06 March 2009
Joan Williams

Transport is one of the risk management areas that health and safety managers in most sectors have to deal with. And as work-related deaths on the roads far outnumber all other workplace fatalities, it's an area that commands their attention.

Adding to the list of road risk responsibilities is the Driver CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence), which all professional goods vehicle drivers must hold from September this year. This is a key piece of accreditation that safety professionals need to familiarise themselves with, and fast.

Not be confused with the Transport Manager CPC, the Driver CPC will introduce compulsory training for vocational drivers and the two are not interchangeable.

Technically speaking, the Driver CPC is a Level 2 operational qualification. In simple terms, if the Transport Manager CPC is an A-level pass, the Driver CPC is the GCSE equivalent, covering such subjects as fuel consumption, loading, drivers' hours, customer care, defensive driving and operator licence rules. From 10 September, lorry drivers will join bus and coach drivers, who have been subject to Driver CPC since September 2008 and fall under the scope of the new qualification.

To maintain their Driver CPCs, all category C and D licence holders (including C1 and D1) must undertake 35 hours of periodic training every five years. New drivers entering the industry must complete an initial qualification to drive professionally. Drivers already holding a vocational licence before September will not need to gain this initial qualification but will need to complete 35 hours of periodic training by 10 September 2014 for goods vehicles, or 10 September 2013 for passenger-carrying vehicle (PCV) licences. After this point, training must be repeated in this way every five years. New drivers will also be required to complete 35 hours of periodic training within five years of the date of qualification and each subsequent five-year period.

The 35 hours' training required for qualification must be delivered in chunks, each lasting at least seven hours. Where a seven-hour course is split into two parts, the second part must be started within 24 hours of the first part finishing. The results will be recorded and held on the DSA (Driving Standards Agency) database.

Lifelong learning

The European Parliament and Council have brought in the Driving CPC - under EU Directive 2003/59 - for two primary reasons: to improve road safety by bringing drivers up to date with ever changing regulations and requirements; and to develop the concept of professionalism, in its broadest sense, in an industry that seems to be habitually undervalued.

It is aimed not only at improving the knowledge and skills of LGV and PCV drivers when they first start work, but also at ensuring those skills are maintained and developed throughout the driver's working life.

Few people will argue with the equation that better qualified drivers equal lower road casualty rates, and nurturing safety is the overriding purpose behind these new qualifications. The Directive states: "the obligation to hold an initial qualification and to undergo periodic training is intended to improve road safety and the safety of the driver..." For this reason alone, the Driver CPC seems like a good idea. But it should also attract more people and, more importantly, the right kind of people to the industry by promoting a more professional and positive image, in turn attracting more people to drive buses, coaches and lorries for a living.

As well as offering companies the opportunity to address poor performance, keep on top of new legislation and reduce insurance premiums, the qualification will be a handy tool for refreshing a company's health and safety objectives. 

Who is liable?

The legislation requires drivers to hold the qualification on the relevant dates, and no one may cause or permit another person to drive without the qualification. So the duty of care doesn't just fall upon the driver; it's also the operator's responsibility to make sure that all the requirements of the Driver CPC are met, in much the same way that liability is applied to driving licences.
There are two types of qualification - one for goods vehicles and one for drivers of passenger vehicles - and the Driver CPC will only apply to operators of vehicles over three-and-a-half tonnes or with more than eight passenger seats. The vehicle may in some cases be exempt from vocational driver licensing or from Driver CPC, but if a driver switches from driving in exempted circumstances to other non-exempted driving, they will need a Driver CPC.

It's worth noting that hitching a trailer to a three-and-a-half-tonne vehicle will not mean that the driver is brought under the scope of the Driver CPC.
Legislation already in force means that transport undertakings must have systems in place to ensure drivers are properly qualified. Drivers will be breaking the law if they fail to produce their CPC at the roadside. Both VOSA (the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency) and the police will enforce the penalties, which will comprise a maximum £1000 fine for the operator if a certificate is not held by the driver or is not in their possession when it's requested (though a fixed penalty may be offered). For anyone found guilty of forging their certificate, a fine and/or a prison sentence of up to two years will be on the cards. The operator offence is related to ensuring the driver "holds" the qualification card.

