Global leader in online vehicle remarketing and recycling, Copart UK, today announces the launch of a new Driver Academy Programme to recruit and train the next generation of HGV drivers for its expanding, self-owned, UK wide transportation fleet. Copart UK Managing Director Jane Pocock said the £1m direct investment is possible because Copart is the only major vehicle remarketing and recycling company that owns its own fleet and whose drivers are directly employed by the company.
“Our insurer clients are rightly looking for their suppliers to meet the very highest environmental standards, and we are fortunate that we can take positive action, including driver training, carbon offset and best in class service delivery. The Copart Driver Academy is focused on ensuring that we continue to provide highly skilled and quality assured drivers across our fleet,” she added.
“Whether it is recovering a vehicle direct from a policyholder or delivering one of the hundreds of thousands of vehicles we move a year, having a self–employed, trustworthy, and fully accountable workforce is paramount to delivering world class logistics for our insurer partners across the UK.”
The company has launched the £1m+ programme in partnership with HGVC, the leading provider of commercial licence acquisition training courses in the UK, to secure the future supply of highly skilled Copart drivers. Directly aligning with Copart’s Plan-Net-Zero-Programme, their formal commitment to becoming a fully sustainable business by achieving net zero emissions, HGVC is the only UK provider to offer carbon neutral training.
Supporting the Copart Cares commitment to environmental protection and sustainability, HGVC pledges to plant a tree for every training course undertaken, offsetting any carbon created by the vehicles used during the programme. The ambitious scheme, which aims to deliver 100 new fully trained drivers in the first year, is part of Copart’s wider expansion plans to continually enhance its vehicle collection and delivery capabilities across the UK, alongside a vehicle investment programme to ensure the ‘greenest fleet on the street’.
Currently, Copart operates the largest self-owned fleet in the salvage sector, with more than 250 directly employed specialist drivers and 18 locations strategically positioned throughout the UK. With a recent survey by the Road Haulage Association estimating a shortage of more than 100,000 qualified HGV drivers in the UK, Copart’s Driver Academy Programme will not only help counter this skills shortage but will also provide a long-term pipeline of appropriate candidates training to be Copart HGV vehicle movement specialists.
In addition to sourcing and training candidates through to HGV licence completion, the HGVC-managed programme offers a network of over 400 quality assured learning centres around the country to ensure drivers stay connected to the most suitable training locations. The Copart Driver Academy will be managed through a centralised system, with real-time communication lines which will provide Copart with a wealth of ‘live’ information on the training and progress of all its drivers, as well the ability to source prospective candidates.
The programme also offers supporting modules for qualified drivers to help them maintain their periodic CPC training and upskill in various categories, delivered through HGVC’s extensive JAUPT- approved network. These modules will include courses on first aid, safer urban driving, records and enforcement, and safe loading, all specifically tailored to the bespoke range of Copart multi-car transporters. The programme will also undertake driver risk assessments, which can provide Copart’s logistics team with crucial online data on driver behaviour patterns and help identify further training module requirements.
Phil Briggs, Copart UK Director of Operation Centres, Transport and Engineering, added:
“The Copart Driver Academy programme represents a significant investment into our transport and logistics capabilities and will enable us to select candidates who demonstrate the right attributes to join, and train within, our business without the usual qualification restraints. “This exciting new initiative will support our continued growth, despite wider HGV driver market constraints, and we’re looking forward to finding great people to join our business who we can train and develop to ensure that Copart’s ‘Operational Excellence’ is maintained.”
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