Slackbladder:
I think if it was just a cash generator they would be looking into the WTD much more, I’ve not heard of anyone getting caught out on that, unless everyone is 100% compliant of course.
Assuming all those who say they won’t do it don’t, I’m one, and loads give up the job, where will all the drivers come from? There could be a shortfall of around 20% or so.
I think the period just before and after 10 September will be interesting to see what will happen. I don’t think the biggest effect will be getting fulltime drivers, but getting those driver who fill in now and then for various companies. I’ve known several retired drivers who will come in for a day or 2 to help out haulage companies, earn a few quid and get out from under their wife’s feet. I doubt to many of them have bothered with the DCPC.
Although I know its not quite the same, we had a lot of threads on here about drivers who weren’t getting digi cards, when that was coming in, but we didn’t see loads of new trucks stood in yards because nobody was able to drive them.
Slackbladder:
I think if it was just a cash generator they would be looking into the WTD much more, I’ve not heard of anyone getting caught out on that, unless everyone is 100% compliant of course.
Assuming all those who say they won’t do it don’t, I’m one, and loads give up the job, where will all the drivers come from? There could be a shortfall of around 20% or so.
I think WTD isn’t in the tory govts mates (employers) interests thats why its not being enforced, if WTD was strictly enforced (especially the POA scam) lorry operating costs would go up big time for many if not most operators.
4aaaa4dd:
so if a driver does not complete the 35hrs by sept 2014 and the employer lays him off would that be seen by the benefits office as self dismissal ? because what if your employer wont pay for the training and you cant afford to pay the fee yourself ?
the training is down to the responsibility of the driver, there is nothing to say the employer has to pay, it is the employers choice to pay or not!!!
Dannyf:
I had to stick 34 drivers in for CPC 2 weeks before it came in this year for coach an bus work
buts its a joke go sit in a class room for hours
or in some places turn up fill in your name an copy of driving licence an go home
Ok then, another thought. If things like this have to happen at haulage companies who will be getting the job done while the drivers are getting up to date? It’s not as if you could do 7 hrs in a class then go and do your shift.
I can see the point with digi cards but it’s not really in the same league is it, a couple of quid sent to dvla to get another card takes five minutes.
I for one am looking forward to seeing how it is dealt with come September.
On the benefits side I went to sign on, just to keep my stamp up to date, when I left my last job, thinking I wouldn’t get any cash as I’d walked out. The chap couldn’t wait to throw cash at me! I kept refusing telling him I didn’t want cash, just my stamp kept up to date, he thought I was crackers. Turns out I’ve worked enough years to secure my full pension already, happy days. I did then ask if I could stop NI contributions in that case, he told me to bugger off.
I work on buses and a few drivers have finished because of the DCPC.This "training"malarkey is a good earner remember when CORGI came in for gas fitters and driving instructors were hit about 4 years ago with the need for more qualifications.It wont go away.
Slackbladder:
Ok then, another thought.If things like this have to happen at haulage companies who will be getting the job done while the drivers are getting up to date? It’s not as if you could do 7 hrs in a class then go and do your shift.
I can see the point with digi cards but it’s not really in the same league is it, a couple of quid sent to dvla to get another card takes five minutes.
Agency drivers WITH DQC■■?
As I said the big fleets have programmed it over 4 or 5 years…proving it can be done with minimal disruption. So no real ‘excuses’ for smaller firms.
Slackbladder:
Estimates I’ve heard vary from 20% to 25% of drivers so far completed. ?
Really? I don’t for a minute doubt your figures (I’ve done no research due to complete apathy on my part tbh) but that seems a really low figure for something supposedly coming into force in well under a year.
Slackbladder:
Estimates I’ve heard vary from 20% to 25% of drivers so far completed. ?
Really? I don’t for a minute doubt your figures (I’ve done no research due to complete apathy on my part tbh) but that seems a really low figure for something supposedly coming into force in well under a year.
Interesting times approaching methinks.
