The European Union published a Directive in July 2003 that will require all category C and D licence holders to take part in 35 hours retraining every five years, in order to keep their entitlement to drive professionally. The Directive also gives details of a new initial training regime that new drivers must go through before they can drive professionally for the first time. This will have a major impact on driver testing, as the existing driving tests will be modified and lengthened to adapt to these requirements. The Directive will come into force across all EU Member States in 2008 for bus drivers, and 2009 for lorry drivers.
The legislation for these requirements will be introduced into Northern Ireland during 2006. The legislation will state the minimum testing requirements for new drivers, as well as the process for obtaining periodic training. It will also include the deadlines by which existing drivers will have had to complete their first set of retraining.
The links below give both a copy of the Directive along with an Expanatory Memorandum highlighting the main points in each section. This gives the full requirements for new and existing drivers once this is introduced. The results of the UK's formal consultation document are shown below.
DVTA have engaged in a series of presentation to various industry representatives to publicise the testing and training requirements. A link is included below to the most recent version of the slides used for these presentations. If yu feel your organisation could benefit from attendance at a presentation, or if you would like a member of DVTA staff to deliver a presentation to your employees, please use the contact details below to obtain more information. The Frequently Asked Questions are those that have been asked previously at these presentations, are regularly updated as more decisions are made on the way and are regularly updated as more decisions are made, on the way these requirements will be introduced into Northern Ireland.
For more information on the most recent progress with this Directive please see the update bulletins homepage. To be included in the mailing list for these please complete the online form.
If you require any further information on the Directive that is not contained in any of our pages, or if you wish to clarify any implications this may have for you or your company, please contact:
Angie McClenaghan
DVA Testing HQ
Balmoral Road
Belfast
BT12 6QL
Driver CPC
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028 9054 1855
angie.mcclenaghan@doeni.gov.uk