Hi ladies and gents, came across this tonight on the DSA site
Compulsory Training for Bus and Lorry Drivers
The European Union (EU) published a Directive in July 2003 that will require all category C and D licence holders to take part in 35 hours retraining every five years, in order to keep their entitlement to drive professionally. The Directive also gives details of a new initial qualification regime that new drivers must go through before they can drive professionally for the first time.
The Directive will come into force across all EU member states in 2008 for bus drivers, and 2009 for lorry drivers. These new training requirements will have a major impact on the bus and lorry training industries, but it will also impact any company employing lorry or bus drivers. They will need to ensure their drivers have kept their training up to date, and records of this are held. Self-employed drivers are also affected, as they will be unable to renew their driving licence unless they have evidence that their training is up to date.
As the legislation introduced in 2006 will need to contain the policy that will be adopted by the UK in order to comply with the Directive, it is important that the industry considers this Directive now, and put their views across to the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) when the consultation document is released later this year. This is the time for customers to help shape the policy with their views and ideas.
The rest can be found at dsa.gov.uk/Buses.asp?cat=362
This could affect not only drivers, what about mechanics and others who perhaps don’t use their licence as often ■■?
Wont affect me then…im opting out of that one..and it wont affect the poles either cos they cant drive in the first place (from what ive read on here) so i guess it will lead to yet a further shortage of drivers… 
Well it had to come didn’t it?
I suppose once the French got away with imposing Fimo and Foca on drivers then Brussels would soon follow suit.
I for one think that extra training can only be a good thing, the problem is the costs of it, will the companies pay for the new CPC, (hang on havent we already got one of those?)
My company will pay for HGV medicals and they are going to pay for the new digicard if ever it comes in, so I think that any further training will be paid for by them too, especially as they have to do it for the french drivers already.
It will hiit the agency men the hardest I think as they are not regularly employed and may have to pay for this themselves.
Is this extra training necessary? I know it basically only takes two weeks training to go from car licence to C+E licence but how many accidents are caused by new truck drivers as compared to new car drivers? IMO they’d be better off getting the standards of car drivers higher as I’m sure you’re all aware of the story of the examiner who left the DSA due to falling standards.
mrpj:
Is this extra training necessary? I know it basically only takes two weeks training to go from car licence to C+E licence but how many accidents are caused by new truck drivers as compared to new car drivers? IMO they’d be better off getting the standards of car drivers higher as I’m sure you’re all aware of the story of the examiner who left the DSA due to falling standards.
I’ll second that, the standard of driving I’ve seen today has been questionable to say the least. Overtaking on a blind bend!!! Brain dead moron’s. 
so who will be in charge of that one then?
another job for blunkett i guess, if a blind man can defend the countries borders and catch the dole scroungers that are working then he can train truck and bus drivers too.
whilst on the subject of this topic, what about 7.5 ton drivers? most of whom have never had any training at all, if they gained a car licence before 1997 then they didn’t have take any further training.
i have lost count of the amount of 7.5 tonners that i see driving in the middle lane when there is nothing to pass for at least half a mile, some really are car drivers that have or think they have big cars.
if it’s training for us then it should be training for every driver, it’s not always the truck driver that is in the wrong, sometimes the incident is caused by a car driver and it’s the truck drivers reactions that have saved that car drivers life at the cost of an overturned truck or lost load or even a load shift onboard, how many times have you had to slam on because that old boy in his montego thought you were further away or didn’t even seem to see you at all?
If I remember right 7.5 tonners are covered by this legislation as they are category C1 and therefore regarded as ‘lorries’.
Because I have been on holiday this week I have seen a couple of programmes with some italian bird from Eastenders 
Mirror Signal Manoeuvre!
The attitude of some of the trainees stinks, they argued with the instructor, some argued with the examiner. Others were just slagging off other drivers.
My landlady is a driving instructor and so is her son, I have just been talking about this to him, and it is worse than I feared.
I believe that extra training is necessary, every 5 years or something, and yes, I will have to pass the same examination.
I am fortunate that I was able to drive a long time before I was old enough, living in a farming community. Some people just havent got a clue of their whereabouts or the position of the car, some cannot even steer, yet they pass a test 
i read about the drivers CPC last year and sent a letter to Commercial Motor about it. they were good enough to print it so i could add it to my scrap book
Hi all
This is not exactly new but, as usual, nobody seems to be interested in what would be practical or useful. As far as I have seen, there hasn’t been a stipulation saying that it has to be all driving training.
When you look at it, 35 hours over 5 years could be broken down to 1 x 7 hour day per year. Useful subjects for training would include load security (rope & sheet, chains, straps, securing different types of loads in/on different types of vehicle/trailer - flats, vans, fridges, skellies, curtains, tilts) different vehicle/trailer systems (as above) different gearboxes/gearchanges, latest revisions in legislation and in the 5th year a proper (accompanied for the day) driving assessment which covers not only driving but paperwork and a tacho rules test. If you can’t make 35 hours of useful and relevant training out of that lot then you’re either a clever zb who thinks he knows everything or one of the useless, feckless steering wheel attendants who give drivers a bad name.
The biggest problem is getting the legislators to make it useful and that won’t happen by drivers shouting the odds (no matter how unified they may or may not become) It is to the bosses advantage to have a better trained/qualified workforce so the best approach would be to get the bosses organisations (FTA, RHA) to sort it out - and the best way to push them in the right direction is media pressure.
On the other hand, maybe I’m just a weirdo who doesn’t see doom and gloom everytime a new peice of legislation is announced
Your thoughts, as always, are welcome
Jules
that word censor needs a good kicking…it can’t even speak english 
Jules
Boots O’Lead:
that word censor needs a good kicking…it can’t even speak english
Jules
No it doesn’t…it saves us poor Mods hours of work every weekend…
If I were you, I’d blame the numpties who insist on trying to break the rules and dodge it, therefore adding to the number of letter combinations it now covers. 
I appreciate what you’re saying Lucy, however the descriptive I was attempting to use has never, to my knowledge, been a swear word and was deliberately chosen for that reason. Oh, well…whatever
On the other hand, hope you are doing well and that Rikki’s bill doesn’t go too high - he’ll never be able to afford to go to the Navi again
Jules
