Will Goods Vehicles be any different?
global.
I’ve not seen anywhere that’s absolutely screaming for bus drivers.
Nope, there is no shortage of bus drivers since September…
A lot of bigger bus companies put their drivers through the CPC, even the small coach form I work for (15ish drivers) put us through it when needed…
Yes! Who pays could perhaps make all the difference.
global
I work for a small bus firm,sadly a few older men said that they would just quit as the thought of being trained for a job that they had been doing for 40 plus years was just too ridiculous.They can still drive taxis though.
Some of the DCPC trainers I talk to have been quite busy doing 35hr stints with coach drivers since September…the ones who said they wouldn’t do it because it either wouldn’t be enforced or it would be easy for them to find well-paid jobs outside the industry. These guys are mostly part-timers or seasonal coach drivers.
But the fact remains that the bus industry is about 100 years ahead of freight when it comes to training people. Most of the big bus companies and quite a few small ones will help potential employees get their licences.
Most of the medium/large bus & coach companies were already regularly (re) training their existing drivers in-house…they just got their courses certified by JAUPT and carried on with business as usual.
It’s only in the truck industry that there’s this weird belief, held by both employers and employees, that people are born with a licence in their pocket and already know everything and therefore training them is a waste of time and money.
The bus & coach industry actually realises that drivers need to be trained and retrained. IIRC the number of people getting PCV licences actually INCREASED in the years following the inception of Driver CPC.
No shortage of bus / coach drivers where i come from. The 3 big playesr First ,Stagecoach , Arriva all done their DCPC in house. As far as i know first have a clawback clause if anyone leaves within a certain time scale.
All the bus /coach drivers i know who catogoricaly stated they would give up bus driving last September as they were not doing DCPC are alldriving buses / coaches.
Where i work the company paid for a full 5 days mon-fri coarse for everyone including mechanics ,support staff in fact antone who had a pcv got it paid for them. We also got a full 40hrs wages for attending.
I dont believe there will be a shortage of HGV drivers after september. some people are just full of wind.
ND888 BIGJ:
Where i work the company paid for a full 5 days mon-fri coarse for everyone including mechanics ,support staff in fact antone who had a pcv got it paid for them. We also got a full 40hrs wages for attending.
And that’s the trick I think most companies either paid their drivers to do it, or they just had their in-house training approved.
zaax:
ND888 BIGJ:
Where i work the company paid for a full 5 days mon-fri coarse for everyone including mechanics ,support staff in fact antone who had a pcv got it paid for them. We also got a full 40hrs wages for attending.And that’s the trick I think most companies either paid their drivers to do it, or they just had their in-house training approved.
It’s a shame many many transport & haulage firms aren’t following this example (not to mention agencies!!!). I think these straight-forward gestures would go a long way to alleviating a lot of the negativity surrounding DCPC Periodic Training. Bus & coach companies large & small have proved what can be achieved with a relatively small training budget & some forward planning!!
We’ll have to wait and see if there is to be any significant impact on the haulage industry - but not for too much longer!!!
Don’t worry about the bus companies, they’ve got it covered…
Daz1970:
zaax:
ND888 BIGJ:
Where i work the company paid for a full 5 days mon-fri coarse for everyone including mechanics ,support staff in fact antone who had a pcv got it paid for them. We also got a full 40hrs wages for attending.And that’s the trick I think most companies either paid their drivers to do it, or they just had their in-house training approved.
It’s a shame many many transport & haulage firms aren’t following this example (not to mention agencies!!!). I think these straight-forward gestures would go a long way to alleviating a lot of the negativity surrounding DCPC Periodic Training. Bus & coach companies large & small have proved what can be achieved with a relatively small training budget & some forward planning!!
We’ll have to wait and see if there is to be any significant impact on the haulage industry - but not for too much longer!!!
We have been told that the company wont be covering the cost of future DCPC training so we have about 5.5 yrs to sort it out although the office will help us apply for ILA towards future hours and try to negotiate discounts if a few of us book our days at the same time.
Going by what i read on here we are fortunate the company covered all costs of the training and loss of basic wages to gain our DCPC cards.
Worked as a bus driver for over 7 years, every now and again there was a huge shortage in drivers in the company I worked for, nothing to do with DCPC… they keep sacking people. Passenger complaint… Sack him, see if he appeals. Once they have done that for a few months they are short of drivers, they open up the training school and flood the place with new drivers, too many drivers now… Start picking them off. Or they have a sufficient amount of drivers, the company decides they want to reduce our hourly rate, drivers say no, so they say “Not directly” if you don’t accept a lower hourly rate, we will terminate all overtime by opening the training school and flooding the place with drivers, guys that do 50-60 hours a week ■■■■ themselves and vote to accept a small pay cut. Not for a second saying all bus companies are like this, the one I worked for were absolutely ruthless. With them opening up a training school, which I instructed in for a short period of time, and offering people training, uniform ect they have no problem attracting drivers, so don’t think DCPC will contribute much to a shortage of PCV drivers.
I did 23 years working for a bus company, it was originally Ribble then North West Road Car Co then Arriva, I statrf in 1986, I had passed my class 3 hgv a few months before so did 8 hours training in a crash box PSV class 1 and passed.
As the DCPC was coming I was in the office by then but was still offered the course but didnt want it as I had no plans to drive for a living again at that time let alone reactivate my HGV 
A guy I started with on the same day in 1986 is a trainer for Arriva and yes they are all given the relevant qualifications to proceed with in house training.
They also did random and planned assessments of drivers.
