Driving a heavy vehicle like the lorry, bus or coach needs a special certification. The European Union has formulated the Driver CPC (Certification of Professional Competence). It ensures that all professional drivers are both competent and proficient. The law asks that all heavy-vehicle drivers hold this license to drive legally.
Let us check out what CPC is and who needs the license:
What is CPC – Initial Training?
CPC or Certificate of Professional Competence is common in industries including transportation. The driver CPC is a complete training program for all drivers who have Category C or Category D license. The certification has a set of two exams – practical and theory. The theory part has a test and the practical skills are tested in the two exams. All these tests along with the training are called as the initial CPC qualification.
Without the completion of the initial test, one cannot get the commercial driving license. At the specialized training services, one has to pass the HGV training within two years. Most of the trainees complete the course within weeks but if they fail to meet the deadline, they start over.
What is a periodic training?
After 2015, all commercial drivers have to carry a CPC card. This has made taking courses a popular option. Once a new driver completes the initial CPC qualification they get a CPC card valid for five years. All the drivers who have got their training before 2009 were offered another five years to complete the course and get the card.
Every five years a driver should renew an expiring card with remedial or periodic training. This offers the driver professional development and competency training. With 35 hours of classroom training, the CPC courses are custom designed. It offers more flexibility to meet every client.
There are dozens of topics that could be covered. Some of the popular topics are:
- Training in emergency road safety
- Safe transport of petroleum products
The topics are endless helping clients pick ones that suit them best.
Who needs CPC training?
If you drive one of the following vehicles as a part of your main job, you need a CPC training:
- Lorry
- Tipper trucks
- Heavy construction vehicles
- Bin lorries
- Buses – local and national buses
- Coaches – local, national, and continental coaches
- all Haulage vehicles
Apart from the drivers, operators of the haulage vehicles also need a CPC training. There is a small difference in the training but the differences are minimal for practical uses
Who does not need a CPC Training?
Most uniformed professional drivers do not need a Driver CPC. Being a part of the Fire services, police service, army, a civil defense organization would make the driver exceptional.
If you are a non-uniformed professional, the following could be possible exceptions:
- A minibus driver with less than 19 passengers
- Using the vehicle for personal or non-commercial use
- Using the vehicle during an emergency for rescue
- Testing the vehicle under repair
- Taking lessons using a heavy vehicle
- Using the vehicle for transportation where driving is not your job
- Driving within 50 km of your base without any passengers or valuable goods
Being trained to understand the latest compliance policies is a must for any professional driver. The specialized training services or the HGV training is an opportunity for the driver to become more competent in driving. Make yourself competitive to access more than 1000 jobs that are available.
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