While a CPC qualification is sufficient to certify a role as a Transport Manager (TMs), specialist training company Nationwide Assessment believes that that credential is lacking when it comes to preparation for the real world of the post.
Gilbert Parsons, Managing Director at the Surrey-based business, is promoting its course for newly qualified TMs to give them the practical, everyday knowhow to complement the theoretical knowledge they have already acquired.
As a former General Manager for an operator with the royal warrant and one-time chief examiner of the CPC qualification, and with 50 years’ experience in transport management, Gilbert believes he is perfectly placed to help remedy what he believes is a lack of “good” TMs in the industry.
He says that the knowledge imparted by the CPC qualification course is not in itself enough to avoid falling foul of the Transport Commissioners.
Transport Management: Theory and practice
“The problem is the CPC qualification does not teach you how to be a TM,” he says.
“It teaches you all the theory in terms of the legal requirements on drivers’ hours, O-Licences and everything, but nowhere in the course does it cover the day-to-day things which are expected of you — like what do you do when you detect that drivers have had some infringements on drivers’ hours.
“By further example, the initial course tells you how to avoid accidents, but it doesn’t teach you what to do when your driver has an accident, or a vehicle fails its MOT.
“What we offer is a course — initially for newly qualified TMs — where we say, ‘You’ve got your qualification, but now you’re in the real world and this is what you’re going to have to do.’”
The problem is the CPC qualification does not teach you how to be a Transport Manager – Gilbert Parsons
In fact, he would like to see a more “relevant” CPC qualification available for entrants to the field and thinks Traffic Commissioners agree.
“I know the Traffic Commissioners are concerned, having spoken to a number of them,” he says. “They’re saying the qualification, as it stands, is not really relevant to today’s TMs.
“It concentrates very much on the financial aspect; there’s a lot on balance sheets and so on.
“This is important to a point, but I know the Traffic Commissioners think there has been far too much emphasis on that rather than on the compliance aspect of the TM’s job.
“The requirement laid down in the Senior Traffic Commissioner’s document is that the TM has full and effective control of the day-to-day operation of the transport function, but the exam doesn’t cover that.”
CPC review needed?
Gilbert’s comments follow publication of the Traffic Commissioners’ Annual Report for 2023-24, which called for a review of the TM CPC qualification after similar action was recently carried out for Driver CPC.
The report reads, in part: “Transport Managers now need to be able to understand the implications of the technical readout they receive from tachographs and preventative maintenance inspections, as well as the employment status of their drivers.”
It adds that TCs “rightly continue to highlight that there is a difference between obtaining a paper qualification and the ability to actually exercise effective and continuous management of a transport operation.
There are often, not necessarily new regulations, but different ways of interpreting the existing regulations and it’s only by a TM doing a refresher course that they get to know about the different interpretations that the Traffic Commissioners are putting on it – Gilbert Parsons
The Commissioners would like to see the Transport Manager CPC reviewed in the same way as drivers to ensure that it is fit for managing the modernisation of vehicles.”
Further to the Commissioners’ comments on modernisation, Gilbert adds he has heard feedback that experienced TMs are often not comfortable with the digital world.
“I’ve spoken to a few who say that they’d like to do the course because they’ve been working very much on paper-based systems but are lost now with the more digital way of doing things,” he says.
Gilbert claims that the TM is expected to do things which aren’t laid down in any of the official guidance.
He says: “There are often, not necessarily new regulations, but different ways of interpreting the existing regulations and it’s only by a TM doing a refresher course that they get to know about the different interpretations that the Traffic Commissioners are putting on it.”
CPC and Directors
Gilbert would also like to see operator Directors on the course. He says: “So often I will see the situation where a TM is saying to the Director that we have to do something, and the Director is saying ‘Why? Show me in the regulations why.’ And they can’t.
“The Commissioners are now quite often at public inquiries insisting that, if an operator is to maintain the O-Licence, the Director must do at least a one-day licence-awareness course.
“Good Directors will do it anyway — I’ve had company Directors that come to me and say, ‘We would like to know more about the compliance aspect of the business.’”
Nationwide Assessment’s team
Nationwide Assessment’s TM CPC courses and refresher courses are led by Gilbert himself, although he says that his own impressive experience is complemented by a fellow trainer who adds a thorough knowledge of up-to-date, digital procedures.
Gilbert’s involvement in the industry dates back to when he was a driver while doing a university degree. He went on to work as a TM — initially in road haulage and later on the passenger transport side.
He also had 26 years managing Windsorian Coaches, which operated transport for the royal household for 20 years. Since 2008, he has been full-time as a consultant and trainer.
The fruits of that CV, according to Gilbert? “Training for today’s Transport Manager — by Transport Managers for Transport Managers.”
Email Nationwide Assessment on nationwideassess@aol.com for more
