I am now 45ys old. Since I was 17 I have worked in the transport industry in some form or another. I started off as a van boy progressing on to 7.5 tonners on multi-drop work then when I was 21 I got my class 2 and I continued on Multi-drop before diversifying on to tippers, mixers and fridges. Then ( yes I was late to class 1 ) when I was 29 I acquired my class 1 and following doing a bit of bulk tipper and fridge work I started with ARR Craib where I learned my trade on flat trailers and covers as well as curtainsiders, step frames and skeletals. I also for the first time tackled the ADR exam and have subsequently renewed it 3 times ( full classifications tanks & packages ) so all in all I like most of you guys have I think a vast knowledge of the UK transport industry. Like you guys I have acquired my knowledge whether it be the geographical lay out of the UK or using various trailers and driving various makes of trucks on different jobs through being hands on in the job and learning from older wiser veterans who were only to happy to help out the next generation of drivers.
Which brings me to the Drivers CPC. Call me cynical but how can sitting in a classroom for 35hrs every 5yrs improve the standards of a veteran driver or learn a new driver anything? Have any of you guys who have done CPC courses feel you have actually learned anything you never knew before? Is it not absolutely insulting and condescending to tell a workforce 'OK guys you have been doing this job legally and effectively all your life but now you cannot do it because we and the EU says so!!! ’ It is a national scandal. Is it any wonder no young people are coming into this job anymore? Firstly it costs an absolute fortune to get your LGV license then the CPC then DigiCards then all red tape and garbage we have to deal with for very unprofessional pay rates.
The Government attitude of ‘Its no us, It’s the EU’ Well the EU dictates how many hours we can work, the spec of the trucks & trailers, the emissions, the speed limiter setting in fact every single thing about our industry except one thing…A while back the EU took steps to bring the cost of diesel in the UK in line with the rest of Europe ( our worst ever Chancellor Gordon Brown had made road fuel in the UK the most expensive in the western world ) only to be told ’ OH THAT IS NOTHING TO DO WITH EUROPE THATS A DOMESTIC MATTER!!!’ So it would appear they can tell Europe to shove it when it suits them which brings me to this CPC nonsense. It seems that The Treasury has made countless millions of this CPC directive so there is your answer to why they are insisting it comes in. I saw a while back a Traffic Commissioner was boasting how they would hammer any driver caught without a valid CPC which made me think so does that person have to retrain their job every five years■■? I don’t think so. Or is there any plan to set a national minimum rate for ’ Professional LGV Drivers’ of say £15ph■■?
The Unions have also been very disappointing in their attitude towards this CPC, I would have expected across the union movement an attitude of under no circumstances will our members be tolerating this ridiculous CPC. If the government insist well no freight will move but no, the attitude has been a most disappointing oh well we will set up training schools and you can pay us your hard earned cash. Shocking.
I am not opposed to ongoing training, in road haulage every day is a school day and decent haulage companies will generally offer on job training and its fair to say the haulage industry has managed all these years without this nonsense which is not only a cash making cow but another reason why no new blood is coming into our fine industry. When I was a schoolboy every now & again the class teacher would ask the class ’ what do you want to be when you grow up?’ Well back then at least 4 in every 10 boys wanted to be Lorry Drivers. I wonder how many would say that nowadays?
rivits:
Have any of you guys who have done CPC courses feel you have actually learned anything you never knew before?
No, I just accept that it’s a hoop I have to jump through, you can’t even dig a hole on a building site with a shovel without having a ticket to say that you are qualified to do it these days.
It’s just the way it is nowadays so you have two choices, shape up or ship out
Its a blatant cash generator,I am 71 and I drove artics before the HGV licence was thought of.I dont wish to appear to be a “Know it all” but seriously I think its an insult to my intelligence that I have to sit through a common sense lecture, in many cases by someone who does not even hold an HGV licence in order to carry on driving.
I got my licence on the grandfather rights, but I would have thought that passing the current test would cover any aspect of driving heavies.Being “OLD SCHOOL” i believe that most regulations are entrapments, rather than being useful aids to better driving, there are too many exceptions in the rules these days
The only way for it to be valid is for a pre test to evaluate what you know or don’t know then be trained accordingly.
