With Driver CPC deadline a mere seven days away, 10 September 2014, the FTA has responded to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) stating that the new ID ruling should have been introduced from the start.
The DVSA has confirmed that with immediate effect a driver may use their Digital Tachograph Card or Driver Qualification Card as proof of their identification in classroom-based Driver CPC training. FTA has said the organisation raised the idea of these forms of identification being accepted numerous times since Driver CPC was first announced.
‘This move is welcomed and it is sensible to allow it to come into effect immediately. But it would have been more useful if it had been brought in five years ago as FTA has persistently asked. We requested for this at original implementation, during the Government’s 2011 Red Tape Challenge (intended to reduce burdens on industry), and asked former DSA Chief Executive Rosemary Thew in 2012 when she attended FTA’s National Road Freight Council, and again most recently in a letter to Transport Minister Stephen Hammond in 2013,’ explained James Firth, FTA’s head of road freight and enforcement policy.
The legislation surrounding permissible forms of ID for Driver CPC is expected to change on 26 September – 16 days after the deadline. The change will mean that some drivers who were unable to complete training because their licences were held by DVLA under medical review will now have an alternative. FTA says that for the last five years drivers have been turned away from DCPC training because they did not have their licences – even though they probably had their digicards in their wallets, training providers were not allowed to accept them as ID under DVSA rules.
DVLA chief executive, Oliver Morley told, FTA’s National Road Freight Council in July this year that he accepted the Agency’s service standards on medical reviews was not good enough, while some drivers waiting months to get their licence back while it is held up in Government bureaucracy.
It is understood that training providers will be receiving notification of the changes from DVSA shortly.