Are you gonna bother with driver CPC?

There’s no need to bother with the dcpc.
There’s already a shortage of drivers so the deadline will be extended
Even after the new deadline there will be an exemption for drivers who have held a licence for over 5 years.
What else can the Government do, after all, there is a limit to how long you can make trailers

ROG:
4 x NO

4 times DREAMING! FTFY :open_mouth: :grimacing: :grimacing:

Euro:
There’s no need to bother with the dcpc.
There’s already a shortage of drivers so the deadline will be extended
Even after the new deadline there will be an exemption for drivers who have held a licence for over 5 years.
What else can the Government do, after all, there is a limit to how long you can make trailers

Unlikely. Remember that the likes of Tosco, Asda etc. will be sorting out their drivers’ DCPC & they are the only ones that the government my be influenced by. They aren’t going to worry about a load of moaning agency & small-haulier drivers who may not have bothered - they’ll take the fines, prohibit drivers from driving until they’ve got their card & that’s it. Remember it’s an EU thing & other countries have already got the DCPC so it’ll simply mean extra drivers coming in from abroad. Let’s see what happens come Sept 2013 when coach drivers are due to have got their card.

It’s not a case of not bothering, its more a case of “I can’t afford it”. Anyone that’s offered the DCPC for free, for goodness do it. It might be a load of old cobblers but it’s not going to go away. If I had the means to do it, I would.

Tiger.

The bit about drivers that have a licence over 5 yrs get some entitlement…you dont, only thing if you got your hgv before 97 is grandfather rites to drive 7.5 tonne…whoopee that counts for a lot when people are struggling allready…anyone know any different please feel free to correct me. :confused:

Betty Swallox:
but, if we as drivers want more respect then i think we need a professional qualification.

AND taking your class one many years ago ISN’T A PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION■■? :open_mouth: :unamused: smell the coffee! :grimacing: :grimacing:

obsessivecompulsive2:

delboytwo:
It is nothing short of legalized robbery!Rant over…

ACE! :open_mouth: try getting married, legalised PROSTITUTION! :unamused: because you’re not guaranteed a Donald, are you? :grimacing: :grimacing:

I posted this in the other DCPC thread, but i’ll copy and paste it here as well as it’s pertinent.
I’m interested to find others thoughts on it;

I’ve been involved in the training sphere and have been looking at the whole DCPC training.
The only conclusion I can draw is that it’s pointless. There is no continuity of quality and seems the whole point of it currently is ‘pay x hundred pounds, sit still get a tick in the box for being in the classroom, then come back every couple of years’.
We deliver online training in a totally unrelated area and the Quality controls in place are far more strenuous than the DCPC, our courses and the area we work in are also such that there is no pass or fail, you keep at it until your assessor deems you competent. That then is checked by a verifier and the whole lot is overseen by an external verifier (from the acreditation body). This is all done at your own pace (you can take virtually as long as you like) at a fraction of the cost of an attendance based course and ultimately leads to a regognised certificate in something tangable that is as valid and relevant to you as it would be taken by someone at the other end of the country.
It would seem currently that someone taking training in a classroom in Cornwall (for example) may not aquire the same knowledge or quality of training as someone in Carlisle.
Why the DCPC cannot be done virtually under proven quality assurance protocols (as approved by many vocational acreditation bodies) is totally beyond me. We as a company have looked into it and dug around a bit and have been stonewalled by the bureaucracy of it all. Several DCPC course providers (I won’t name them) admitted to me the whole thing is pointless, yet they are not willing to challenge it in order to improve things for the better. This only leads me to conclude that they are not primarily interested in training, it’s quality or it’s delivery, merely making money off the back of it.

I also contacted JAUPT, they basically said ‘give us the fee for becoming an approved centre and crack on with it’ (this was prior to us pointing out that we deal with online courses). When we mentioned quality assurances and validity of training delivered, they weren’t that interested.
I am currently drafting an email to the traffic commissioners to find out what their thoughts on the whole lack of consistent verifiable standards are, and whether they agree with the delivery of the DCPC as it currently stands. I will let you know what the response is.

To my mind, although there are some aspects of DCPC that would need practical demonstrations, the bulk of the theory aspects could easily (and cheaply) be delivered in a virtual environment to a much higher and verifiable standard than currently. This could then be conducted whilst sitting in a RDC queue, on a rest break, on a ferry where ever you like for a fraction of the cost of an attendance course.

shytalk:
The bit about drivers that have a licence over 5 yrs get some entitlement…you dont, only thing if you got your hgv before 97 is grandfather rites to drive 7.5 tonne…whoopee that counts for a lot when people are struggling allready…anyone know any different please feel free to correct me. :confused:

It’s if you passed your car test before 97 you got the 7.5t entitlement.

Which I think was a good idea they changed it.

That then meant you have grandfather rights to the dcpc so even if you’ve not taken your class c yet you don’t need to do the dcpc untill 2014.

Stevieboy…i thought so im not upto speed…ive been class1 for 28yrs…so i only get grandfather rites for 7.5 tonne until 2014 ? wow ! dont spoil me …its a joke if you ask me and thats why im not prepared to pay for it…ive got a list as long as your arm trucks ive driven types of work ive done rite accross the spectrum…so that counts for jack ■■■■■■■■■■ is why for us older drivers its not ignorance or wotever its 100’s of pounds for someone thats not even been in the industry thats waffling on in a classroom trying to act teacher…come on whos kidding who ?.

