Phil's Remote Driver CPC Zoom Experience and Thoughts

While still being encouraged to minimise gatherings in person, I completed my
second online session with Dulson’s to update my periodic CPC training record.
Booking online was easy last year, but I noticed the process had been
streamlined further still and is so straightforward. I could browse the available
module subjects, and select one that I hadn’t already done at a date that suited
me. The payment experience was similarly slick I found.

I quickly received an email acknowledging my booking and payment, with a
request to send a photo of my driving licence as confirmation of my identity.
This time I was being trained on ‘Bridge Strikes, Loading and Unloading’. The
session began at 8am with several of us from all over taking part. Dulson
Training are able to reach a very wide audience via the internet, so we had one
driver from as far north as the Shetland Isles! We were quite varied in terms of
what vehicles we regularly drove and our levels of experience, and I find it
interesting to hear from others what sort of work they are involved in and the
challenges they face.
Having all introduced ourselves, I feel we interacted more naturally throughout
the day than if we had gone straight into the subject content immediately. Our
trainer, Rosemary, was very welcoming and thoroughly professional from start
to finish. She kept our timetable on track without seeming rushed in the
slightest, and gave each of us ample opportunity to participate and encouraged
us to do so.

In the morning we studied bridge strikes, learning about different types of
bridge, their characteristics and how they can have different effects on the
vehicle upon impact. There were a lot of quite subtle points to take in, and so
much more to what sounds a fairly basic topic than you would imagine. We also
covered how to avoid them and their consequences for everybody.
It was nice that the content was varied – not too much reading or listening all in
one go. We had discussion, maybe a video, and short quizzes at regular intervals
to check our understanding. The session was broken up with short refreshment
breaks too, which was ideal.

After a longer break for lunch, we moved on to loading and unloading. This I
found a helpful reminder of best practice principles, which perhaps easily
become faded over time since going through, say, your theory test. Rosemary
was apologetic to the two bus drivers on the course, because this section was
very lorry-orientated. Dulson’s are always striving to improve, however, and she
reassured them that more PCV specific content was being developed for future
CPC courses.

Unfortunately, we did suffer a few times from poor sound reverberation from
one or two areas, but that I think is one of the joys of Zoom and somewhat
beyond Dulson’s control. Again, Rosemary apologised for those occurences and
continued professionally in spite of them!

The training concluded on time and we were encouraged to respond to a follow-
up email asking for feedback on our experience. Again, Dulson’s welcome all
comments however small in order to continually update, evaluate and improve
their products and service. By the following afternoon, I had received an email
confirming my hours had been uploaded to my record, and a certificate of
attendance was attached.

Like all of my dealings with Dulson Training, once again my experience could
hardly have been improved upon. I still prefer to be all together in a classroom,
but virtual training is nonetheless a decent alternative!

Phil.