Without pre and post test value is zero, nothing more than box ticking.
Some off its ok first aid for example but rest is load of ■■■■■■■■ look at drivers hours half of the trainers tell you wrong things so how can thar be improving if they don’t know what they are talking about
rocky 7:
Its a blatant cash generator,I am 71 and I drove artics before the HGV licence was thought of.I dont wish to appear to be a “Know it all” but seriously I think its an insult to my intelligence that I have to sit through a common sense lecture, in many cases by someone who does not even hold an HGV licence in order to carry on driving.
I got my licence on the grandfather rights, but I would have thought that passing the current test would cover any aspect of driving heavies.Being “OLD SCHOOL” i believe that most regulations are entrapments, rather than being useful aids to better driving, there are too many exceptions in the rules these days
Although a lot of it is teaching you how to ■■■■ eggs I must admit to learning something on each day I have done so it can’t be all bad .and passing the test now or at any time in the past is only a license to start learning to drive.you will be surprised of how many daft questions get asked by folk who really should know better on these days
Hmmm I’m afraid I go the other way on this.i think DCPC is the best thing thats happened to us lorry drivers . I’m 43 class 1 20yrs cpc national holder ADR blah blah blah.
DCPC completed and I found I learnt 1 or 2 things.The biggest thing I learnt is that many of the so called experience drivers who were on the same course as myself seriously needed to be refreshed.And some younger drivers were far more knowledgeable. Whatever! it bought truckdrivers together and everybody learnt something.
As for a cash cow you are kidding me. Theres not much money there for the government. I can’t think why you would think that.
I agree 100% on the £15 an hour though.lol. 15 quid an hour is already achievable infact I know lots of drivers who earn that and they love it . I’m sure they would recommend it.
Decent haulage company? Id love to know what the definition of what that is?
Maybe we should have a hgv advanced driver course so that companies have the choice of paying a premium for the best drivers.
It’s a cash cow. Good luck to those that are cashing in.
But it won’t last, There will be a huge downturn in business after september 2014 and it won’t pick up until about January 2019.
How many will survive? Not enough to supply the “training” required for the next 5 year period.
ROG:
Maybe it will get scrapped along with many other daft things if the UK votes to get out of the EU … yes please
I am with you, out of the EU. Sick of being told what to do by an unelected Brussels bureaucrat! Oh and for those that say our economy would crash try a weekend in Switzerland.
Thing is mate some take pride in thier work and make the effort to keep up with ever changing regulations, I feel that I am being made to pay for those that don’t.
Not wanting to sound like a know it all but when I encounter something I don’t know I find out.
I realize there are plenty out there that have some big gaps in thier knowladge but not sure the dcpc will change that.
Personally, I reckon if the whole DCPC system were about “raising standards” and “actual training”, then we would have been doing courses like “skidpan defensive driving” or “preparing for winter” or even “roping and sheeting”, HIAB, Moffet, ADR, and other useful vocational driver courses.
In practice, the fact that course runners have shirked away from “expensive to run” (but useful to US!) courses such as I’ve described means that they have used government legislation to turn it into a cash cow…
Consider a classroom with 30 drivers in it… Paying £50 per day apiece… That’s revenue of £1500 a DAY for the firm “running the course”, and even if they pay their “Instructor” top dollar (has no degree, isn’t a toff, etc etc) the firm running the courses are going to absolutely coin it in…
A Harry says that’s how it is now, I can driver diggers, dozers give me a chainsaw and I can fell any tree or spray fields with chemical but if any job came up I am not allowed because I don’t have the right bit of paper. You used to be able to swop jobs but now when trained in one it’s very hard to change without spending lots of cash.
How could the unions say it’s wrong for driver to be trained that would not look good. Most jobs have some form of work based training and by some of the things asked on these pages drivers need it also.
Maybe not many schoolboys would want to be drivers now because they can see that working 2 weeks for 1 weeks pay is not worth it.
It’ll be a short term cash cow, like the Millenium bug was in IT. Once most are “qualified”, many schools will disappear.
Personally, I can’t wait to do it, as then I’ll see what the fuss is about.
Listening to our older drivers, a re-education is required.