Derf:
We deliver online training in a totally unrelated area and the Quality controls in place are far more strenuous than the DCPC, our courses and the area we work in are also such that there is no pass or fail, you keep at it until your assessor deems you competent. That then is checked by a verifier and the whole lot is overseen by an external verifier (from the acreditation body).
[/quote]
Correct me if I am wrong but this sounds very much like the recent CIEH PTLLS course I ‘attended’. I now have to write 2 assignments that will be checked and verified by someone and then checked by a verifier. Sounds similar. I actually did attend a classroom - but I could also have done it via ‘distance learning’.
So far I have had 2 people offer to write my assignements for me (one being a man involved in the PTLLS administration side of things). So - I let my mate write my assignment, send it off and there I am qualified yet possibly did nothing.
I also recently completed a well know Health & Safety qualification which involved submitting written work after the course. I know full well 3 of the people on the course had their assignment completed by someone else and they passed and got the certificate.
With DCPC there are stringent ID checks so at least we know it is the person in question attending. if any of it was done via online - how do you stop cheating?
You are clearly a believer in what you are doing - I am not as i can’t (until you explain) see how you stop cheating.
isn’t this the reason the driving theory test and initial CPC are done at a DSA testing centre after stringent ID checks? Not just via the internet from home? it stops cheating and repeated go after go after go until a pass is achieved with the help of a mate.
As for the varying standards - sorry but this exists everywhere. Take schools for example, aren’t they rated from crap to good or something like that by ofsted? Take ADR - some instructors do a crap job because they are going to cheat at the end to get the pass rate - others do an excellent job of training so the candidate can actually pass the exams.
I have asked on numerous occasions for JAUPT to introduce a rating system and rate the trainers. I’m perfectly up for that because I know what I do is good - or at least better than I have experienced myself.
I have lost count of the amount of times I have been offered money to ‘sign’ someone off for DCPC without them attending. I believe these kind of people would gladly sit through an online process with their mates sat next to them in the RDC que. A little sharing of information.
So - if the DCPC is flawed then almost all other training I have experienced is also flawed to some degree - except of course whatever it is that you are involved in :wink:

shep532:

Derf:
We deliver online training in a totally unrelated area and the Quality controls in place are far more strenuous than the DCPC, our courses and the area we work in are also such that there is no pass or fail, you keep at it until your assessor deems you competent. That then is checked by a verifier and the whole lot is overseen by an external verifier (from the acreditation body).
[/quote]
So far I have had 2 people offer to write my assignements for me (one being a man involved in the PTLLS administration side of things). So - I let my mate write my assignment, send it off and there I am qualified yet possibly did nothing.
I also recently completed a well know Health & Safety qualification which involved submitting written work after the course. I know full well 3 of the people on the course had their assignment completed by someone else and they passed and got the certificate.
With DCPC there are stringent ID checks so at least we know it is the person in question attending. if any of it was done via online - how do you stop cheating?
You are clearly a believer in what you are doing - I am not as i can’t (until you explain) see how you stop cheating.
[/quote]
Online does not necarssarily mean without interaction. All of our current online courses involve video confrencing with the assessor. They are on hand via our virtual meeting room or Skype to assist anytime the candidate requires. The bodies we are recognised by are most stringent on the validity and integrity of our candidates and it’s something we take very seriously.
We have methods in place that several examining bodies are more than happy with and we far exceed what is currently required by JAUPT.
You don’t need to be in the same room (or even the same town) to conduct stringent ID checks. Face to face interaction isn’t as secure as people would like to believe - how many people take driving tests on behalf of others for example?
As an aside, did you contact the training body and tell them an assessor with the training company you were with offered to complete the essays for you?

According to another topic on here, HMRC don’t consider the DCPC career advancement, Therefore they won’t allow it to be offset against income tax. HMRC speaks on behalf of the Government, Therefore the Government don’t thinks it’s worth much.

You seem to have attributed someone elses quote to me in your above post.
You do however sum up all that is wrong with the DCPC. No one cares what it is so long as you have it. What on earth is the point of that? You may just as well chuck a couple of hundred quid in the fire for all the DCPC is worth.
Given the choice, would you rather pay a few hundred quid for something informative and you may take something from developmentally, or pay a couple of hundred quid to sit bored out of your brain in a classroom and just go through the motions?

You have to stump up the money regardless, so why not go with a trainer that actually cares and wants to be bothered to do things properly?

During our CPC on Drivers Hours and tachs the ‘instructor’ said that the digi tach was on paris time because
the rules came from europe.

I lost all respect after that.

alte hase:
but cannot fail to qualify, providing he/she pays they are qualified

I don’t believe this to be true. At any time during a course, if a driver is not joining in, paying attention etc - I will refund his money and he can leave. Simple as that. Not all trainers work this way because they are more interested in the money than the training - but we aren’t all like that. At the end of the course I choose whether or not to upload the data to the DSA. If it was a driver paying for his own course I would attempt a quiet word. If it was a driver from a company - I would refund the company’s money and let them know the driver was not interested and did not take part. Most companies would appreciate that I am sure.

People seem to have got the idea the course is attendance only - it isn’t. it is attend and take part. Proper training involves the people in numerous ways. Questions, excercises, activities, group work etc etc. it isn’t just sit at the front and read aloud.

Speed awareness courses run on the same principal. there’s no pass or fail, it’s attendance only. The last one I went on, at brew time I was taken to one side and it was carefully explained that if I didn’t change my attitude and ‘take part’ in a sensible manner I could have my money back and take the points instead. I chose to take part.

Nothing I say will change some people’s attitude, but that doesn’t matter because you either take part in DCPC and continue in your chosen employment or find something else to do. it really is that simple.

Currently training organisations have to work with the rules as they are. We cannot change them. There are people campaigning for changes to be made. I am supporting grading of the training establishment, non repeating of courses and shorter courses. Others want a pass/fail, compulsory modules, compulsory 5 days in one week courses etc.

In my opinion what isn’t going to happen - is go away.