john lewis SfL

John Lewis has called on Jaupt to provide more visibility about the way in which a driver obtains their Driver Qualification Card (DQC) in the future.

Speaking at a Skills for Logistics (SfL) event last week to celebrate the sector’s achievement in successfully completing the first wave of Driver CPC training, Tanith Dolan, technical training director at John Lewis, said:

“I’m recruiting at the moment, and the drivers all come forward with their DQC cards. But what goes behind that card? Did they do 35 hours of training in the last week before 10 September, or was it over a period of time? How was their approach to that training? What was that training? Was it five courses all on health and safety?”

She added: “I’ve got no visibility of that, and this is something we would like to see happen at John Lewis, as it would help us understand their approach to training and whether they would become a good partner driver in our business.”

John Lewis, along with brewer Carlsberg, spoke to fellow operators and training providers about how they had approached the new CPC legislation, how it had benefited their businesses and how training can be improved in the future.

Both operators gave best-practice examples of how they incorporated the legislation into their companies’ strategies, designing courses  to upskill drivers in business-specific core areas, such as manual handling and customer service, rather than opt for off-the-shelf training modules.

Philip Thompson, national fleet compliance manager at Carlsberg Supply Company UK, told delegates: “I think it’s fair to say that while it hasn’t always been seen as the most popular thing, the Driver CPC for Carlsberg has achieved its aim: upskilling our drivers and creating a better informed workforce.”

It came as the Transport Committee attacked the Driver CPC in its Government Motoring Agencies report last week. MPs stated in the report: “If businesses and drivers must commit time and resource to mandatory training, then that training must be worthwhile. At the moment, this is not the case.”

Picture caption: (from left) Nick Baxter and Martin Ready, driver trainers for primary transport at John Lewis; Tanith Dolan, technical training director at John Lewis; and Ross Moloney, chief executive of SfL.

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