I was offered a job back on the buses a few months ago for £11 and hour by a mate 
Drift:
I was offered a job back on the buses a few months ago for £11 and hour by a mate
I went back on the buses in around 2003/2004 ish for £10 / hr (bearing in mind, that’s 10 years ago 
) so £11 / hr isn’t unbelievable now, and I still wouldn’t do it again
waynedl:
Drift:
I was offered a job back on the buses a few months ago for £11 and hour by a mateI went back on the buses in around 2003/2004 ish for £10 / hr (bearing in mind, that’s 10 years ago
Yer I was on about that £9 and some pennies about 2003 when I stopped driving, I think £11 maybe the new starter rate as that was introduced in the 80’s.
GasGas:
It’s only in the truck industry that there’s this weird belief, held by both employers and employees, that people are born with a licence in their pocket and already know everything and therefore training them is a waste of time and money.
Really?
So if GPs were made to sit through a day of random, vaguely related, powerpoint slides and a few Youtube videos presented by a typically inexperienced and unqualified person. They’d be fine with that, I’m sure.
The idea that bus drivers have complied, because of something along the lines of they’re more receptive to training, is not only absurd but also simply an insult to the road haulage industry - which you should be ashamed of given you’d like to see yourself as some sort of self-appointed mouthpiece to it.
Daz1970:
zaax:
ND888 BIGJ:
Where i work the company paid for a full 5 days mon-fri coarse for everyone including mechanics ,support staff in fact antone who had a pcv got it paid for them. We also got a full 40hrs wages for attending.And that’s the trick I think most companies either paid their drivers to do it, or they just had their in-house training approved.
It’s a shame many many transport & haulage firms aren’t following this example (not to mention agencies!!!). I think these straight-forward gestures would go a long way to alleviating a lot of the negativity surrounding DCPC Periodic Training. Bus & coach companies large & small have proved what can be achieved with a relatively small training budget & some forward planning!!
We’ll have to wait and see if there is to be any significant impact on the haulage industry - but not for too much longer!!!
Except that was not the intention of the legislation. Regardless, whether you think it is needed or not it was clearly intended to be supplemental to employer’s training provisions and was intended to create a sustainable private sector typically driving school based training industry. Responsibility for undertaking the training was also clearly placed with drivers in the legislation.
2.3.3. Organisation of the training
The training is generally provided by driving schools, but it can also be provided by non-
profit bodies, vocational schools, vocational colleges, high schools14, or secondary schools15.
In some Member States16 the training is partially funded by the public sector.
Employers were encouraged to pick up the slack after the authorities panicked there would be a driver shortage but this massively undermines both the viability and credibility of the standalone training businesses.
If there is too little work for the dedicated training businesses they will simply go out of business (most likely after handing out modules, without attendance, for a cash bung in an effort to stay afloat). This just stores up problems for the next deadline when there will be insufficient training capacity to meet with demand.
Own Account Driver:
2.3.3. Organisation of the training
The training is generally provided by driving schools, but it can also be provided by non-
profit bodies, vocational schools, vocational colleges, high schools14, or secondary schools15.
In some Member States16 the training is partially funded by the public sector.Employers were encouraged to pick up the slack after the authorities panicked there would be a driver shortage but this massively undermines both the viability and credibility of the standalone training businesses.
If there is too little work for the dedicated training businesses they will simply go out of business (most likely after handing out modules, without attendance, for a cash bung in an effort to stay afloat). This just stores up problems for the next deadline when there will be insufficient training capacity to meet with demand.
You keep banging on about how this was the way the EC intended the training to be implemented, but the quote you provide is nothing about what they intended. It is taken from a report which summarises how the various member States have implemented the 2003 Directive. The report itself is dated 2012 - i.e. It is saying, 9 years down the line, “This is how it has been applied”. It doesn’t say anything about “This is what we wanted them to do”.
Roymondo:
Own Account Driver:
2.3.3. Organisation of the training
The training is generally provided by driving schools, but it can also be provided by non-
profit bodies, vocational schools, vocational colleges, high schools14, or secondary schools15.
In some Member States16 the training is partially funded by the public sector.Employers were encouraged to pick up the slack after the authorities panicked there would be a driver shortage but this massively undermines both the viability and credibility of the standalone training businesses.
If there is too little work for the dedicated training businesses they will simply go out of business (most likely after handing out modules, without attendance, for a cash bung in an effort to stay afloat). This just stores up problems for the next deadline when there will be insufficient training capacity to meet with demand.
You keep banging on about how this was the way the EC intended the training to be implemented, but the quote you provide is nothing about what they intended. It is taken from a report which summarises how the various member States have implemented the 2003 Directive. The report itself is dated 2012 - i.e. It is saying, 9 years down the line, “This is how it has been applied”. It doesn’t say anything about “This is what we wanted them to do”.
Because, rather obviously, if it had been the intention for employers to provide it. They would simply have legislated for that in the way employers must provide paid leave etc. They would not have laid responsibility for obtaining it with drivers.
Here’s the original 2003 directive. No mention of employer provision is made either although it is less expansive than in the review of implementation.
assets.dft.gov.uk/dsa-bl/dsa_dri … ective.pdf
The intention of legislation is probably one of the most important factors when courts arrive at decisions on the interpretation of laws.
As an example. VOSA said taking a vehicle to MOT was not exempt from DCPC. This would effectively have meant no-one was exempt as they would be unable to MOT their vehicle. The courts would never agree no-one was exempt as the intent of the legislation was for some people to be exempt otherwise there would be no point mentioning exemptions.
I think this dcpc driver shortage in September is just wishfull thinking,i think It wont make a blind bit of difference but it would be nice to be proven wrong 