Guidance on using an ‘opt out’ avenue to prevent already-completed National Driver CPC training hours from counting towards the issue of a new driver qualification card (DQC) where the individual now wishes to drive internationally has been updated by DVSA.
If any periodic training is undertaken via the new National Driver CPC approach, the next DQC issued will be for that domestic qualification unless use is made of the ‘opt out’ scope to effectively annul the national hours. That is done by using the DCPC periodic training hours check service and selecting ‘opt out’.
Doing so allows the driver to preserve International Driver CPC training that will contribute to their next DQC. They will then top that up to 35 hours to gain the international qualification instead.
If the ‘opt out’ for national hours is not utilised before the issue of a new National Driver CPC, any international hours that went towards it cannot be reused to generate an International Driver CPC. A full 35 hours of international training would instead be required.
The ‘opt out’ position follows an earlier split of Driver CPC in the UK into the International and National streams. The latter has more flexibility in how training may be delivered, but the former – required for any professional driving elsewhere in Europe – continues to observe the more rigid approach that was in force for before the change.
A mix of national and international training can go towards a National Driver CPC, but for an international qualification, 35 hours of training in that field must be undertaken.
Some bus operator response to the introduction of a National Driver CPC was welcoming. Other reaction was more wary, with a coach operator noting how “the industry will not benefit from two different standards.”
Further change subsequently introduced to Driver CPC opened a ‘return to driving’ option for a national qualification to drivers who are looking to resume the occupation but have a lapsed qualification.
Where a Driver CPC is expired by at least 60 days but no more than two years, a specific seven-hour return to driving course can be taken. The driver can then return domestically with a one-year National DCPC, during which time they must complete the remaining 28 hours’ training to receive a DQC with the outstanding four year’s validity.
DVSA guidance on Driver CPC for qualified drivers available here.
