I have had conflicting advice on what should be really a straight forward subject.
My DCPC card expired in 2021, which was due to me stopping driving in and around 2018, I am looking to return however I obviously need to bring CPC upto date.
I have looked for some advice on this and have been told different things. The DVSA first said I can apply to get the replacement card sent to me and do the 35 hours of CPC, the second time I spoke to DVSA, they said that I need to re-do all the testing of the 5 modules.
My driving licence is still in date etc and all the correct classifications on there.
I simply thought it would be a case of getting the 35 hours done then I will get a new DCPC card. Am I wrong in this assumption?
No, not wrong at all. Get 35 hours logged and you’ll get a new card
Choose your provider carefully, they’re not all the same, try and get a recommendation from another driver. Personally I would avoid online courses, I find things better when you’re mixing with real people, not staring at a screen for 7 hours
Your mistake was thinking DVSA are there to help us
Most of the time you just get someone quoting from a script.
Example from today, a colleague wanted to pay for some tests, first DVSA person wouldn’t assist and said “You’ll have to contact customer services”
Colleague: “OK, can I have the phone number of customer services please?”
DVSA: “No.” And promptly hung up.
For what it’s worth I found online ok really.
I used enterprise cost ÂŁ35 a time . And you can spread your course over 2 evenings 3 half hours each night with a break halfway though for approximately 15 mins.
Don’t think many do class room based ones anymore
Where I deliver my ADR they’ve been stowed off with classroom DCPC, and in fact, it hasn’t stopped, there are still enough people wanting all 35 hours (even after the common renewal deadline has passed) to fill a classroom to max capacity (20 per trainer) for the next few weeks.
And there are many who cannot cope with an online course, not even to get connected on Zoom at the start of the day. TNUK is a self-selecting group, composed of people who are comfortable with technology; we naturally don’t hear from that large segment of drivers who aren’t part of the tech-savvy brigade.
It’s in the pipeline, exact details still TBA, but a DVSA auditor I had a discussion with said “Oh it is coming, you can bank on that, we just haven’t decided how soon, or how long the test will take, or how much it will cost”.
