You need 35 hours of Driver CPC training every 5 years. Some of that can be done as e-learning at home. The rest has to be live training with an instructor.
DVSA lets you do up to 12 hours as e-learning. But in real life, most drivers only do 10 or 10.5 hours. Here’s why — and why with our courses, you spend less time on Zoom than most other places.
The 12-hour rule
Out of your 35 hours, no more than 12 can be e-learning. The other 23 hours must be live training. That means an instructor on Zoom (or in a classroom) at the same time as you.
This rule is the same for National CPC and International CPC.
The 12 hours is a maximum. You don’t have to do that much. You can do less if you want, or none at all.
Why most drivers can’t actually do 12 hours
Driver CPC courses are sold in fixed lengths. You can’t buy half a course. So your 35 hours has to be made up of full courses that add up to 35 exactly.
That’s where the 12-hour figure breaks down. The maths just doesn’t work out cleanly.
National CPC → most you’ll do is 10.5 hours
National courses come in 3.5-hour or 7-hour blocks. A 3.5-hour course can be all e-learning if it’s set up that way.
So a National driver could do three 3.5-hour e-learning courses. That’s 10.5 hours of e-learning, and 24.5 hours of live training to make up the 35.
Could you do more? In theory, yes — if a 5-hour e-learning course existed, you could do two 3.5-hour ones plus a 5-hour one and hit 12. But nobody sells 5-hour courses. Every provider runs 3.5 or 7-hour courses to fit their Zoom sessions. So in practice, three e-learning courses (10.5 hours) is your maximum.
International CPC → most you’ll do is 10 hours
International courses must be 7 hours long. Each one can have up to 2 hours of e-learning.
Five courses x 2 hours = 10 hours of e-learning. That fits perfectly into 35 hours.
Could you do a sixth course to get more e-learning in? Yes, but that would mean 42 hours of training. You’d be paying for hours you don’t need.
Both routes end up nearly the same
National: 10.5 hours of e-learning. International: 10 hours of e-learning. Half an hour’s difference across 5 years. It’s not really a difference at all.
What changes is when you do the e-learning. National lets you do whole courses as e-learning, with the rest done live. International spreads a bit of e-learning into every course, with a shorter live session each time.
What really matters: the card you get
If the e-learning hours work out the same, the only real difference between National and International is the card.
- National card → UK only. Marked “DOMESTIC UK USE ONLY”. Can’t be upgraded
- International card → works in the UK and the EU. Take any HGV or PCV job
Same training. Same e-learning. Same kind of money. But International gives you a card that works in more places.
There’s no reason to pick National unless you’re 100% sure you’ll never drive into Europe in the next 5 years. We’ve gone into more detail on the difference in our post on which Driver CPC you need.
What we do that’s different
Nearly every other International CPC provider runs their courses as 7 hours of live Zoom. Full working day. No e-learning. Long day staring at a screen. As far as we know, we’re one of the very few providers offering an e-learning element on International CPC courses.
We do it differently. Every one of our 7-hour International courses is split into:
- 2 hours of e-learning (do it the day before)
- 5 hours of live Zoom with an instructor (the next day)
That’s the most e-learning DVSA allows in a single course. Add it up across all 5 courses and you get 10 hours of e-learning and 25 hours of live Zoom — instead of 35 hours of Zoom.
You still get a full International CPC course on your record. You just don’t spend a whole day on Zoom every time.
How our e-learning works
Do it in chunks
It saves where you’re up to after every section. So you can do 20 minutes between drops, log out, come back to it later. Don’t need to sit down for 2 hours straight.
Do it the day before
You get the link the day before your Zoom. Most drivers do it that evening — sometimes in one go, sometimes in 2 or 3 sittings.
It’s not a test
There’s a quick check at the end of each bit, but it’s just to make sure you’ve taken it in. You can’t fail it.
Phone, tablet or laptop
Anything with a browser works. Start it on your phone in the cab, finish it on a laptop at home. No app to download.
What if you don’t do the e-learning?
You won’t get into the Zoom. The system stops you joining if the e-learning isn’t finished. The two parts go together — if you don’t do the e-learning, the whole course can’t go on your DVSA record.
Best to get it done the night before. With the save-as-you-go feature, it’s easy enough to fit around shifts.
The bottom line
The 12-hour DVSA cap is the official limit. The way training is sold means you’ll actually do 10 or 10.5 hours, whichever route you go. National and International are the same on this.
Where they’re different is the card. International works in the UK and EU. National only works in the UK.
On our courses, every 7-hour International course is 2 hours of e-learning plus 5 hours of Zoom. So your live training day is 5 hours instead of 7. Same DVSA-approved course, same hours on your record — just less time stuck on a webcam. As far as we know, very few International CPC providers offer e-learning at all — most run a full 7 hours of live Zoom.
Book a course
All our Driver CPC courses are International. £29.75 per 7-hour course, DVSA upload fee included. 2 hours of e-learning the day before, 5 hours live Zoom with an instructor the next day. Evenings, weekends and weekdays available.
See course dates: hgvcpc.co.uk/periodic-cpc-courses
More about our e-learning: hgvcpc.co.uk/e-learning