07.08.2012

Crane operators exempted from Driver CPC

The EU has issued a statement that effectively exempts crane operators from the Driver Certificate of Professional Competence directive.

The EU Commission expressed the view at a meeting of the Committee on the Training of Professional Drivers (Directive 2003/59/EC) on the 25th June. It said: Any interpretation of Article 1 (which defines who is in scope of Driver CPC) should take account of Article 5 (which defines the CPC initial qualification and makes reference to it being for drivers of vehicles intended for the carriage of goods or passengers).

According to this Commission persons driving vehicles which are not intended for the carriage of goods or passengers would be exempted from the requirement to hold a CPC and therefore mobile cranes, not intended for the carriage of goods or passengers, do not fall within the scope of the Directive.

Vertikal Comment

Most European countries already interpreted the directive as confirmed by the Commissions view, however in the UK after the Vehicle Operator Services Agency (VOSA) had said that it considered mobile cranes to be exempt from the Driver CPC regulations the UK Driving standards Agency (DSA) decided for some totally arbitrary and unfounded reason that this was not the case.

Thankfully it looks as though the bureaucrats responsible for causing all this unnecessary red tape and costs will now be corrected and hopefully put in their place.
Click here to see UK crane drivers may be subject to CPC