What is the definition of a ‘professional driver’
I work for an engineering company who run a single 7.5t vehicle for delivering / collecting material. We do not currently employ a dedicated driver. The person that drives the vehicle depends on several factors but normally it is who is available. To have to put several drivers through 35 hours training every 5 years would be cost prohibitive.
Are we covered by the exception covering ‘carrying material or equipment to be used by the driver in the course of his or her work, provided that driving the vehicle is not the driver’s principal activity?’
You views please
markb96:
What is the definition of a ‘professional driver’
I work for an engineering company who run a single 7.5t vehicle for delivering / collecting material. We do not currently employ a dedicated driver. The person that drives the vehicle depends on several factors but normally it is who is available. To have to put several drivers through 35 hours training every 5 years would be cost prohibitive.
Are we covered by the exception covering ‘carrying material or equipment to be used by the driver in the course of his or her work, provided that driving the vehicle is not the driver’s principal activity?’
You views please
the NI gov website mentions this exemption
dvtani.gov.uk/drivercpc/exemptions.asp
it gives an example
An example of a driver under exemption vii (also known as ‘incidental driver’) would be a brick layer who drives a load of bricks from the builder’s yard to the building site and then spends their working day laying bricks. In this case, driving a lorry is incidental to their main occupation.
I don’t think your case is as clear cut exemption as a builder or scaffolder , and probably isn’t exempt ! However you could ignore it until there is a test case or the enforcement agencies tell you you need a DCPC 