EU legislation will remain post-Brexit say experts

Not a bad couple of weeks more success with our trainees passing their tests first time all trained the JK way.
We had one young man pass two test in the same week he passed his cat C and went on to pass his module 4 with a 100%.
This afternoon we had a trainee pass his B+E test first time well done to Stuart and Dan.

We are holding two Driver CPC course next week on the 25^th and 26^th of July in our Middlesbrough training center;

25^th Drivers Compliance

26^th Road Traffic Laws & Accident Procedures.

DVSA clarifies how combined NVQs and Driver CPC will work

The DVSA has clarified how periodic training is being incorporated within NVQ courses, after CM revealed that the enforcement agency was considering the move

It said some approved training centres delivering NVQs had identified course materials that matched the training syllabus and were therefore delivering them “in tandem with periodic training”.

The DVSA said: “This can be beneficial for drivers as they can gain additional qualifications or potentially receive funding towards their NVQ, as well as helping to ensure the standard of training is high.”

The agency has no input into the NVQ, but “approves the periodic training aspect of these courses only”.

In a Jaupt newsletter it added: “DVSA will continue to explore how NVQs and periodic training can be delivered to benefit drivers who wish to combine the two, but acknowledges this is not a model that would be appropriate for every driver or approved trainer.

“There are currently no plans to mandate that periodic training must be delivered as part of an NVQ.”

DVSA chief driving examiner Lesley Young said: “Since its introduction Driver CPC has helped us to improve road safety in the UK.

“The regular training carried out by drivers and operators helps to improve their skills and knowledge in a variety of areas.”

However, Sean Barlow at Leadus Transport Training said NVQs left him feeling cold.

“I’m not sure if NVQ is a good route to go down, it’s just a little bit too rigid,” he said. “Yes, NVQs give it quality, but drivers are very anti anything that tries to prove what they can do: the proof is in their driving.

“Maybe only new drivers should go through the NVQ route. Then they have proof of learning before coming in.”

source: Commercial Motor

EU legislation to remain post-Brexit, say experts

The upcoming Brexit will not mean the end of EU-legislation such as the Driver CPC in the UK, according to industry experts.

Panellists at Commercial Motor’s Brexit debate earlier this week discussed the likelihood of legislation introduced by the EU being scrapped, with unanimous agreement that it was unlikely schemes such as the Working Time Directive or Driver CPC would change drastically.

Rothera Sharp transport  and motoring law solicitor Laura Newton said: “A lot of EU legislation has been enshrined in UK law, so unless other legislation comes along before exit day, the government won’t remove those UK regulations that have already been implemented.”

Delegates at the event at the Scarman conference centre at Warwick University also heard from MP for Stoke-on-Trent South Rob Flello (pictured), who said that the industry needed to find a single voice on its Brexit wishes or the government would ignore its input.

Flello said: “This industry has got to have a single voice. Whatever discussions and passionate disagreements there might be, when it comes to talking to the government it’s got to speak with one voice.

“I know from years of experience that when it [the government] has more than one voice coming at it from an industry, all it does is say: ‘if you can’t agree we’ll just do what we think is right’.”

Flello added that it was critical for industry representatives to be meeting and “arguing passionately, maybe coming from opposing angles to start with, but in the end to find common ground”.

This could be achieved if the industry’s trade associations took the lead, he said.

“The associations need to be consulting their members, as they do on a regular basis,” he said, “but then they need to have meetings like today and come up with agreed positions on tachographs, drivers’ hours and Driver CPC”.

source: Commercial Motor

A skip operator who knowingly broke the law concerning the Driver CPC for 19 months has been put out of business by a traffic commissioner (TC).

South East and Metropolitan area TC Nick Denton revoked the licence of Richard Mutton after concluding he was not reputable and had a transport manager who showed a “shocking degree of ignorance” .

Mutton drove for more than 18 months without the Driver CPC qualification and also committed numerous offences of driving for more than four and a half hours without a break during that time.

