CPC Question

[anonymous-user]

My friend works for a snack sales company and they have just upgraded to 7.5t trucks to do job in. This has meant that some of his colleagues have had to pass the extension to the licence due to passing after the change in 1997, they also had to do the initial cpc as part of it, however there has been no mention of the full cpc being taken or needed, i am not so sure but found the following exemption:

Vehicles carrying material or equipment to be used by the driver in the course of his or her work, provided that driving the vehicle is not the driver’s principal activity.

Trouble is how do you define "principle activity", is it in the job title or job role as some days they have a lot of calls others they dont and do more driving than calling on customers. Some work in city centres whilst two of them work the lakes and Scottish borders and always seem to do majority driving.
Just wondered as the company is not well run, by his I mean they did things like changed the fleet before the checking the licences of staff and had to then employ cover drivers to do the driving alongside the sales staff!!

[R0G]

NorfolkInClue1 said:

My friend works for a snack sales company and they have just upgraded to 7.5t trucks to do job in. This has meant that some of his colleagues have had to pass the extension to the licence due to passing after the change in 1997, they also had to do the initial cpc as part of it, however there has been no mention of the full cpc being taken or needed, i am not so sure but found the following exemption:

Vehicles carrying material or equipment to be used by the driver in the course of his or her work, provided that driving the vehicle is not the driver’s principal activity.

Trouble is how do you define "principle activity", is it in the job title or job role as some days they have a lot of calls others they dont and do more driving than calling on customers. Some work in city centres whilst two of them work the lakes and Scottish borders and always seem to do majority driving.
Just wondered as the company is not well run, by his I mean they did things like changed the fleet before the checking the licences of staff and had to then employ cover drivers to do the driving alongside the sales staff!!

If driving from place to place is a big part of what they do then they will need initial dcpc which last for 5 years then they will need 35 hours of periodic dcpc to continue driving after that first 5 years is up

If all they do is drive from base to 1 or 2 places and the rest of the shift is spent selling snacks at those 1 or 2 locations then driving is not part of the main activity

For those with a pre 1997 C1 then they need 35 periodic dcpc hours before 09/09/2014 if they want to continue driving commercially after that date

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for the reply but you've explained my issue. Some days and on some areas they do more driving than selling, way more than a coupe of calls in the cities but maybe 6 to 8 in the countryside, however they are all trained in a way to cover each others area. That's why I think they should all have the full 35 hours. I think the exemption I pointed out is a little grey from both sides however we all know which side VOSA will drop on at the thought of some nice big fines for both driver and operator.

[R0G]

NorfolkInClue1 said:

Thanks for the reply but you've explained my issue. Some days and on some areas they do more driving than selling, way more than a coupe of calls in the cities but maybe 6 to 8 in the countryside, however they are all trained in a way to cover each others area. That's why I think they should all have the full 35 hours. I think the exemption I pointed out is a little grey from both sides however we all know which side VOSA will drop on at the thought of some nice big fines for both driver and operator.

They will all need it legally because doing just one day where they do more than 1 or 2 places will put them in scope of dcpc

DSA DCPC hotline will give you a definitive answer 0191 201 8112

[leggly]

More poor sods being ripped off by the DCPC!

[Upatdawn]

at one time if the rear of a 7.5t vehicle is given over to retail use then the driver didnt need to use a tachograph, we used a logbook instead...