Number of qualified drivers to fall by 30%
21st August 2011
Delegates at a series of business seminars in the House of Commons last month heard that unless the UK’s 400,000+ freight drivers pick up momentum on the mandatory Driver CPC training, Britain may be facing a gap of 30% fewer drivers when the first five-year cycle completes in September 2014.
Despite some drivers speculating that the Driver CPC requirement may be retracted, this is far from the government’s plans. Louise Ellman MP, Chair of the Commons Transport Select Committee, confirmed that the regulations were here to stay, as a platform for making the freight and transport industry a more appealing career option and to demonstrate high standards of professionalism.
The Driver CPC requires that 35 hours of training are undertaken periodically over five years by September 2014, and two years into the process it is looking like significant numbers of drivers will struggle to meet these legal requirements.
Mike Bousfield, the HR Director of Gist Limited, said that “through training we have seen tangible benefits including reduction in fuel consumption, employee accidents, vehicle damage, liability claims, absenteeism and employee turnover. We see the delivery of a Driver CPC programme as an investment in our people, and as such we focus on training our drivers for competence not just compliance”
However, the projection for Driver CPC shows that unless operators change the speed with which they are training their drivers, the UK will face a fall in drivers of 30% by 2014, Dr Mick Jackson, the Chief Exec of Skills for Logistics, said.