I welcome the current consultation on changing (or should that be simplifying?) the periodic training element of the Driver CPC (DCPC) qualification.
But I wonder if the politicians and bureaucrats realise the need to act quickly, before the big batch of September 2024 DCPC card expiries?
Those of us who held licences before DCPC started and with both C and D entitlements (I passed my PCV test in 1978, for example) were initially on a six-year expiry (2014) and then five-year fixed blocks, as opposed to the rolling expiry dates based on initial test pass for newer drivers.
While many of the original drivers who started with grandfather rights will have retired by now, there is still a big bulge of drivers whose cards will all run out in just 18 months from now.
If the industry is to avoid losing many of us, the government needs to put a solution in place well ahead of that deadline. 9 September 2024 represents an unwelcome cliff-edge for the industry!
Richard Delahoy
Southend-on-Sea
