Now I suppose most of us have completed or nearly completed the current CPC, I was wondering if after sitting a few courses your opinion had indeed changed, if you thought it was a good thing do you now consider it a bad thing? Or did you consider it a complete waste and now think it’s a good thing? Or maybe even you stand by your initial thoughts?
Personally, when I first heard of it all I was a pretty new driver and I thought the idea of asking seasoned drivers to sit this was ridiculous, but after sitting my courses I can honestly say the more experienced drivers seemed pretty clueless on some aspects, now my opinion has changed slightly, I now believe this is a good thing that there is some kind of periodic training, I’m not saying the current system is perfect, the trainers need yo be much more educated and governed far more than they seem to be at present.
My opinion hasn’t changed, and it never will as long as there’s no set syllabus for the DCPC course. If my DCPC course had been brilliantly taught and left me feeling I’d learned lots of useful new stuff, that’d have been great (it didn’t, by the way), but it wouldn’t have been applicable to the DCPC course going on in the next room or any of the others being taught up and down the country. Maybe this will settle out in time, but it makes it hard to say how useful the DCPC course is as a whole at the moment.
I cant see to much changing as its been out long enough now and the bus industry has already hit their deadline with no dramas to the authorities.
They wont spend on it while its earning
Our company has finished ours. We all got something out of the first course we did on, hours and tacho graphs. The other four we scraped through with the instructor reading through the book. One of them was of defensive driving using information from the 1980’s with an instructor with no personality.
Just done first module (driving hours etc). Didn’t learn anything new, but was slightly alarmed how little some others knew. Actually I did learn something: I met a great bloke who could knit without even looking at the knitting, and he generated an impressive amount of knitting over the day. He showed me how to knit. I now have the first 4 inches of a scarf for winter. Wonder what other wacky skills I can pick up during the remaining courses?!
I will hold my hands up and admit I am wanting to do the digi tacho thing as I have been using paper discs so a refresher in digi will be most welcome.
I hand my card in for download just to be a divil as there is never anything on it
I did the first 14 hours with the aa as training and this was aimed at their idea of how the aa wanted you to use the hours and working practises, the rest I did through an agency that I did a bit for and chose the items I wished to re visit such as single manning hours etc as I had double manned for years, I was only too well aware of the old hands that were critical but knew very little in practise, most annoying when they waste time with nonsense when I am not only paying to be there but losing work whilst there. the course was well structured and the young woman taking it knew her stuff. I don’t know if she had a truck license but she knew the rules about running them.
Done 3 modules so far…the first ‘instructor’ and I use the term loosely started by telling all of us about ALL the accidents he had had,I promptly fell asleep.
The second was a smoker like my self and allowed suitable breaks what he talked about I haven’t a clue or at least don’t remember.The third,an elderly
gentlemen waffled for 7 hours,something to do with cyclists,interesting since I doubt he could ride a bike but the memorable part was during the 7 hours
he kept ’ boasting’ about his 15 year old son which left us all pondering which country his Eastern bride had come from.The CPC is a money pit for some,
problem is WE are the ones filling it with little return.If UKIP obtain Government I will certainly hope they bury this farce except for those such as myself
who travel into the EU,that is how it should have been set up and could have been extremely interesting supplying information on other EU countries.
Learnt me how vosa are expecting drivers to be mechanics and fining them for the simplest of things. Their destroying companies and jobs and will continue to do so until something is done about it
I think the some kind of periodic training is a good idea. I think it doesn’t go far enough. As a train driver I have to undergo reassessment every 2-3 years to keep my licence. This includes a theory and a practical exam which has a pass mark. (The Cpc can’t be failed - it just requires attendance).
The problem with the coach and lorry industries is that a lot of drivers think they know it all. They have massive egos. They are the ones who brag about how much they can earn etc etc.
The old hands seem to be getting slated on this thread, it aint that they think they know it all, but they seem to have managed well enough all these years (after maybe like myself learning the hard way, and thus exercising initiative) quite well without either knowing (or caring) about some of the ■■■■■■■■ discussed in this PC revenue raising exercise.
When guys experienced in decades of European, in ropes and sheets, ex.owner drivers, and guys that could actually find their way around by reading maps (yeh really … maps!!) being “instructed” by a guy who’s experience in transport amounted to 5yrs doing night trunks, maybe they have a point.
So basically my answer to the o/question is NO!
daveb0789:
I think the some kind of periodic training is a good idea. I think it doesn’t go far enough.
I agree. I would be happy to do a mandatory 7 hour course once a year which included driving hours, tachographs, load restraint, bit of first aid, in other words a condensed version of each module, with enough variety in the day that most people would benefit somewhere. I also wouldn’t mind there being more driving hours questions in the DSA Theory test and being required to resit this every 5 years.
