A bit of bad press for Penrith outfit.
I note that a driver whose DCPC had run out 4 YEARS AGO ! was still allowed to drive.
Good on him for getting off lightly, but on other hand…ffs is this pseudo ‘qualification’ essential or not?
Make yer minds up.
Like I have said from the beginning in reality a formality, a seeing to be doing the right thing excercise with no real substance.
If someone is allowed to drive after 4 years expiry, why tf to we have to endure the same crap every 5 years ?
That should read “had been allowed by the operator to continue driving”.
Like any “news article” this kind of report doesn’t give what I would consider to be the more interesting details, such as what the TC had to say about the people running the company, that comes if/when the TC decides to publish a “Written Decision” on the case.
And there’s always more behind the scenes that doesn’t get mentioned, such as the fact that the company will now be much more on the radar for the DVSA, so their drivers will likely be more preferentially targeted, what DVSA might have uncovered after making a visit to the premises, extra undertakings on the company’s O-licence (the standard one being mandatory laden RBTs at every inspection) and effects on the company’s insurance premiums.
If 35 hours in the classroom over five years is such an overwhelming chore, then next time around you’ll be able to choose the pass-or-fail test instead.
Tbf mate 35 hours IS a chore, I have no qualms admitting that.
If in works time on full pay like good and proper firms do…bring it on, not a prob.
In my own time on a weekend after spending time away from home, and UNPAID for doing something I do not want to do, nor feel the need to do, when I could be spending what is my own leisure time with friends or family…Aye it sure as hell IS a chore.
I get doing the initial 35 hours from the start to try and seperate the drivers from the screwdrivers… but the same cack all over again? …and again ad infinitum?
They monitor us these days to the point of intrusion, they check our tachos for compliance, they know who can do the job and who is a waste of skin, so why are we not assesed individually over that 5 year period as to who needs what in instruction.
If you need a further 35 hours so be it, if you need only 5 then sans fait rien Rodders.
But we know the answer…
Not as much revenue gained in the buisnesses that this has created.
edit:.Just remembered you do DCPC classes yourself, not having a pop at you personally, as I am sure that in your opinion all this stuff is genuine and essential, it is just that I hold a very different (and admittedlly cynical) opinion on it all.
As for the article…yep.I maybe did pick that bit up wrongly after all, but any mention of this DCPC cack in a way as if it is a GENUINE qualification kinda annoys me.
To quick to jump…again.
But are you going to take the pass-or-fail test option next time?
As far as I am aware you don’t do European driving so this should be the ideal option for those who have such a beef with the 35 hours.
Nah I reckon this one is my last mate tbh.
However if I planned to carry on, yeah I may well have went down that route.
Only prob is I cannot fully ‘take in’ stuff I aint really interested in, my mind has a tendency to wander having a low and undisciplined concentration threshold.
I was same as a kid at school,.excellent exam passes with flying colours on subjects of interest, but perceived as ‘thick’ on stuff with no interest.…just the way I am.
So …with me only (but adequately) being fully versed with the actual stuff I NEED to know, (which has worked very well for me so far) it may not be sufficient to pass an exam…pseudo or otherwise.
Got to ask though, from an unbiased pov, do you not think I make a valid point about all this stuff, and my assesment idea, as an alternative to a 5 yearly routine …just curious.
I’m glad I chose to do it online during lockdown.
If only to distract myself from the cabin fever at the time. But since the new card will take me up to 2029 (65yrs) hopefully I will never have to go through the 35hrs again, as I am hoping that I won’t have to be driving up to retirement age. Whatever Keir decides that will be
Conversely, I was not a great student at school, which is not unsurprising considering while my mates were studying for O-levels I was gigging in a band with older guys, out most weekends at most of the CIU clubs around the north, I was going to be a professional drummer in a metal band, why did I need O-levels?
My “education” didn’t really start until my early-to-mid-20’s when I realised that my buddies in the most successful band I’d been in (actually cutting vinyl records you could buy off the shelf in HMV) had their heads so far up their butts they’d well and truly s-crewed the pooch. Once I got into education, I got the bug for proving (to myself as well as other people) that I could pass any exam I put my mind to.
