On 2 March, 2023 The Department for Transport in the UK (DfT) launched a consultation about proposed reforms to the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (DCPC) qualification.

This consultation follows the review into DCPC which took place between November 2021 and January 2022 in response to acute driver shortages in the road haulage and passenger transport industries.

The DfT is seeking views on options for how the DCPC qualification is maintained and, in the case of returning drivers, regained, taking advantage of the greater autonomy to regulate following EU-exit.

Potential measures being considered include:

• reducing minimum course lengths to enhance flexibility of delivering periodic training;
• the option of a new periodic test as an alternative to periodic training, which will be delivered by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA);
• an accelerated route for former drivers to return to the sector more easily.

If implemented, reforms will establish a National DCPC for use in Great Britain and possibly Northern Ireland should Northern Ireland ministers agree (as DCPC is a devolved matter).

The existing regime, International DCPC, will remain for travel to, from or within the EU, including the Republic of Ireland, and will continue to be recognised for journeys within the UK.

The proposals are all subject to consultation and no final decisions have been made on which reforms may be taken forward. Proposals will require amendments to legislation.

You can read and respond to the consultation on GOV.UK as well as read through the DCPC review report.

The closing date for the consultation is 11:45pm on Thursday, 27 April.

Commenting on the proposals, Logistics UK said the reforms raise serious safety concerns and devalues the professionalism of the road haulage sector.  Chris Yarsley, Senior Policy Manager – Road Freight Regulation at Logistics UK, commented: “Logistics is a highly regulated industry that places the safety of all road users at the heart of its operations and any changes to the Driver CPC regime must respect that premise. Today’s consultation is bad news for road safety and haulage operators, as well as drivers. Within its own consultation announcement, DfT has said that much of the current industry training relates to issues impacting safety, and that the new, proposed periodic test – which would replace the current 35 hours of periodic training – could result in significantly less training being offered and, therefore, available overall. Operating and driving heavy commercial vehicles is a challenging, complex role and to reduce the training opportunities for drivers when they need to be operating in line with the safest possible practices is simply unacceptable and could compromise the vital safety on which much of our industry is based.”

He added: “Logistics UK will be undertaking urgent work with its members to respond to these proposals and identify worthwhile methods to improve, rather than compromise, road safety, while increasing efficiency for businesses and the wider economy.”

Photo: Chris Yarsley, Senior Policy Manager at Logistics UK.