Acorn steers drivers in right direction

Leading recruitment and training agency Acorn, has launched a new training service aimed at ensuring professional drivers comply with current legislation and beat the deadline of September 2013 for bus and coach drivers and September 2014 for lorry drivers.

Acorn Recruitment and Training now offers the Drivers CPC, a training service to provide drivers across the UK with the necessary 35 hours of periodic training.

The legislation, which evolved from the EU Directive 2003/59 and came into force in 2008 for PCV and 2009 for LGV,  was introduced across the European Union to maintain high driving standards, improve road safety and the skills of professional drivers.

All drivers of buses and coaches over nine seats, and lorries over 3.5 tonnes must hold a Driver CPC, in addition to their vocational licences, to continue driving professionally and must undertake 35 hours of periodic training every five years..

Acorn’s Transport Manager Darron Burns, delivers the training to companies and independent drivers across the UK.

Darron, who has 25 years experience in international and national road haulage and passenger transport, said: “We would encourage all drivers who haven’t already to start their training as soon as possible.

“There is a limited   number of providers offering CPC training and surveys have shown a large increase in demand at the last minute is likely to drive up the costs, so time is of the essence.

“We realize the disruption to normal working patterns and ever increasing operating costs may be putting a lot of companies off and that’s why we offer the cost effective training at a time and place convenient to the client including any of the 35 UK Acorn branches.”

Acorn is a leading provider of training, learning and development solutions with more than 1000 individuals receiving training from Acorn each month. As well as the Driving CPC courses they also offer apprenticeships and IT courses.

For more information on prices and dates of all CPC modules, please contact Darron Burns on 01270 256 000 or visit www.acornpeople.com/sectors/driving.ashx