It’ll be a DVSA set exam, so probably not unlike the current theory test, though you may have been driving before that came in? Multiple choice, pick one from four.
I would disagree about the “what I NEED to know”, if you haven’t heard it, how can you know if you need to know it?
For example, you do a bit of tramping I believe? Do you know when you can legally do a 12 hour drive? Do you know what the newly defined default penalty is in respect of unsecured loads? And which situations will leave you liable for that penalty? It doesn’t take very much at all.
I’ve always said that it’s a cheek to call that blue card a “Driver Qualification Card”, any “qualification” without an exam is no qualification at all. Even in it’s existing form it should never have been left to some retired driver with no classroom ability, armed with a pocketful of anecdotes and bad jokes 
And it should NEVER have been seven-hour sessions, Uni students don’t do seven hour stints in the classroom and they’re far more invested in the learning process than HGV drivers.
I would have made it a pass-or-fail re-qualification exercise from the start, based on some of the existing stuff and the relevant newer stuff. But, if some of my ADR students are to be believed, you might not want someone like me setting the questions for any exam you might have to sit 
I also am guilty of a misspent youth, cars, beer, pretty girls music, and football were my vices…and to a point still are.
As for knowledge of aspects of the law and regs regarding DCPC.
Yeah,…That is exactly what I meant by ‘need to know.’
12 hour driving?
I aint an owner driver no more (thank Christ😄)I could never visualise the occasion when I would want, need, or agree to ever driving for a 12 hour stint.
Penalty for insecure loads?
You are correct I do not know, but I tend to strap loads that need strapped to within an inch of their life…and I am well known for spending a long time in doing so, but I am paid by the hour anyway.
(btw as for axle weight coil in pic on headboard is ally.)
And those that actually do not NEED strapped (in real terms) pallets of cardboard, I will secure to the legal requirement.
So I can never see me getting nicked for an insecure load.
So like I said ‘A need to know basis’.
Look I aint trying to be a smart arse here, by saying I know better, cos I don’t, I’m just telling you as I see and deal with the job that is all…and it has worked ok for me for years.
As for an exam scenario…
A lot of drivers I know are good lads as far as driving abilities and doing the job, but not academically competent let’s say.
So a lot of good drivers may not even qualify by failing the exams.
The “12 hour drive” is for situations to get you back to the yard so you can have a proper weekend, instead of having an unwanted extra night out, so that’s an option drivers might very much want to have
“loads that need to be strapped” ?
Aye, and there’s the rub…
see pages 51 to 54 of
I know, I’ve met some very capable drivers, and decent blokes too, the kind I’d be very happy seeing in any place where I was TM. But, having been very much not an exam type of person at one time, then become one, I’m well aware “there’s nothing like a convert”. There are different types of “exam” - this Mod 4 exam for example, entirely practical (but stupidly easy).
Ok
quote: 12 hour drive…
I have no probs with nights out in the truck, never have.
I have weekended in Europe many times for instance …and enjoyed it.
I have also parked a few miles from home when time was up,.and got a lift home and lift back in morning, got paid subsistence…(non works vehicles btw.)
quote: ‘‘Loads that NEED strapped’’
I meant in REAL non theory terms.
A pallet of cardboard that you can drag around the trailer does not ‘need’ strapped in real terms, as say a pallet of canned drinks does.
But because that pallet of cardboard needs secured legallly, I will do so to cover my arse.
Again…
Not trying to be clever here.
I just think its a sound idea that we know what we need to know, including those things that some don’t know that they don’t know (Donald Rumsfeld wasn’t as mad as people thought he was) such as the updated sanctions, so that drivers can keep their money in their pockets and don’t end up joining DVSAs “training via the wallet” scheme, and so that their employers don’t have to deal with PG9’s.
Just came across a post I put on here nearly 10 years ago about DCPC…it made me laugh.
(Then again my kids say I am the only one who laughs at my jokes,.and nobody else does.)