(eg, 1k per turn of the legs, you’ll instantly lose your licence for no dog clip etc etc)
The thing is though the Government ( no matter which political party is in power ) will always find ways & means to shaft the public. Another bug bear of mine is having to stump up for my LGV medical which as ( like we all are ) a taxpayer this should be taken care of by the NHS. The reason I need my license is to earn a living of which I pay a substantial amount of tax & national insurance into the country but the NHS cannot find the budget to supply us drivers with medicals but they can find the required funds to provide junkies with methadone and would be ■■■■ slags with breast enlargment operations. It is a scandal. What about the so-called enviromental tax on motorists too with the staggered vehicle excise duty. A desperate measure introduced by Alistair Darling, the man who brought the British economy to its knees by his incompetence. How can it be justified to charge a ‘gas guzzling’ Vauxhall Insignia 1.8 £260 p.a. to tax? Hardly a gas guzzler is it? A blatent desperate attempt to bring in extra revenue of which the 'showroom tax ’ has brought in an estimated £700 million!!! Is it not quite simple economics that if you drive a thirsty car you pay more tax at the petrol pump■■?
I know I have strayed off the point a bit but I am just pointing out the way as working men we are constantly shafted
Dav1d:
It’ll be a short term cash cow, like the Millenium bug was in IT. Once most are “qualified”, many schools will disappear.
Personally, I can’t wait to do it, as then I’ll see what the fuss is about.
Listening to our older drivers, a re-education is required.
(eg, 1k per turn of the legs, you’ll instantly lose your licence for no dog clip etc etc)
nightstar:
Hmmm I’m afraid I go the other way on this.i think DCPC is the best thing thats happened to us lorry drivers . I’m 43 class 1 20yrs cpc national holder ADR blah blah blah.
DCPC completed and I found I learnt 1 or 2 things.The biggest thing I learnt is that many of the so called experience drivers who were on the same course as myself seriously needed to be refreshed.And some younger drivers were far more knowledgeable. Whatever! it bought truckdrivers together and everybody learnt something.
As for a cash cow you are kidding me. Theres not much money there for the government. I can’t think why you would think that.
I agree 100% on the £15 an hour though.lol. 15 quid an hour is already achievable infact I know lots of drivers who earn that and they love it . I’m sure they would recommend it.
Decent haulage company? Id love to know what the definition of what that is?
Maybe we should have a hgv advanced driver course so that companies have the choice of paying a premium for the best drivers.
I agree that people of my age group should go on refresher courses from time to time. Fortunately for me I am in a job(trade plating) where I drive every new truck that appears on the market, and as such I have to learn how to operate the changes made to
new trucks.
rivits:
Which brings me to the Drivers CPC. Call me cynical but how can sitting in a classroom for 35hrs every 5yrs improve the standards of a veteran driver or learn a new driver anything?
Look at the dumbass questions asked in this forum about even basic drivers hours rules by drivers who’ve been doing it for years and there’s your answer. How many veteran drivers think you can legally do more than three 15hr shifts a week as long as you take 11hrs off?
rivits:
Which brings me to the Drivers CPC. Call me cynical but how can sitting in a classroom for 35hrs every 5yrs improve the standards of a veteran driver or learn a new driver anything?
Look at the dumbass questions asked in this forum about even basic drivers hours rules by drivers who’ve been doing it for years and there’s your answer. How many veteran drivers think you can legally do more than three 15hr shifts a week as long as you take 11hrs off?
The problem is that even those sitting a course on drivers hours are not checked to see if they have assimilated the rules correctly so whats the point ?
My main problem is, when I see BASIC questions on here, such as the guy who did 17hrs, others who don’t know about BASIC breaks (not even the complicated ones), and most, if not all, of these questions are asked by people WHO HAVE COMPLETED THE dCPC!!!
How much bloody use is it then??
I’ve always taken the pride in the job to learn the rules and regs, I was on coaches before HGV’s, so tacho rules have been with me for 15yrs now, been through the rule change and took it upon myself to learn the changes and ensure I was upto date.
As I’ve always said, if people do infringements and get done, force them to sit the crappy course, not people like me who could fall asleep through it and learn more