In a written decision, the TC also said that transport manager John Bushnell had “clearly made no effort to keep up to date with changing legislation or other developments” and his ignorance of the rules allowed Mutton to drive unqualified for so long.

It wasn’t until a DVSA roadside encounter that Bushnell became aware there was an issue.

He had also failed to make checks of the operator’s tachograph charts and did not identify a change of entity that led Mutton to operate as a limited company under a sole trader licence.

Under questioning, Bushnell showed he was unaware of the deadline for acquiring the Driver CPC in the first place and was also unaware that the counterpart to the driving licence had been abolished.

Tachograph charts showed that Mutton either did not perform daily walk-around checks or he did not record the check on the chart.

“The strong implication was that these charts were either not checked by Mr Bushnell, or that he did check them but failed to identify or take action to redress these obvious failings,” Denton said. He also noted that Mutton had appeared at five public inquiries in six years of operating and added: “Since the most recent public inquiry in 2014 he has changed entity without informing me and without applying for a new licence. He has driven an HGV on an almost daily basis for 19 months without the legally required Driver CPC, only undertaking the necessary final two modules of training after he had been stopped on 28 April 2016.

“His explanation that he ‘needed to continue to provide for his family’ demonstrates he is prepared to put his own personal interests and convenience before the need to comply with the law relating to the safe and professional driving of vehicles,” Denton added.

“Mr Mutton has shown that, if push comes to shove, he is prepared to operate outside of the law over an extended period of time.”

Bushnell was disqualified from acting as a transport manager under any licence indefinitely and Denton concluded that Mutton needed at least six months away from the industry “to bring home to him that operating outside of the law has consequences and to enable him to undertake further training and a change in his attitude to compliance” .

He added: “I am allowing 28 days for the operator to wind down his business before the revocation takes effect.”

source: Commercial Motor

The new head of the DVSA has apologised for a dip in the agency’s service level during the consolidation of Vosa and the DSA, which he described as “anything but a merger” .
Speaking at the RHA Compliance Conference at Silverstone earlier this month, DVSA chief executive Gareth Llewellyn said there was “no doubt the DVSA has been through a rough patch” after the merger of the two bodies.
“It was anything but a merger. It led to a tremendous amount of introspection in our business and probably a dip in service. If you experienced that dip, I apologise. But we’ll be getting the show back on the road,” he said.
Speaking seven months after he joined the organisation, Llewellyn said the agency “will be pursuing with vigour” its new earned recognition scheme. The scheme is set to be launched early next year, and Llewellyn emphasised the need for operators to have the right technology in place.

He said: “Operators will need that technology to be able to pass information through to us on drivers’ hours and maintenance, so that we can monitor that and justify earned recognition status. We should be rewarding the good performers, those organisations that can show a strong record of compliance, and can evidence as such. That evidence is really important.”

Source: Commercial Motor

Do you need O Licence Consultancy? Contact JK Transport Training Services

A scaffolder who defrauded the DVSA by falsifying a vehicle licence disc has been disqualified from operating HGVs for six months.

Mitcham, south London-based Stuart *****, who trades as **** Scaffolding, also had his O-licence revoked on 15 September by traffic commissioner (TC) Nick Denton.

***** had formerly operated the truck under a partnership, but the partnership’s O-licence expired in December 2014.

“This was a deliberate act of dishonesty that undermines the trust that a traffic commissioner ought to be able to have in an operator,” said the TC, noting that ***** had admitted his shortcomings and appeared to be regretful at the PI.

“Instead of paying his continuation fee, he falsified the vehicle disc by manually altering the expiry date to 31 December 2016 so the licence would outwardly appear to be valid,” said Denton, following a public inquiry (PI) last month.

The PI was also told that ***** operated a vehicle illegally and without tax for seven and a half months. The truck had a bald tyre, a diesel leak and a missing mirror and was not inspected at the required intervals. ***** had not conducted driver defect checks on the truck for two months.

Source: Commercial Motor

Do you need Driver CPC courses? Contact JK Transport Training Services

The government has said it has no plans to scrap the Driver CPC after Brexit.

