I’ve done like two online CPC classes now. My god they are dull.
It is 90% of basically them telling you how you might get fined through “I once knew a guy…”
For example. “I knew a driver who was washing his windscreen on his break so he got fined for working during his break”
Or some driver who in his spare time took a show truck to a truck show and got pulled over by VOSA who complimented him on his truck. Then VOSA asked him “It must of took you ages to clean this truck up its gleaming” He said “Yea, it took all weekend” So VOSA done him for working on rest days?
But there was also a lot of misleading information.
For example the instructor said you can only bring 800 cigarettes back with you from Europe even though the new number I believe is 200? (Someone correct me if I am wrong). When questioned about this he said “We know it is wrong but we are told we still have to teach you this”
Another one. I asked about can a Class 2 driver drive an artic unit.
CPC instructor said "A class 2 driver can only drive a artic unit if the unit has a 5th wheel lock or cap on it to prevent it from being hooked up.
I am 99.999% this is wrong as I am almost certain a class 2 driver can drive any non articulated lorry which includes a artic unit.
There was a lot more information that was basically just so silly I found. e.g. how to use wetwipes. (top tip ensure you put the cover back on the wetwipe container when your done so they dont dry out).
Another big topic was seat belts and how a driver died due to being involved in a crash while not wearing a seat belt and his load of tomatoes came crashing into his cab and drowned him I think?
Hahaha we work on the highways and have a bloke come in to teach in house about H&S he or someone in his family have had every disease known to man or had a accident where they nearly died
Those H.andS. guys, they really know how to live dangerously. I also got the zb about artic units. Not bad as we were all bus drivers, but hey-ho. I have the plastic card so am good to go.
adam277:
Another one. I asked about can a Class 2 driver drive an artic unit.
CPC instructor said "A class 2 driver can only drive a artic unit if the unit has a 5th wheel lock or cap on it to prevent it from being hooked up.
I am 99.999% this is wrong as I am almost certain a class 2 driver can drive any non articulated lorry which includes a artic unit.
Of course he can. A tractor unit is a Class C vehicle and can be driven on a Class C licence. You would only need a C+E licence if you connected a Class C vehicle to a Class E vehicle (i.e. a trailer). The fifth wheel is totally irrelevant.
I had a bit of a argument with the instructor about loading steel.
I said the head board is a waste of time as the steel is coming through the head board and through the cab.
He was adamant that all steel must be pushed up rigid against the head board.
I said yeah that’s ok with non fab steel straight from the mill going to get fabricated. If the steel is fabricated going to site it’s almost impossible to achieve on a full load of steel.
He still wouldn’t have it.
I think most cpc trainers havent driven a truck in a long time or never at all (in my case).
A thing we spent a huge time on was selt belts and how drivers should stop sitting on the seatbelt.
I remember two examples the instructor used.
One was a car driver was in an Asda car park she was reversing her car out of a spot and while reaching to grab her seat belt she hit a parked car as she was not paying attention. The parked car had a man underneath as it was jacked up. Due to her hitting the car the car dropped killing the person underneath. Moral of the story; Always wear your seat belt even when reversing.
Another one was a hgv driver didnt have a seatbelt on and he was involved in a high speed collision. When the emergency services got there he was shot straight out of the vehicle and they only ever found 1 half of him as he was cut in two.
Still got one more day of cpc training to do. Might ask for proof of these so called incidents .
adam277:
I’ve done like two online CPC classes now. My god they are dull.
Yeah, some are as much fun as watching paint stay wet, others are more edu-taining: people should shop around and give recommendations, but all you hear is “DCPC it’s a load of tosh”, so there’s no incentive to say “Try these guys, it wasn’t a bad day at all” .
I’ve just done the Safe Urban Driving DCPC, half the day in the classroom, the other half out on the road on bikes. It’s mandatory for companies going for FORS Silver, other companies just send guys on it simply because it’s available.
Quite pleasant all-in-all, but it would have been better if it wasn’t all about what’s going on London It was all about cycle superhighways etc, not a single mention of what you might find in the north, such as that monstrosity they call the Cyclops Junction in the Manchester area.
adam277:
Another big topic was seat belts and how a driver died due to being involved in a crash while not wearing a seat belt and his load of tomatoes came crashing into his cab and drowned him I think?
.
That was me- I didnt quite drown but I’ve never had a can of tomato soup since.
The CPC is a tax on experienced drivers - little more.
If it were a proper “learning” thing - it would have a sat exam in order to pass it, and lead to a proper, recognized qualification
that stops the Public refering to this industry as an “unskilled” workforce…
A “Sat Exam” that foreigners would struggle to even complete, unless they had perfect English…
Thus, it could have been a tool to foward Nationalist and Brexit causes, rather than the Liberal Left watered-down costly nothingburger that it quickly became…
Themoocher:
I had a bit of a argument with the instructor about loading steel.
I said the head board is a waste of time as the steel is coming through the head board and through the cab.
He was adamant that all steel must be pushed up rigid against the head board.
I said yeah that’s ok with non fab steel straight from the mill going to get fabricated. If the steel is fabricated going to site it’s almost impossible to achieve on a full load of steel.
He still wouldn’t have it.
I’m guessing he’s never been to Scunthorpe to load. They used to have all kinds of pictures in the drivers lobby where steel had shot through the headboard and gone into the cab to scare drivers into securing the load properly.
Winseer:
The CPC is a tax on experienced drivers - little more.
Drivers didn’t want it, the government had no choice but to implement it as it was an EU directive so they did the bare minimum they had to to be in compliance. We were also one of the very last countries to implement it, even France did it before us.
If it were a proper “learning” thing - it would have a sat exam in order to pass it, and lead to a proper, recognized qualification
that stops the Public refering to this industry as an “unskilled” workforce…
You’d lose a big chunk of the workforce overnight especially if the minimum pass rate was set to the same 85% that all of my non-driving certifications were set to. Just look at what we get in this forum and on Facebook groups where you’ve drivers who have been driving under EU hours rules for almost 30 years who still cannot get even the basics right and that’s despite most likely having done drivers hours module of the DCPC at least twice. And it’s not like there’s been a massive amount of change over that 30 years.
.
It was all about cycle superhighways etc, not a single mention of what you might find in the north, such as that monstrosity they call the Cyclops Junction in the Manchester area.
