Hi all, I’ve got a National CPC which I passed in about 2008-ish. I haven’t been directly involved in transport operations since about 2013, but I’m being made redundant so I’m thinking about moving back into road transport work - either employed or as an external TM.
I know I’ll need to update my knowledge, so can anyone recommend any decent CPC refresher courses around Cheshire/Merseyside areas? Or do you think I should bite the bullet and resit the whole CPC, so I get updated knowledge and the International element?
the only managers cpc is a one type fits all where bye you would have to do both the national and international as one. and the traffic commissioner would always expect you to do a refresher from someone like the RHA, much cheaper and as many days you feel necessary, unless you want to take in the international, but who could give you the right information at the moment, look on the rha website they don’t appear to have a clue either.
The RHA do a 2 day refresher course and although it costs £450 or dearer for non members of the RHA it does count as 2 days DCPC. I am going to do it myself this year as I haven’t done any refresher train I g since I qualified in 2005 even though I’ve been a TM ever since.
The FTA do a cheaper 2 day refresher through Tachodisk, might be worth a look.
phop:
Plannerman you should be OK as external tm plenty of haulage firms about without it relying on others, as the saying goes bs baffles brains
You’re about right there Sam, I had a bloke on my yard last week telling me he was selling himself as an external TM , he was a dairy farmer until recently but he does a bit of agency driving & is a TM for some lad on the Tarmac Owner Driver Scheme. He did tell me that although he’d been TM for a while now he hadn’t seen so much as a tacho report, maintenance sheet or owt else to do with the day to day running of the firm, he thought it was fine too, he was getting paid for doing nowt. I pointed out the fact that his neck would be on the block if the ■■■■ hit the fan & he should be able to prove what input he was having to his position.
Just goes to prove a point though, if a failed farmer can have the nessecary qualifications to be an external TM it ain’t that difficult.
I was lucky I suppose, I took my operator CPC when I was 19 at night school & yes the multiple choice exam was easier than than the 2 part one we have today but I passed 1st time.
These folk who have external TM’s just in the background but have no input in the running of the business are more common than we think too.
It looks good to run a fleet of lorry’s you don’t need, payed for with money you haven’t got, but the fact remains it’s all a big show with not even the basic of qualifications behind it for some folk.