Bus UK - The Facts

Periodic Training is continuing professional development for bus and coach drivers. It carries on throughout the professional driver's career - no matter how infrequently professional driving takes place.

All drivers of buses, coaches and minibuses with 9 seats or more, must obtain a Driver Qualification Card (DQC) by undertaking 35 hours of periodic training within every 5 year period for their whole career as a professional passenger transport driver.

PLEASE NOTE: The 'Transport Manager's CPC' also known as the 'Operator's CPC' is a completely separate qualification and anyone who holds such a qualification is not exempt from the requirement to also hold a Driver CPC if they intend to drive passenger transport vehicles for a living, even only on an occasional basis.

NO EXAMINATIONS: The route to gaining a Driver CPC and then a Driver Qualification Card (DQC) for existing category D licence holders (apart from those with restriction 101) is to undertake JAUPT approved periodic training - there is not a requirement to take examinations or assessments.

THE TRAINING: The minimum length of an approved training course that will count towards the periodic training requirement is 7 hours within a 24 hour period. However, JAUPT have recently agreed that the course can be split into 2 X 3.5 hours, as long as the second part of the course begins within 24 hours of the start of the first part.

WHAT IT COVERS: Periodic training is designed to compliment the individual driver's work and be relevant to their everyday job. Courses can be made up of any subject that is included within The syllabus.

WHO CAN DELIVER IT: Only Joint Approval Unit for Periodic Training (JAUPT) approved courses delivered at JAUPT approved training centres will count towards periodic training. Truck UK is an approved provider of training and and a JAUPT approved training centre (No: ACO 184). A full list of approved training centres can be found at: www.drivercpc-periodictraining.org Whatever you do, ensure that you make sure whatever company or training provider you consider using to carry out periodic training can provide you with their training centre number and the course approval number for each course they have available. If they can't provide them and they don't appear on the official Driver CPC website then don't use them, they won't be able to register the modules of training against driving licences with the Driving Standards Agency and you will be wasting your drivers' time and your money.

EXEMPTIONS: There are exemptions from the Driver CPC qualifications for drivers of vehicles:

used for the non-commercial carriage of passengers;
undergoing road tests for technical development, repair or maintenance purposes, or new or rebuilt vehicles not yet put into service;
used in the course of driving lessons for any person wishing to obtain a driving licence of Driver CPC;
with a maximum speed not exceeding 45km/h;
used by, or under the control of, the armed forces, civil defence, the fire service, and forces responsible for maintaining public order;
used in states of emergency or assigned to rescue missions.