Thorny subject

These strict penalties apply to health and safety managers responsible for their company's transport operations. They will need to ensure they tick the boxes for both driver and vehicle if they want to avoid being penalised.

It's a good idea to have a plan to ensure the smooth introduction of the new requirements. Operators should:

• draw up a policy on who arranges and pays for training (as with driver licensing, the rules do not stipulate who should foot the bill)
• identify what the training should achieve and how to measure its effectiveness
• plan for periodic training
• consider costs and budget
• introduce/amend management systems to ensure compliance.

Daily defect checks and reporting are of most concern to drivers' managers. This is a thorny area; some drivers firmly believe there is no legal requirement for them to carry out checks. Sadly, FTA engineers have found that more than 60% of the defects found in their inspections should have been found by the driver and rectified before the vehicle was used. VOSA has found similar results. The Driver CPC will provide a useful opportunity for drivers to undergo practical training to improve these skills.

When graduated fixed penalties are introduced in spring, the procedure that comes with them will make it much more likely that where enforcers find defects, as well as a Prohibition Notice being issued, the driver will receive a fixed penalty. Where they detect an endorsable offence, such as an illegal tyre, the driver's licence will be endorsed.

Initial and Periodic Driver CPC

	Initial Driver CPC	Periodic Driver CPC
Who?	New drivers only	All drivers
How?	By test	By attendance
What?	Entire syllabus	Related to syllabus
When?	Once at start of career	Every five years throughout career

The Driver CPC can be used to improve vehicle condition with training provided on vehicle checks, defect reporting and operator licence awareness. Similarly, drivers' hours and tachograph training is available via the Driver CPC and will also be useful for companies wanting to reinforce their working time practices. 

To identify what sort of training might be appropriate to improve transport safety, the health and safety manager might want to consider:

• site safety
• loading and unloading
• forklift trucks
• manual handling
• emergency aid and dangerous goods awareness
• fire safety
• driver welfare
• risk of road accidents.

Pitfalls and myths

Employers need to be planning now how they will monitor which drivers already have the qualification through initial training and how much periodic training has been completed by other drivers. But you should also be mindful of potential Driver CPC pitfalls and myths.

First, training undertaken before 10 September 2009 will not count towards goods vehicle driver training so don't make a false start.

Second, there will be no state funding available for CPC training and, strictly speaking, the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) driving qualification is not the same thing as Driver CPC. However, training undertaken to achieve an NVQ could double up as Driver CPC periodic training, provided that: the course can be linked to the syllabus; meets the criteria to be approved by the Joint Approval Unit for Periodic Training; and is delivered by an approved centre.

In some cases it's possible to obtain funding for NVQs - your training provider should be able to advise on this - but remember that an NVQ is a very different type of qualification from the Driver CPC. Gaining an NVQ requires the candidate to meet a certain standard and can take up time in preparation and assessment, and this commitment should be understood fully before a driver embarks on this type of qualification.

Finally, if your training is approved/accredited through a business partnership with others and their approval is withdrawn, yours will be too.

Broadly speaking, training is always a good idea and the Driver CPC will at last provide professional drivers with a recognised qualification befitting their level of responsibility.

The intended benefits will be felt more by companies that perhaps did not have a structured training programme in place before. It's hoped that a more professional image will attract drivers to the industry. And having better drivers, thanks to regular training throughout their careers, should make our roads safer too.

CPC exemptions

There are seven exemptions from the Driver CPC training requirements, as follows.
1. A non-commercial carriage of passengers or goods for personal use, such as vehicles operated by non-profit organisations or passenger vehicles driven by volunteer drivers.
2. Vehicles used in the course of driving lessons.
3. Vehicles used in the course of road tests for technical development or repair/maintenance purposes or new/rebuilt vehicles not yet put into purchase.
4. Vehicles with a 45km/h speed restrictor.
5. Vehicles carrying material or equipment to be used by the driver in the course of their work, eg a builder, plumber or scaffolder.
6. Vehicles used in an emergency or assigned to rescue missions.
7. Vehicles used by the armed forces, police forces, local authorities or fire and rescue authorities.

Joan Williams is head of road freight and enforcement policy at the Freight Transport Association.

Categories:
Road safety, Transport, Article, Workplace transport