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According to Logistics UK.
Changes to the way in which HGV drivers can achieve their professional qualifications will give the logistics industry flexibility in how and when training is taken, according to business group Logistics UK.
The Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) is continual professional development which is carried out throughout a professional HGV driver’s career. Currently, drivers must undertake a block of 35 hours’ training, but as Chris Yarsley, Senior Policy Manager, Road Freight Regulation explains, the new regulations will introduce more flexibility and better targeted training for the businesses on which the whole of the economy relies:
“Road safety is the bedrock on which professional drivers operate,” he says, “and the Driver CPC regime is at the heart of this commitment. As we enter the next five-year cycle of training and qualifications for the nation’s HGV drivers, Logistics UK is heartened to see that government’s new legislation will provide more flexibility for professional drivers to undertake training in smaller blocks of time (35 hours in blocks of 3.5 hours is now permitted, rather than blocks of 7hrs) while still attaining the standards required. The increased flexibility that the new legislation will permit will enable logistics businesses to keep goods moving through the supply chain, while ensuring that their drivers remain up to date on key professional driving legislation.”
As Yarsley continues, the changes will also provide more e-learning opportunities (12 hours of training will be permitted in the total of 35 hours) to give drivers time to complete training away from the classroom, and enable lapsed drivers to return to the sector more easily via a seven hour access course, which will help to ease the pressure on driver vacancies:
“Under the new legislation, to be laid before Parliament in the spring, lapsed drivers will be able to start their return to the workforce with a seven hour course, which will provide driving rights for one year while they complete their full CPC qualification. This is good news for businesses still finding it hard to recruit new drivers to the sector, and ease the passage back into the workforce for those returning to the industry – with time available for them to undertake their full CPC training.” Read more
Source: LOGISTICS UK
