toby1234abc:
Some drivers on my dcpc course got fined,i know the Gendarmes had a purge on this a while back,tacho in,and go.
There are no fines for not taking 15 minutes to walk around, drink tea or talk crap in the yard. Can you ask one of these drivers how much the fine was and what was written on the ticket and I bet it wasn’t for what you posted. 
“A responsible person must undertake a daily
walkaround check, preferably immediately
before a vehicle is used… Drivers must
be able to report promptly any defects or
symptoms of defects that could adversely
affect the safe operation of vehicles.
Reports must be recorded and provision
should be made to record details of any
rectification work done.”
That is the advice that VOSA give drivers and operators.
The only time VOSA would have anything to say was if the TC had stipulated that a Nil Defect System MUST be in place and it wasn’t. Even then it will only consist of a FUE, eventually leading to a cup of tea at Harehills House or the like.
Or a visit to one of the Bell sisters,Beverly,at the TC offices.
toby1234abc:
in the vosa booklet about hours,it does not say it is a legal requirement to have the tacho mode switch in the correct mode to carry out a 15 minute daily safety check on the vehicle,if you were in the same truck all week,or for weeks away,is there an unwritten rule to allow a shorter safety check?
No need to allow a shorter period of time than 15 minutes for trampers to do vehicle checks because the regulations (EC) 561/2006 do not stipulate a duration of time for vehicle checks.
There is no article in the regulations that says you should spend 15 minutes doing vehicle checks 
Having said that as others have said in the past, if you got pulled and there was a problem with the vehicle you could hardly claim it was OK when you started the shift if the tachograph shows no time taken for vehicle checks, so whilst it is wise to show a period of other work at the start of the shift it certainly isn’t written into the regulations.
Though to be honest personally I wouldn’t consider not doing at least minimal vehicle checks at the start of the shift no matter what the circumstances, but maybe other people feel differently
tachograph:
toby1234abc:
in the vosa booklet about hours,it does not say it is a legal requirement to have the tacho mode switch in the correct mode to carry out a 15 minute daily safety check on the vehicle,if you were in the same truck all week,or for weeks away,is there an unwritten rule to allow a shorter safety check?
No need to allow a shorter period of time than 15 minutes for trampers to do vehicle checks because the regulations (EC) 561/2006 do not stipulate a duration of time for vehicle checks.
There is no article in the regulations that says you should spend 15 minutes doing vehicle checks
Having said that as others have said in the past, if you got pulled and there was a problem with the vehicle you could hardly claim it was OK when you started the shift if the tachograph shows no time taken for vehicle checks, so whilst it is wise to show a period of other work at the start of the shift it certainly isn’t written into the regulations.
Though to be honest personally I wouldn’t consider not doing at least minimal vehicle checks at the start of the shift no matter what the circumstances, but maybe other people feel differently
This myth has grown out of proportion, the only thing that stipulates a time is company policy. If George Blogg (Transport 1954) wants you to inspect his truck and trailer for 23 minutes and sing land of Hope and Glory while you fill the kettle, that is what you must do. VOSA wont care if you sing out of tune or not, providing you have made a manual entry for the 23 minutes of work you have done.
toby1234abc:
Some drivers have been fined for not carrying out a 15 minute check
Some drivers talk ■■■■■■■■.
I trust this clarifies matters for you.
Wheel Nut:
This myth has grown out of proportion, the only thing that stipulates a time is company policy. If George Blogg (Transport 1954) wants you to inspect his truck and trailer for 23 minutes and sing land of Hope and Glory while you fill the kettle, that is what you must do. VOSA wont care if you sing out of tune or not, providing you have made a manual entry for the 23 minutes of work you have done.
I agree there seems to be a few people lately saying about this fictitious 15 minutes for vehicle checks, seems to be a bit of a fad at the moment
tachograph:
Wheel Nut:
This myth has grown out of proportion, the only thing that stipulates a time is company policy. If George Blogg (Transport 1954) wants you to inspect his truck and trailer for 23 minutes and sing land of Hope and Glory while you fill the kettle, that is what you must do. VOSA wont care if you sing out of tune or not, providing you have made a manual entry for the 23 minutes of work you have done.
I agree there seems to be a few people lately saying about this fictitious 15 minutes for vehicle checks, seems to be a bit of a fad at the moment
Driver Trainers and Compliance Managers.
That’s all.
Going off topic,we had a road traffic police man on the course,he was made redundant,we were talking about the use of mobile phones while driving,he mentioned,that if you deleted all calls and texts that were sent or received,they could still verify that you had used the phone at the time of an accident,there is proof of that in the phone.Moral of the story,never lie to the police.
toby1234abc:
Going off topic,we had a road traffic police man on the course,he was made redundant,we were talking about the use of mobile phones while driving,he mentioned,that if you deleted all calls and texts that were sent or received,they could still verify that you had used the phone at the time of an accident,there is proof of that in the phone.Moral of the story,never lie to the police.
There wouldn’t be any evidence in the handset if you deleted call and message logs. They would get the required information from your network provider to prove you were on a call or sending/receiving messages.
tachograph:
AlexWignall:
skids:
DCPC training courses are approved by the “Joint Approvals Unit for Periodic Training” (JAUPT) who as far as I’m aware never assess the instruction before or after giving approval.
but neither the instruction nor the course content will be assessed by JAUPT which leaves a lot of DCPC instructors to spread as much misinformation as they seem to.
That’s not to say that all DCPC instructors are bad, from some of the posts on these forums it’s clear that there is some good training out there, but unfortunately it’s obvious that there is a lot of very bad training and misinformation being spread by instructors who clearly have not studied there subject well enough and yet have still gained approval from JAUPT.
Hmmmm … I am a DCPC instructor as well as manager of an approved centre and i was recently audited by JAUPT.
He arrived 06:30 on a Saturday morning and stayed for around 6 hours. Not only did he scrutinise all of my policies and procedures, he went to town on my own personal development record questioning all of my previous experience and qualifications.
he then sat through the first 3 1/2 hour session which happened to be EU Rules & regs. he did without a doubt asses my knowledge and understanding of the subject. He also asked a few ‘tricky’ questions in front of the students. he looked through my presentations and materials for both the course I was about to deliver and the other modules I have registered.
The audit report that was then sent through from JAUPT was very detailed and went into the course content, instructors skills and knowledge.
Did I pass the audit? No 
The training was fine but my policies and procedures were lacking. After a good few weeks work these have now all been rewritten and audit passed. The trainer development and employment policies I now have in place ensure i cannot simply utilise any old trainer. All trainers have to be assessed by a trained assessor and everything recorded and evidenced. Even the assessors have to be assesed! My DCPC centre is not a commercial operation, we only deliver CPC to our own drivers but we have had to meet the same standards as any other centre will have to meet.
Having had a good chat with the auditor I am confident to say that although the DCPC has gotten off to a shaky start standards will most definitly be rising with approval becoming a much stricter process. I know what work I had to do to retain my centre approval and I will admit it was needed.
However - I attended a DCPC course as a customer last week, held at a training company that does nothing but training it was a complete waste of time with the level of knowledge and skills way below that I would have expected. They also let us go after just 6 hours including breaks 
This particular training provider has not yet been audited … although i am sure they will be now seeing as I passed their details onto JAUPT along with a written complaint.
I couldn’t agree more that the DCPC has started with some very low standards and my recent experience shows that ‘anyone’ can deliver CPC. They won’t however continue to deliver CPC once they are audited, not unless they raise the standards.
Sorry for the thread hi-jack 