If offered I would actually choose to do 35 hours community service instead - at least picking up litter and clearing warehouses of junk has some ultimate point to it. I reckon once this bit is over I won’t mind a day each year, but 35 is just such a waste of time.
It was the most pointless week I’ve ever spent. The only thing I learned was what the minor categories on a driving licence mean, moped, invalid carriage, road-going lawn mower etc.
I’ve forgotten it again now. 
Doesn’t bother me one bit, I don’t have to pay for it. I would much prefer spending 8 hours in a classroom than 12 hours on the road. ( I get paid for the length of my duty) I get home early. 
If the DCPC ‘cannot be failed’, then it was only put there to get rid of some old ■■■■■ from the driver pool, and leave in those newcomers that wouldn’t otherwise speak enough English to pass any kind of exam in that language.
Bearing in mind the average age of a driver is 53, the whole concept of “get rid of some old ■■■■■” sounds rather like a conspiracy doesn’t it?
Alternatively, it’s just a tax on jobs and some easy money for some Tory-voting instructors. 
I reckon Yard managers should have to do 5 modules of their own:-
(1) How not to lose staff through high turnover - Paying decent wages, and the fordism effect that it has.
(2) Sacking people for breaking the law - How to get rid of law breaking friends that work for you, rather than insubordinate non-friends that do instead.
(3) Learning how to not reach for the phone as a planner, and compromise the driver who then has to break his already tight schedule to pull in and phone the office back - only to be told “where he was going already” as non-new-information.
(4) How to open a management office that does the same shifts as the rest of the transport staff do - ie God-Awful shifts around the clock 24/7 instead of just the hours management would like to work instead…
(5) Paying a full time wage to drivers for a 35 hour week - same as they get. Non-compliance means you need to re-sit module (1) again, as you’ve clearly misunderstood why there’s such a gulf between office staff and drivers, despite some office staff having once been drivers.
When you can do the same module five times, and still get your card and be fully trained, the dCPC has no credibility.
Absolute garbage and a complete waste of time n money, nuff said !!!
Stanley Knife:
When you can do the same module five times, and still get your card and be fully trained, the dCPC has no credibility.
+1
i’d like to think that i’ve got a level head on my shoulders and a tongue in my mouth so if i don’t know something then i will ask , but to have to sit there for 35hrs and be feed utter crap ( the best one was if we were to slow down by 2mph then our boss could have a curry at the end of the week with the money he’d save) so i just said i’d slow down by 4mph and he could have a beer aswell.
so come sept whats going to happen are we all going to get pulled over and get asked to show them our card or do you wave it at them as they drive past ?
IMHO this is just another form of taxation towards the driving industry.
tattooed:
so come sept whats going to happen are we all going to get pulled over and get asked to show them our card
I don’t see how they can do this - as drivers from Germany and Holland have until Sep 2016 to get their cards. They could stop everyone and make a fuss, but one bit of EU law says that if something is legal in home country then that law applies abroad, or something like that. So this could be interesting.
Or they could make a bit of a fuss for a couple of weeks, get bored, and then not bother about checking cards unless you get stopped for something else. I reckon this is how it will pan out, it’s not as if they have an army of extra staff to police DCPC.
I’ve done a couple of modules, maybe three but can’t remember, and won’t be bothering doing any more, I don’t use the licence these days and haven’t done so for over a year. I’ve done a lot of other courses over the last couple of years that were far more interesting and worthwhile.
Coffeeholic:
I’ve done a couple of modules, maybe three but can’t remember, and won’t be bothering doing any more, I don’t use the licence these days and haven’t done so for over a year. I’ve done a lot of other courses over the last couple of years that were far more interesting and worthwhile.
Am I correct in thinking that if you don’t take all five modules by September, then the ones you have taken will elapse?
Can’t say I blame you for getting out of the job though, I’m looking for an exit route myself…
Harry Monk:
Coffeeholic:
I’ve done a couple of modules, maybe three but can’t remember, and won’t be bothering doing any more, I don’t use the licence these days and haven’t done so for over a year. I’ve done a lot of other courses over the last couple of years that were far more interesting and worthwhile.Am I correct in thinking that if you don’t take all five modules by September, then the ones you have taken will elapse?
No idea, but I’m not fussed either way as I didn’t pay for the 2 or 3 I’ve done so I don’t lose out.
The DCPC should apply to all drivers, car, motorcycle or professional driver to keep all up to date with traffic law and how to drive in the correct manor. Then just maybe we will get rid of lane huggers, tailgaters, those that only look at the end of the bonnet. To be fair we may all end up the more considerate of each other.
Harry Monk:
Coffeeholic:
I’ve done a couple of modules, maybe three but can’t remember, and won’t be bothering doing any more, I don’t use the licence these days and haven’t done so for over a year. I’ve done a lot of other courses over the last couple of years that were far more interesting and worthwhile.Am I correct in thinking that if you don’t take all five modules by September, then the ones you have taken will elapse?
Can’t say I blame you for getting out of the job though, I’m looking for an exit route myself…
ROG will probably know the answer, I THINK (I was told this on a DCPC course so treat it as bull ■■■■) that the hours uploaded expire 5 years after they were taken
Darb:
‘…CPC opinions … have your personal opinions changed at all…?’
No 
It is still European Onion (because it makes me weep), undemocratic, un-representative intrusion foisted on us disenfranchised suckers by un-accountable, un-audited & expensive Belgian clerks because of an unfortunate incident is a Swiss tunnel decades ago