if its the white ones from leeming bar you wouldnt want to drive there ( zb ) buses for any amount of money !!
big boots:
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
The issues won’t come until Christmas and the casual labour requirement kicks in. There is scope to extend the deadline as some EU countries aren’t removing grandfather rights until 2016 - although this would be further encouragement for anyone dragging their feet.
There are hundreds of own account operators out there that have done nothing about DCPC. For some big manufacturer with the odd 7.5t for local deliveries haulage related legislation is just not a big part of their day to day thinking.
Own Account Driver:
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.
When did VOSA say that? Prior to the law being changed in September 2013 such a driver was not exempt. Now he is.
Roymondo:
Own Account Driver:
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.When did VOSA say that? Prior to the law being changed in September 2013 such a driver was not exempt. Now he is.
Nothing in the original EU directive has changed. VOSA/DSA, at the time, were talking ■■■■■■■■ (and probably knew they were talking ■■■■■■■■ but were just a bit too keen to wave the big stick and feed as many potential customers into DCPC as possible without thinking about it properly first).
When they were called out on talking ■■■■■■■■ they span it they had decided they were changing the law to allow mechanics to drive to MOT. This was really, not at all, a true reflection of what had occurred but an attempt to still imply very few people were exempt.
In reality I think representations were made from truck manufacturers to the highest level of government citing this was not the interpretation elsewhere in the EU community and no preparations had been made to accommodate such an interpretation - although I believe the PR spin was after consulting with UK haulage industry bodies. I think it likely that the head of the DSA got the chop as a result of the debacle and doubt it will be the last head to roll due to the sloppy and inept implementation of DCPC in the UK.
Although I may not necessarily agree they are worthwhile I, and many other people I’m sure, can read the original 2003 EU directive and clearly comprehend what its intentions and goals were. Unfortunately, the authorities in this country became so terrified of not achieving the training by the deadline they moved away substantially from the intentions of the directive.
When it became clear drivers and operators were, quite legitimately in my view, unhappy with the structure and quality of the training being implemented too. Rather than address and remedy these issues in a sensible and constructive manner they just chose to threaten and bully operators and drivers with losing their livelihoods. They are really the ones whose jobs should be under threat as they are plainly no good at them.
They were also egged on by quite a few vested interests within the trade press and haulage associations who saw providing the training as an opportunity to cash in themselves. The problem there was that few, if any, of these people had any experience in operating lorries or employing drivers.
VOSA/DSA didn’t, never have, and never will have the power to change the law.
Before I forget on the mechanics MOT subject. If anyone did pay privately for training and only did so on the advice of the training company (ie you phoned them and explained you were a mechanic and they said you needed DCPC). Provided they said you did, and added no caveat such as ‘the current advice from VOSA is…’ or ‘we believe it to be the case’ you would be entitled to a refund of the cost as this is mis-selling.
Roymondo:
VOSA/DSA didn’t, never have, and never will have the power to change the law.
Not sure why you think I would disagree with that and neither do the government have the power to change EU directives. The press release at the time was made by a minister for transport and when he talked about changing the law in the autumn, to make mechanics exempt, it was just spin and is really just the grandfather rights deadline.
Mechanics were always intended to be exempt, no laws needed changing, what he really meant was VOSA/DSA would be stopping talking ■■■■■■■■ saying they won’t.
You can enjoy this thread from last April, where the usual DCPC vested interests were plugging the idea of Mechanics needing DCPC and VOSAs guidance on it, and my advice to anyone reading not to do it because it was clear they were talking ■■■■■■■■.
And, guess what it did indeed turn out they were talking…
Of course this was, as I say rather than an admission of error, spun, completely misleadingly, as your benevolent government kindly making a special law to exempt mechanics from DCPC. On top of that they even had the brass-neck to cite it as an example of how they themselves were cutting back on EU red tape when, it was nothing of the sort, and was red tape of entirely their own manufacture and, in fact the EU was blameless in this case.
cockers:
if its the white ones from leeming bar you wouldnt want to drive there ( zb ) buses for any amount of money !!
Proctors or Abbots?
Bored now. Sorry.
Roymondo:
Bored now. Sorry.
Fair enough but, it’s preferable to arrive at an argument based on something before criticising someone else’s. Particularly, when their’s has been previously proven correct.