Hi everyone
I drove HGV professionally for about seven years, until around 2000, when I had some serious health issues (which included needing a heart bypass), and I decided to throw my licence back at the DVLA and say to them, ‘keep it, I don’t need it anymore’. Well, thirteen years later I find myself tinkering with the thought of returning to the road! Needs must etc.
My, things have changed, haven’t they? What’s all this CPC for drivers business? And that digital tacho? Don’t worry, no need to answer, I have read enough to know what they are. Shocking - in my day, which ain’t that long ago, I took some lessons, got the licence and off I went, merrily doing mainly supermarket stuff, or tramping up and down the M5/M6 every night.
Anyway, you don’t want to hear the whole, probably boring, story, but I did want to ask… if I once held an HGV licence, would I still have to do this driver CPC? I voluntarily gave up my entitlement to drive trucks, it was NOT on medical grounds, no-one told me to do it, not a doctor, not DVLA. I personally felt at the time that the endless diet of cigarettes and burgers/KFC did me a lot of harm, not necessarily the driving itself (although sitting on one’s derriere cannot have helped!). And no, I don’t have those habits anymore.
I’m quite prepared to go through the driver training, obviously; after all this time I’d be no use to anyone I suppose, without some training, but if I can avoid the CPC thing I’d happier about that.
I do have other questions, but I suspect that they are addressed in the stickies herein, so I’ll leave that for now.
Cheers guys and gals.