THE RECENT changes in Driver CPC course approvals announced by JAUPT are causing concern both with specialist training companies and large road haulage operators who train truck drivers and transport managers (TM’s) in house.
JAUPT, the Joint Approvals Unit for Periodic Training, has now insisted that from 1 January 2021 ‘trainers without the relevant qualifications or experience cannot deliver periodic training to drivers’.
Guidance has been posted on the JAUPT website to help trainers understand how this change will be introduced, as well as a list of suggested qualifications and this brought immediate reaction from Scotland’s biggest haulier, the Malcolm Group.
Allan Linklater told Transport News: “We are extremely concerned that a trainer delivering for instance a session on the Working Time Directive or about Operator Licensing must now hold a TM’s CPC. Similarly, if the trainer is presenting a session on Drivers Hours and Tachograph Legislation he should hold a TM’s CPC or a Goods Vehicle Driving qualification. The same applied to health and safety instruction where the minimum requirement is a Level 3 Award in Health & Safety Practice.
“An articulate person with a background in the transport industry can readily be trained up to professionally deliver JAUPT Approved driver training without the need for all these qualifications.
“Now, we will require to submit evidence of trainer experience to them, complete with his driving licence number. Since when does a CPC trainer need to hold a driving licence to do his job properly?” asked Allan Linklater.
The edict from JAUPT has also caused concern with other CV operators and the Road Haulage Association has taken up their cause. Brian Kenny, head of learning and development at their Scottish office, currently in Livingston, confirmed that a meeting between the RHA and JAUPT is likely to take place imminently.
“We hope to clear the air with regard to the unnecessary complexity of the proposed qualifications,“ he confirmed, but added that when JAUPT was formed 10 years ago, the new organisation hinted then that the instructor qualifications would require to be ‘formalised’ within five years. That suggestion has now just come to the surface, it would appear.
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