Following the Governments recent announcement we are looking at delivering courses to cover the new National Drivers CPC. The difference with these courses are that they will only be 3 1/2 hours long each, not the current 7 hours, and can be sat at any time. [ There is currently the means to break courses down to 3 1/2 hour modules, but you must complete 2 modules within 24 hours for them to count]. You will still need to complete 35 hours training in each 5 year period, i.e. 10 courses over 5 years.
However, any driver who choses to take the National CPC option will be restricted to driving in the UK, they will NOT be qualified to do any international work. That may suit your current needs, but consider whether you may need to do international work in the future before you choose this option.
We will still focus on delivering the current CPC courses, now known as International CPC. These have not changed, are 7 hour long courses , and allow you to drive both nationally and internationally.
The new courses for the National CPC should be ready February, so if anyone is interested in this option, please speak to me and I will schedule some courses.
On the subject of International work, are you aware of a change that came in on 31st December. If you are involved in an EU haulage job, you now need to be able to produce 56 days of records if you are stopped for a check, rather than the 28 days previously. Your existing drivers cards are still valid, they should have the capacity, and all new cards being issued will have. But its not just your cards, if you have taken any printouts to make a manual entry you must now keep these with you for 56 days on EU journeys. One point to note though, you are still required to hand these records in to your transport office within 42 days! How can you do both ? I would suggest taking a photocopy, pass that to the office within the time frame, and keep the originals with you when driving in the EU for 56 days.
