Once you hold your Driver CPC, keeping it is simple and almost impossible to fail: 35 hours of training every five years. There is no exam. The only ways it goes wrong are leaving it too late, or paying someone for something GOV.UK gives you for nothing.
Every professional driver must complete 35 hours of approved periodic training in each five-year period. You attend, the approved centre uploads your hours to DVSA, and a new driver qualification card is issued at the end of the cycle.
There is no test and no pass mark. Attendance is the requirement — which is why the useful question to ask about a provider is not "will I pass" but "will I learn anything".
GOV.UK has a free service that shows exactly how many hours you have completed and when your current card expires. Search for the driver CPC periodic training hours service and sign in with your licence details.
Any site charging you to look that up is charging you for nothing. Check it once a year and you will never be caught out.
If your five years are up and you have not completed 35 hours, you cannot drive professionally until you have. Your licence is unaffected — only the professional entitlement lapses — but there is no grace period and no discretion.
The practical risk is course availability. Everyone who left it late is trying to book the same weeks, so a driver who waits until the final month can find themselves off the road for longer than the training itself takes. Spread it out.
Drivers who already held vocational entitlement when the Driver CPC was introduced were granted initial CPC without sitting Modules 2 and 4. That is what "grandfather rights" means, and it is often misunderstood.
It covers the initial qualification only. Every driver, however long they have been driving, still has to complete 35 hours of periodic training every five years.
Because you cannot fail, the temptation is to book the cheapest seat available. But a good periodic day is genuinely useful — drivers’ hours and tachograph rules that have changed, load security, fuel-efficient driving, first aid, vehicle technology you are about to meet in a new truck.
A bad one is seven hours of someone reading slides at you. Ask what the day covers before you book, and ask whether the trainer has driven professionally.
35 hours in every five-year period, normally taken as five seven-hour days.
No. There is no test and you cannot fail it — attendance is the requirement. Your hours are uploaded by the approved centre.
Free on GOV.UK — search for the driver CPC periodic training hours service and sign in with your licence details. Any site charging for this is charging for nothing.
Yes, though most drivers spread it as one seven-hour day a year. A seven-hour course can also be split across two consecutive days.
You cannot drive commercially until you complete the outstanding hours. Your licence is unaffected, but there is no grace period, and course availability tightens exactly when everyone else has left it late too.
Drivers who held vocational entitlement before the Driver CPC was introduced received initial CPC without sitting Modules 2 and 4. It covers the initial qualification only — the 35 hours of periodic training still applies to everyone.
Call 01634 907 229 and we will talk you through checking your hours on GOV.UK for free, and point you at periodic training worth actually sitting.
Read the full Driver CPC guide · Transparent course pricing · Funding and payment plans · Find your nearest centre · Call 01634 907 229
What the Driver CPC actually is · Driver CPC Module 2 — the case study test · Driver CPC Module 4 — the practical demonstration · HGV drivers’ hours and rest periods explained · How to get your HGV licence — every step · All HGV and PCV guides