I am renewing my class 1 licence after being retired for 3 years, I also have to renew my CPC which also expired 2019.
i will obviously will be arranging and paying for this myself, so which would be better, doing it online or attending the 5 day course?
I do have a PC but have never done anything like Zoom calls etc so am thinking I may be better attending the course and paying the higher cost.
I have been quoted £275 for an attended 5 day course locally so is that much dearer than a online course?
Thanks in advance.
Driver hire charge like£45 X 5 for online cpc.
I did mine last August online with VR services https://vr-services.co.uk/training-academy-2/make-an-appointment/ was £35 a day so £175 in total I found it good as a new driver some parts bit boring but I did learn from it.
I did mine just 2 days ago - with NCT National compliance Training £45 a session online, you get sent an email with a link on it, one for sending in a copy of your current CPC card and licence. Seemless process can book the night before and it’s all sorted. 0800-0900 start till 1700hrs with breaks thankfully, but all from the comfort of your home. I have now completed 4 with them
nationalcompliancetraining.co.u … c-training
You get a discount of £5 if you use Luke Cuss code find it on Luke C in a HGV.
Online - at least you can sit there in your y-fronts. The classroom ones are hellish - sat in a room for 8 hours unable to go to sleep while someone spends 30 minutes telling you how to put diesel in a truck “first, unscrew the fuel cap”. I think theyve even made a video to show it - some fat bloke was going “then you put the nozzle into the tank”.
The most cynical exercise in robbing money i have been near. Pure, unmitigated hell. Sheer torture. You could teach everything on the course within an hour at most - the other 4.9 days of it is just outright theft of hundreds of pounds of your money.
richfr:
I did mine last August online with VR services https://vr-services.co.uk/training-academy-2/make-an-appointment/ was £35 a day so £175 in total I found it good as a new driver some parts bit boring but I did learn from it.
I agree.
I’ve done mine with Virtue Recruitment Services at £35 per session; why pay more?
I called them on 01698 674019 & they told me everything I needed to know as I had never used Zoom before doing the course.
I just wanted the lowest price for this pseudo qualification but ended up finding a good company too.
JeffA:
Online - at least you can sit there in your y-fronts. The classroom ones are hellish - sat in a room for 8 hours unable to go to sleep while someone spends 30 minutes telling you how to put diesel in a truck “first, unscrew the fuel cap”. I think theyve even made a video to show it - some fat bloke was going “then you put the nozzle into the tank”.The most cynical exercise in robbing money i have been near. Pure, unmitigated hell. Sheer torture. You could teach everything on the course within an hour at most - the other 4.9 days of it is just outright theft of hundreds of pounds of your money.
I totally agree with you Jeffa, highway robbery and a cash cow for the Government and these training centres. I remember doing my first lot of courses with 4 of my work colleagues plus other drivers, it was complete boredom for 5xdays ( how to teach your granny to ■■■■ eggs comes to mind ).
I have been in touch with the company’s in the posts above and await there reply’s, thanks to all for the advice, so I think I will be going for the Online course.
Regards
JeffA:
Online - at least you can sit there in your y-fronts. The classroom ones are hellish - sat in a room for 8 hours unable to go to sleep while someone spends 30 minutes telling you how to put diesel in a truck “first, unscrew the fuel cap”. I think theyve even made a video to show it - some fat bloke was going “then you put the nozzle into the tank”.The most cynical exercise in robbing money i have been near. Pure, unmitigated hell. Sheer torture. You could teach everything on the course within an hour at most - the other 4.9 days of it is just outright theft of hundreds of pounds of your money.
I read loads of posts like this. I also read loads of posts where drivers who’ve been driving for decades still can’t get the basics of drivers hours regs and people posting pictures of lorries losing loads because they’re not secured properly. Until those cease the DCPC is needed. The only problem with the DCPC is that there isn’t a pass/fail test at the end of the training.
I think that a person’s view of the DCPC is tempered by whether or not they are paying for it and whether or not they are paid to attend. Luckily for me the Co pay it and also pay me 10 hours to attend, so I just treat it as a day away from the mayhem of the roads and frustrating customers.
Conor:
JeffA:
Online - at least you can sit there in your y-fronts. The classroom ones are hellish - sat in a room for 8 hours unable to go to sleep while someone spends 30 minutes telling you how to put diesel in a truck “first, unscrew the fuel cap”. I think theyve even made a video to show it - some fat bloke was going “then you put the nozzle into the tank”.The most cynical exercise in robbing money i have been near. Pure, unmitigated hell. Sheer torture. You could teach everything on the course within an hour at most - the other 4.9 days of it is just outright theft of hundreds of pounds of your money.
I read loads of posts like this. I also read loads of posts where drivers who’ve been driving for decades still can’t get the basics of drivers hours regs and people posting pictures of lorries losing loads because they’re not secured properly. Until those cease the DCPC is needed. The only problem with the DCPC is that there isn’t a pass/fail test at the end of the training.
No its not needed - do you think any one really needs to pay good money to learn what drivers hours\how to make a load safe? You can google it in 30 seconds for free.
If it was anything to do with genuine safety you would simply have a drivers written test once every 5 years. That way you would at least learn it. The current setup is a cashcow pure and simple.
The DCPC was brought in to fufill an EU rule. Some countries opted for proper training including actual driving, and pass/fail testing. Some countries opted for the cheapest easiest box-tick exercise possible.
Which ended up with plentiful “steering wheel Attendants”, and low pay?
^^^ from what I witness daily I’d say it was countries with white rear number plates.
the maoster:
^^^ from what I witness daily I’d say it was countries with white rear number plates.
That’s a big range!
But would you agree or not, that the DCPC was a lost chance to get some professionalism built into transport?
It could/should have been an industry funded scheme to get some on job training done? Not a cheap fix to tick boxes, and allow Muppets to roam freely?
the maoster:
^^^ from what I witness daily I’d say it was countries with white rear number plates.
No Turkish and no Spanish
Franglais:
But would you agree or not, that the DCPC was a lost chance to get some professionalism built into transport?
It could/should have been an industry funded scheme to get some on job training done? Not a cheap fix to tick boxes, and allow Muppets to roam freely?
Oh God yes, absolutely it could have been, and it’s overdue IMO. Before ADR courses were a thing absolutely anybody could cart dangerous chemicals around, that industry is quite rightly regulated to within an inch of it’s life, so why not other types of haulage?
The problem is manyfold however; if you put drivers through an intensive and properly accredited course they are going to want recompense in their wage packets as befitting their new status. Who would be prepared to pay for such a course? Certainly not the companies with their rate cutting to get as much work as possible ethos.
I don’t know the answer tbh, I do know that in its current form the DCPC is a farce though.