Driver CPC Training

Your Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) qualification lasts for five years. To keep your Driver CPC, you must do 35 hours of training before your 5-year deadline. The deadline to do your training is shown on your DQC card.

It’s up to you when you take the training courses, as long as you do them within five years, but we recommend undertaking one day of training every year.

Under the terms of the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations, working hours are any time that an employee is “at the employer’s disposal”.

Therefore, if a driver is required to attend a training course such as Driver CPC by their employer, then this does count as working time.

Having ‘acquired rights’ means that you did not have to take the Driver CPC initial qualification because of your existing driving experience.

If you have acquired rights 

you can either:

• complete 35 hours of Driver CPC periodic training by finding and taking training courses
• take and pass the Driver CPC part 2 (case studies) and part 4 (practical demonstration) tests

You can only choose the test option once. After that, you must take periodic training to keep your qualification in the future.

There is no mandatory end-of-course test for Driver CPC training so you cannot fail a course.

However some courses may have an assessment at the end to check what you have learned and to help to reinforce the most important aspects of the course.

If you are driving a van with a Maximum Authorised Mass (MAM) of less than 3,500kg, you can do this with a Category B licence, and do not need Driver CPC. 

For vehicles with a Maximum Authorised Mass of 3,500 kg or above, you would require a C1 licence. Therefore, when driving for commercial purposes, you must have a full Driver CPC and carry your Driver Qualification Card with you when driving.

The relevant vehicle categories for commercial vehicles are C, C1, C+E, and C1+E. Drivers of passenger vehicles with nine or more seats must also have their Driver CPC. 

In most situations, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) requires a driver’s 35 hours of Driver CPC to comprise of different modules.  A driver is only permitted to take the same CPC course more than once in each 5-year period if they have a valid reason to repeat it, for example, maintaining a dangerous goods qualification or remedial/refresher training for Driver hours

If you do not have a good reason, the DVSA may cancel the hours gained from duplicating the course.  This may jeopardise the driver’s Driver Qualification Card (DQC) if the rejected hours takes the driver’s total back under 35 hours within the 5-year period.

You can access your training records on your Driver CPC training record.

• If your courses are described only as ‘Modular courses with no name, often you will find that your previous course provider has emailed you the certificate, so check back in your emails.
• The final option is to check with your previous course provider. They should keep a record. 

REMEMBER:  You should not repeat any modules within a 5-year CPC cycle

A DQC will be automatically issued to UK photocard licence holders.

Your next DQC will be issued at least a month before the expiry of any qualification on your current DQC. 

Yes, All the modules available are suitable for both HGV and PCV