The UK has voted to leave the EU .....
What happens to DRIVER CPC Now?
We have already received calls from people asking whether they should book their Driver CPC Course or not. Some even thought the Driver CPC would now be cancelled because the UK has voted to leave the EU Let's face it - Driver CPC came from the EU didn't it?.
The answer for now is quite simple; The vote to leave the EU will have absolutely no impact at all. For DRIVER CPC nothing has changed.
The decision made on 23rd June 2016, is for now, just a representation of public opinion. Article 50 which will actually start the process of the UK leaving has not yet been invoked and current indications are that this will be delayed until a new Conservative Party leader has been put in place. Once Article 50 is invoked there will be a period of up to 2 years where there will be no change, whilst we negotiate the terms of the exit and any future trade relationships. For that period whilst exit is negotiated, we still have to comply with EU law and even accept any new requirements. This means that Driver CPC will not change in any way, shape or form until around late 2018 (just 9 months from the deadline of the next 5 year cycle).
Transport Law Specialists Backhouse Jones have stated the following about Driver CPC following the UK’s vote to leave the EU;
“Driver
CPC obligations are also unlikely to change, this is because, although the regulations
were created by the EU, the UK is a signatory of the, snappily titled, European
Agreement Concerning the Work of Crews of Vehicles Engaged in International
Road Transport (AETR) which contains driver CPC obligations. The UK is expected
to remain a signatory of AETR as a condition of ongoing trade with the EU. This
will be in line with a number of other non EU countries.”
Visit
the Backhouse Jones website to read the full article about Brexit and Road Transport
in the UK
Therefore even after we formally leave the EU in perhaps 2 or more years time Driver CPC seems highly unlikely to be “scrapped” given we still wish to trade with EU countries.
Our advice to all Vehicle Operators and Drivers is very simple; The requirements for Driver CPC have not changed and are unlikely to do so before the next major CPC deadline of September 2019.
We strongly recommend drivers complete 7 hours Periodic Training each year and plan to meet the next compliance deadline of September 2019 exactly as you would have on 22nd June before the UK voted to leave.
Those who believe the Driver CPC will be scrapped by September 2019 and therefore don't keep up with ongoing training may find the rush to cram 35 hours of training in before drivers become illegal when their cards expire will mean Approved Training Centres bursting at the seams and many courses fully booked. (We saw this happen in 2014 for the first CPC deadline).
There is always a chance that if numbers attending CPC training drop due to Brexit, some training providers may simply go out of business meaning they will not be there when Operators and Drivers realise the DCPC is not going to be the first thing the Government change on exit from the EU. This would mean places on courses will be harder to find and may even involve travelling further to get a place.
There has been much on social media such as Facebook about petitions to immediately scrap the Driver CPC. There have been comments about how poor the training is and what a waste of time it has been. I would hope that anyone who attended training here at The Training Service Ltd would not agree with those comments.
We will freely admit that Driver CPC in its current form needs amending. Remove the ability to attend the same course over and over, make it so that the person attending must speak and understand English, make at least 1 day a year compulsory, maybe shorter courses and perhaps look at adding some form of exam or assessment. I am sure many of you have other ideas but ........ to scrap the Driver CPC now would, in my opinion, be a step backwards for the industry.
So .... .... .... Whether you voted to Stay or Leave, it seems we are leaving and we now need to get on with making the best of this decision and looking to the future.
Pete Shepherd
Managing Director
The Training Service Ltd