Driver CPC rakes in more than £40m in revenue

Driver CPC has generated more than £40m of revenue since its inception in 2008.

With the Driver CPC deadline reached today [10 September], CM can reveal, via a Freedom of Information request, that in the financial year 2013-2014, the busiest single year for Driver CPC, more than £13m was raised.

This was an increase of almost 40% on the previous year and was fuelled by demand from drivers looking to complete their 35 hours of periodic training.

The largest part of the total figure of more than £40m comes from recording and evidencing – essentially the uploading of drivers’ hours by training centres to the DVSA’s system at a cost of £8.75 a driver, for each seven-hour course – which stands at almost £26m over the six-year period.

Since 2008, fees from practical and theory tests undertaken by drivers who are new to the HGV and PCV industries have raised more than £7.4m. Training centre and course approvals have contributed more than £6.8m in revenue.

Sean Pargeter, director at EP Training, said of the figures: “It seems like an awful lot of money. If the whole thing has cost £40m, I don’t know if that’s good value.

“As an industry, we’re going to be looking back over the past five years and ask, was that a job well done? And, put it this way, it certainly could have been done better.”

Clive Aisbitt, owner of RLR Services and founder of Driver CPC Consortium, said: “It seems to me to be an extortionate amount of money, and I can’t see that it’s gone into anything that benefits the drivers. It’s not like the money they’re charging is having any effect on the quality of training.”

However, Pargeter added: “Driver CPC is a good thing, I just think the way it’s been implemented and managed leaves a lot to be desired. There’s a new opportunity with the next five years; let’s hope we can make it better and do something a bit more meaningful with it."

A DVSA spokeswoman said: “As a trading fund, we are required to cover the costs of our services from the fees paid by our customers. Driver CPC fees cover a range of expenditure including IT systems, course approval, quality assurance and compliance visits.

“We expect the current surplus to be balanced out by lower revenue as the volume of training reduces.”

A report last year found Driver CPC had, at that point, generated more than £30m in revenue.

By Emma Shone