Two exemptions, made following a consultation, will be implemented this autumn.
The first exemption is aimed at both mechanics and valets delivering vehicles. It applies as long as the following conditions are met;
- No goods or passengers are being carried
- The vehicle is not being used for hire or reward
- Driving heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) or public service vehicles (PSVs) is not the driver’s main job
- The vehicle remains within 50 kilometers of the driver’s base.
The second exemption benefits mechanics – it applies as long as the vehicle is being driven to an official test at a VOSA or authorised testing facility.
The exemptions above are unlikely to benefit many farmers who may use minibuses for transporting staff to fields or livestock to the local market.
D101 or D marked not for hire or reward licence holders
The consultation response also includes mention of transporting harvest workers in relation to ‘acquired rights’ if you have the D marked not for hire or reward or D101 driving licence entitlements obtained after 1991 and pre 1997.
Following our lobbying, these drivers now are not required to do the initial CPC qualification. They would however still be required to undertake 35 Periodic Driver CPC training every five years. The DSA also looked at whether driving casual harvest workers would be exempt under regulation 3(2)(f) which exempts the driver of a vehicle which is “being used for the non-commercial carriage of passengers for personal use”. However, they did not think that it can be properly argued that farmers driving casual workers around a farm fall within this exemption. In their view, these drivers will be required to obtain the CPC.
No exemption for farmers
The government has again stated that the current exemptions can not be extended to farmers but that that it intends to "look again" at this issue.
NFU action
The EU Commission have recently announced that they are going to review the regulations and are holding another consultation. One proposal is to align the regulations with the Drivers Hours rules. The CPC will still be a requirement but the Drivers Hours rules has various derogations for agriculture and horticulture which would exempt most vehicular activities so long as they undertaken within 100km of the farm.
The NFU will be responding to the European consultation to state support for such proposals. We have again written to ministers to urge them to consider a UK exemption for incidental drivers in agriculture similar in extent to that proposed in European Comission consultation.
Unfortunately none of this gets round the fact that the CPC regulations come into force on 9th September 2013 for passenger carrying vehicles.
You can read more about Driver CPC here.
The Q&A for members is here.