RTITB has taken legal action against a trainer in a periodic training hours dispute.

In October 2013, Truck and Driver magazine published an article about a CPC instructor who ran periodic training on behalf of RTITB and failed to upload the drivers' hours or issue certificates as proof of attendance.

Mark Johnson is the trainer at the centre of the allegations. RTITB has successfully obtained an order that Johnson produce documentation relating to the courses in question, including invoices, driver registration forms, attendance forms and feedback forms. In the event that he is unable to produce documentation, he has been ordered to disclose what has happened to the documents.

RTITB's costs were also awarded against him.

Laura Nelson, operations director at RTITB, says: "We took this action out of a desire to protect the Master Driver CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) Consortium, but, more importantly, we wanted to ensure the integrity of Driver CPC Periodic Training, and the fair treatment of the drivers that our members strive to train to the highest standard.

"This was about taking a stand against substandard practices in Periodic Training provision, no matter the offender or their affiliations. The documents ordered to be produced will assist RTITB with deciding whether to take further legal action against Mr Johnson. Our tireless pursuit of this case demonstrates that RTITB takes the integrity of Driver CPC very seriously and it shows that as a consortium leader, we will not tolerate behaviour on the part of any of our members that falls below our high standards."

RTITB is also offering all drivers affected by Johnson's actions replacement training at no extra cost.

"Naturally, when something goes wrong, we like to react quickly and effectively. In this instance, it meant taking firm action against an individual, protecting the rest of our members and making sure the hard-working drivers who were cheated out of their hours were treated fairly," Nelson adds.

Periodic Training refers to Driver CPC periodic training, which is carried out over 35 hours every five years for UK HGV, LGV and PCV drivers.

RTITB, formerly the Road Transport Industry Training Board, is based in Telford, Shropshire. It claims to be the leading authority on materials handling equipment training for operators and instructors, and examines over 900 forklift instructor candidates annually.