Conwy County Borough Council is the first North Wales Council with an Approved Training Centre to provide statutory driver training for staff.
The Driver Certificate of Professional Competence was introduced by the Driving Standards Authority to maintain high driving standards and improve road safety amongst PCV and LGV drivers.
It is continuing professional development, which carries on throughout a professional bus, coach or lorry driver’s career.
The aims of Driver Certificate of Professional Competence are to:
- improve the knowledge and skills of lorry, bus and coach drivers before they start driving professionally.
- develop their knowledge and skills throughout their working life
- improve road safety through better qualified drivers
Parks and Fleet Manager, Peter Barton-Price and Assistant Cleansing Manager, Peter Harris are the first Conwy County Borough Council employees to receive the in-house training towards their Driver Certificate of Professional Competence.
Conwy’s Transport Training Officer, Joanne Barrett, explains, “Council staff cover over 15million miles each year to ensure services are delivered across the county borough. By providing this training in-house we can be sure that all our drivers have access to, and are up to date, with the necessary training. It also means we can tailor the training to people’s jobs and all with significant cost savings to the Authority.”
Councillor Mike Priestley, Conwy’s Cabinet Member for Environment said, “It is such an achievement to have our own training centre delivering bespoke training packages to our employees. The courses, which have been developed by Joanne [Joanne Barrett, Transport Training Officer] are approved by JAUPT and accredited by RoSPA, which will help us to build on the high service standards currently being met by the Authority.”
All drivers must complete 35 hours of training every 5 years or they will lose their entitlement to drive professionally. Only approved courses taken with approved training centres count towards periodic training.
