For your first bonus question……
I have mentioned before, the EU Driver Training Directive. There are some members who are opposed to the EU and think we would be better off out of it. Fair enough, I personally disagree, but that is democracy in action. However, whether we stay in or get out I believe that the Driver Training Directive is going to happen.
Why? Because a) it’s a good idea in principle, and b) because the politicians will use it to gain public support.
We’ve all seen the headlines — speeding juggernaut terrorises little old lady motorist, truck causes motorway mayhem, lorry mows down toddler in street, freddy starr ate my hamster, etc. — these are examples of the public perception of goods vehicles (except maybe the last one).
It is unlikely that this country will be able to withdraw from the EU before the DTD comes into force. If it subsequently leaves then can you imagine any politician standing up and saying “We’re going to scrap the driver training directive because it was imposed by Europe, and that’s why we left!” Cue headlines above and a rapid withdrawal of support for political party. So, not going to happen then.
If we stay in the EU then it comes into force anyway and we have an imposed training burden to cope with. So what can we do about it, or do we need to do anything about it?
There’s lots of guesswork being bandied about regarding what it will involve but the most common suggestions are 5days/270hrs training every 5 years in order to keep doing your job. Then there’s ‘fuel efficiency, drivers hours and customer service’ training which apparently is ‘commonly referred to as a CPC’. Now I’ve just read through the CPC course (thanks The Critic 
) and half of that stuff has no relevance to a driver’s professional competence because the course is set up for operators/TM’s.
If nothing is done about it then we’ll just get lumbered with course that’s only partially relevant and a big bill for the privilege of doing it. So what would be a good alternative?
If we accept the 5 days every 5 years, then we could look at a days worth of training each year for 4 years and maybe a day long driving assessment in the fifth year. And what constitutes a days worth of training? When you set up a lesson or a course you work out how long it should take to present the information and how long it should take to do the test — this is the programmed time. Usually you have to adjust the lesson content to fit the lesson time and the course content dictates the course duration. Simple enough, so if a module programmed time is 2hrs then 4modules would equal a days training. Except you don’t have to do it in one day, you just have to do 4 within one year — back to the continuous professional development idea.
Would you need a driving assessment once every five years? Some would say not, and maybe you don’t. But it couldn’t harm, you might just pick something new up or maybe pass across some of your knowledge and experience which could improve someone else’s professionalism. After all it’s not all about being told what to do, it should be about demonstrating what you know.
That’ll do for now…….
Jules
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