There was a lot to absorb at last month’s RHA National Training Conference, including an update into the number of issues at Driver CPC training centres deemed serious enough for the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) to take a personal interest.
In terms of the Driver CPC landscape, as we head rapidly towards just one year to go until drivers with acquired rights need to have completed their 35-hours of training, there were also insights that didn’t fit neatly into the news items written at the time.
Peter Weddell-Hall, head of training accreditation at DSA, revealed that there are currently more than 634,000 drivers (both LGV and PCV) undertaking periodic training.
That does however mean, based on DSA estimates, that potentially120,000 drivers have done absolutely nothing towards ensuring they are qualified to drive come September 2014 (in the case of LGV drivers).
From this band of occasionally jolly drivers currently engaged in Driver CPC periodic training, there’s 105,040 that have only done a day’s training so far and have seven hours under their belts as a consequence.
For each of the next three brackets (7.5 to 14 hours, 14.5 to 21 hours etc) the numbers engaged are very similar at just more than 100,000 for each. The largest single category however is 28.5 to 35 hours - those on the cusp of completing the periodic training or those that already have – with 170,473 drivers almost there/there (although this may include a fair few bus and coach drivers racing to meet their own September 2013 Driver CPC deadline).
DSA figures also record that just shy of 22,000 drivers have completed more than 35 hours of periodic training!, giving them bragging rights over the rest that have not.
And in terms of training provision, there are now 1,400 centres and close to 3,700 approved training courses. This has surprised DSA, which estimated it at the start of the process that it would have 1,400 centers and 2,920 courses respectively at this point.
Many eggs in a few baskets
In her conference presentation later in the day, Liz Heaton, senior training accreditation service manager at DSA, revealed that of those 1,400 approved centres, 48 provide half of all Driver CPC training, which is remarkable really. Of the remainder, a third are delivered directly by employers and the outstanding balance by consortia.
There's also a lot more provision for LGV drivers, as of those near 3,700 Driver CPC courses, LGV and LGV/PCV combined courses make up 87%. The remainder is exclusively PCV.
In regards the five most popular content areas for courses; health, safety and emergencies is top of the pile (23%). This is followed by legislation (22%); vehicle checks (20%), professional driver/company issues (19%) and personal health and well being (16%).