IMHO it’s the implementation of DCPC that is a farce, rather than the concept behind it.
I wish I could brag about my earnings not back but not bragable
Bus driving is a complete different industry to wagon driving and I fail to see how they can be jointed by the cpc.
I have my class 1 pcv and did driving for 17 years on local work, nothing like what I do now with HGV.
I remember just as I was going from the road into the office job for the bus company (about 2003) they asked me if I wanted to do a course, at the time I thought it was an NVQ type thing as no one explained it to us, I was one of the first t be offered it but I declined thinking I wouldn’t drive again and had no idea what would happen in the future and the DCPC was for PCV and HGV.
I was an old arse who refused it and now I need it, thankfully employer supplied.
Darb:
Personally, when I first heard of it all I was a pretty new driver and I thought the idea of asking seasoned drivers to sit this was ridiculous, but after sitting my courses I can honestly say the more experienced drivers seemed pretty clueless on some aspects,
th2013:
Didn’t learn anything new, but was slightly alarmed how little some others knew.
Yeah same here, some of the seasoned guys appeared to know very little about drivers hours, One of them argued with the guy doing the class, the seasoned trucker was 100% positive that it was perfectly fine to have a 30 min break followed by a 15 mins break in order to reset the driving clock.
Being new to HGV driving I learned quite a bit, mainly about WTD, Driving hours and Operators licence. I already had my DCPC card, but my company wanted me to do “their” courses, being that it was free… YES PLEASE
I think the cpc could have been implemented better if the module system was scrapped and you can only take one day a year to keep up to date with the changing regs, methods, equipment and safety/environmental features fitted to new lorries.
So it would be one days course that is changed once a year that covers one set of topics decided by the dsa on consultation with the industry, vosa/dvsa and drivers.
This would be better as common gaps in drivers knowledge spotted by vosa/dvsa stops can be rectified, instructors don’t have to come up with a way to fill 7 hours and as all the courses will be the same the quality of the courses can be checked and improved, also by removing the option of taking the 35 hours in say one week it would be spread out over 5 years so no driver will have more than 12 months between courses so everyone will be up to date.
I agree entirely with Robroy, I have been driving hgv since 1976, I do not want to come across bigheaded, but I think I have covered probably all types of trailers and units and a few abnormals on the way when I did low loaders. The DCPC in it’s current format is a load of crap, as has been said, people have jumped on the bandwagon to teach these modules without having one ounce of practical experience in the field, I am by no means perfect, but there is not a lot these people can teach me, the whole thing has been ill thought out. If it was like the FrencH FIMO, that would be a different story, it is two weeks divided between classroom and practical driving, covering all aspects including basic mechanics, faultfinding ,load restraint and drivers hours amongst others, ok, it costs 2000 euros but after the first one you do a refresher after 5 years called an FCOS, which is three days. I never learnt anything at all from my CPC, I had to learn it all on the job, so until things change, we will still have people asking on here and facebook how many hours they can do and what rest they need, because the system failed them.
robroy:
The old hands seem to be getting slated on this thread, it aint that they think they know it all, but they seem to have managed well enough all these years (after maybe like myself learning the hard way, and thus exercising initiative)
Not all old hands are the experts that you’d hope they’d be after their years of experience. I found this out when I spent a bit of time in the office, and not some mega logistics outfit, but a proper old fashioned haulier, doing curtainsider, flatbed, and agricultural haulage.
There were drivers with years behind them who’d damage vehicle on a regular basis, quite often due to basic errors, or just couldn’t be bothered to check something, they’d damage or lose loads because they didn’t think securing it was necessary. Then there was attitude to the customer, and one driver managed to lose a contract on the first day because of his attitude. And as for understanding and following drivers hours regs, some hadn’t got a clue. Some might not consider that important, but it can drop a company and owner if they’re the CPC holder right in the [zb] just because a driver can’t understand and follow some basic rules.
Of course there were others who were good at the job and you could respect their experience and the knowledge they’d picked up over many years. But quite frankly I got the impression that many were driving trucks because they hadn’t got the ability to do much else.
As for my opinion of the CPC after doing 28 hours of training? It’s a complete waste of time for most drivers as they aren’t learning anything. because they’re either got enough about them to go and find out the information for themselves or they’re just not going to listen to anybody as they much prefer to sit at the back and tell everybody as loud as they can how they already know it all and how they got one over on VOSA or the Police or their boss.
And for the same reasons as above it’s a complete waste of time for everybody else as it’s never going to improve standards in the industry.
My fourth DCPC course was held in the bar at a football club.
We were all so bored we ended up throwing beer mats at each other.
Has my opinion changed?
Yes it has.
It’s even more pointless and boring than I first thought.
as there is never anything on it 
… maps!!) being “instructed” by a guy who’s experience in transport amounted to 5yrs doing night trunks, maybe they have a point.