 1 year!

So what is CPC driver training?

As a brand new driver there are two types of CPC depending on when you have passed the car test. If you obtained the car licence before 1997 then you will need to complete the 35 hours of periodic CPC. With regards to drivers who obtained the licence after this time you will need the initial qualification (module 2 and module 4).

For existing drivers you have to keep up to date with 35 hours of classroom based training. There are no testing involved in this training. The training involves classroom based training, which usually consists of 20 drivers learning about health and safety and day to day duties of being a driver.

All driver that have completed the CPC will receive a driver’s qualification card which must be on the driver’s person when they are working. This card as you can probably guess is only valid for 5 years, so no card means no CPC! What most drivers will do is keep up to date by either completing one module per year to always keep up to date, or complete a further 35 hours CPC to bank for the next 5 years.

Where We Are Now

With just over a year passed since the deadline there are still many drivers who have chosen not to do the CPC and have left the industry. There are also many drivers who are still driving and not taking these regulations seriously. There can be some serious consequences for these drivers.

At HGV Driver Training Centre, we offer classes of CPC all over the country. We always urge companies and drivers to keep up to date with CPC, as there can be some hefty implications if caught without CPC. The sooner the training is completed the better.