There’s no real science to my figures, it’s just what other drivers come up with when talking to them up & down the country coupled with a little of my own experience. At my current employer it’s ongoing, so far less than half, of about 40 have started it. At my last place, part of the Owen Pugh group, none had started it according to their training wing. My boss reckoned, incorrectly,we were exempt on drainage vehicles. I left there in August this year. Prior to that the transport company I was at said they would be starting it next year.
muckles:
… I’ve known several retired drivers who will come in for a day or 2 to help out haulage companies, earn a few quid and get out from under their wife’s feet. I doubt to many of them have bothered with the DCPC.
I have heard that those with a wife over the age of 65, or rent an allotment, or have more than 2 bags of Werther’s Originals will be exempt.
Daz1970:
AHHHH The wonderful world of DCPC exemptions…not worth the risk!!!
Yep to much of the exemption are down to interpretation of the regs, if your interpretation differ to the chap from VOSA, or diva or viva or what they get called, then you either have to accept it or take it further, either way its agro.
TerryDactyl.:
muckles:
… I’ve known several retired drivers who will come in for a day or 2 to help out haulage companies, earn a few quid and get out from under their wife’s feet. I doubt to many of them have bothered with the DCPC.
I have heard that those with a wife over the age of 65, or rent an allotment, or have more than 2 bags of Werther’s Originals will be exempt.
On a serious note would it not have been sensible to exempt all those born before 1954 or something like that , it was possible and was done by at least one other EU country, the Netherlands I think.
Problem is, there’s no correlation between when you were born and how much truck driving experience you’ve got. I’ve got fifteen years on class one under my belt, but my dad, who was born in 1947, has never driven anything bigger than a Transit van.
The most sensible option of all would have been either make it a qualification worth having, or don’t bother introducing it at all.
This is DCPC,there are no sensible options.I know a service bus driver who has done tachos and WTD 4 times ,he does not use tachos and an older lady who drives for about 6 hours a week in a mini bus has a module on ropes and sheets.
alamcculloch:
This is DCPC,there are no sensible options.I know a service bus driver who has done tachos and WTD 4 times ,he does not use tachos and an older lady who drives for about 6 hours a week in a mini bus has a module on ropes and sheets.
Just one of the reasons I won’t be doing it & further proof,if needed, that the government couldn’t care a fig about it.
Well, since all we have to do is turn up, I’ll be taking a good book and getting there early to get a seat at the back. At lunchtime I’ll be finding a convivial hostelry and having a couple of sherbets.
alamcculloch:
This is DCPC,there are no sensible options.I know a service bus driver who has done tachos and WTD 4 times ,he does not use tachos and an older lady who drives for about 6 hours a week in a mini bus has a module on ropes and sheets.
Yep, I get what you are saying…but in theory (especially in New Year when service bus drivers’ licence’s become de-restricted into FULL manual licence) what’s stopping the service driver getting a job on coaches/mini-buses using tacho’s. Or even driving 7.5 tonners on tacho’s? Therefore it MAY be a good thing that he has a basic understanding of EU Drivers’ Hours & Digital Tachograph operation as learnt on his DCPC module.
Re: the older lady, it’s very doubtful she did a DCPC module on roping & sheeting. She may well have done a Load Safety/Load Security module covering ratchet straps, spring bars, air bags, chains & tensioners, headboards & other load restraints. Possibly will also have included overloading of vehicles, axles, safe loading procedures, site safety etc. It’s doubtful that roping & sheeting was dealt with in detail (if at all) in any DCPC module, apart from perhaps ‘old school’ drivers bringing it up in class discussion and/or demo. of a dolly knot. It’s funny how PCV drivers always refer to Load Safety modules generically as ‘Roping & sheeting’.
Anyone else covered Roping & Sheeting in depth on DCPC?
Does anyone know if the driver of a 3.5 tonner needs a dcpc to tow a trailer ,he pasts his test at 17 in 2003 and took a trailer test at 18 ,he doesn’t have a hgv licence.thanks Dan .
Dan Punchard:
Does anyone know if the driver of a 3.5 tonner needs a dcpc to tow a trailer ,he pasts his test at 17 in 2003 and took a trailer test at 18 ,he doesn’t have a hgv licence.thanks Dan .
Driver cpc is only for LGV & PCV vehicles so if the towing vehicle is not one of those then it does not require dcpc
It might require a tacho if for commercial use and not coming under one of the exemptions