Responding to a question from CM about whether the Driver CPC would be kept, scrapped or amended, a spokesman for the DfT said : “Lorry drivers help keep Britain moving and play a vital role in boosting growth and prosperity

“The Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) training can play a significant role in making roads safer and reducing pollution through eco-driving.”

The spokesman added that that the government would be working with the haulage industry to improve the training itself as operators remained best placed to detail what they wanted from it.

“We are looking at promoting the training within the trade and also how parts of the CPC might work more efficiently with National Vocational Qualification courses.”

In a statement the DfT also reminded hauliers that the UK remains a full member of the EU until Brexit “and all the rights and obligations of EU membership remain in force”.
Source Commercial Motor

Do you need advice about your Operators Licence or Driver CPC courses? Contact JK Transport & Training Services

Sole trader ****, who trades as **** Haulage, has had his O-licence revoked after he believed his transport manager qualification covered him for the Driver CPC.

The Leek, Staffordshire-based operator was stripped of his permission to run HGVs by West Midlands traffic commissioner (TC) Nick Jones last month.

He was also disqualified from holding an O-licence for six months and received a four-month suspension to his vocational driving licence. He must pass new CPC examinations if he wishes to re-enter the industry.

When a truck operated by **** was stopped by the DVSA in October 2015, the examiner found that its MoT test certificate had expired the previous July.

A drivers’ hours prohibition was also issued.

It transpired that **** was driving the truck despite not having passed his Driver CPC. He believed that as he had the transport manager qualification, which he had gained through acquired rights, he did not need to complete the Driver CPC.

source Commercial Motor

Do you need advice about your Operators Licence? Contact JK Transport & Training Services

Senior traffic commissioner (TC) Beverley Bell has reminded hauliers that they should notify their TC of any change that could affect their O-licence.

In a letter to the RHA, Bell asked the association to remind operators that failure to do so could result in action being taken against their O-licence.

She also told operators that if they are issued with an improvement notice by an enforcement agency they should tell the agency when the improvements were undertaken.

A list of the changes hauliers are obliged to inform TC of is in the senior TC’s statutory document number one: good repute and fitness, updated in January.

RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said: “We appreciate this approach from the traffic commissioner to clarify this important point.”

source: Commercial Motor

Make sure your drivers are completing their daily walkround checks!

Almost a third of trucks and trailers stopped and checked by the DVSA last year were issued with a prohibition for a mechanical defect.

Prohibition figures released following a freedom of information request by Commercialmotor.comshow that 31% of the 51,079 HGV and trailer checks carried out last year resulted in a PG9 being given to the operator.

Of the 15,815 PG9s issued between 1 January and 31 December 2015, 7,384 (46.7%) were immediate prohibitions, which are handed out for the most serious mechanical problems and often require the truck to be immobilised. The number of delayed prohibitions issued totalled 8,431 (53.3%).

The highest prohibition rate as a percentage of vehicles stopped was achieved by London’s Industrial HGV Task Force, an enforcement initiative carried out by the DVSA, Metropolitan Police and City of London Police. It issued 1,221 mechanical prohibitions on 2,345 checks (52%); 52.5% of trucks and  47.3% of trailers stopped by  the Task Force had a defect of some sort.

source: Commercial Motor

News

DVSA clarifies how combined NVQs and Driver CPC will work

DVSA clarifies how combined NVQs and Driver CPC will work

EU legislation to remain post-Brexit, say experts

EU legislation to remain post-Brexit, say experts

New Livery for JK Training Vehicles

Ignoring Driver CPC law leads to loss of O-licence for skip operator

DVSA sorry for dip in services during merger

License falsification leads to disqualification

Driver CPC to stay post Brexit

O-licence revoked for lack of Driver CPC

Hauliers reminded to inform their TC of any change that could affect their O Licence

High Rates of mechanical defects found in DVSA checks

Truck Purchase adds Licence Acquisition to JK Transport Portfolio