Six engineers. Six IRTEC passes.

P.C. Coaches of Lincoln put six members of its engineering team through IRTEC training with Lloyd Morgan Group. Every candidate passed. All six are now certified to carry out PCV safety inspections in-house, and the operator has already signalled its intention to put a further cohort through the same route.

About P.C. Coaches of Lincoln

P.C. Coaches of Lincoln Ltd is an employee-owned bus and coach operator, running under the line “employee-owned, customer-driven”. Fleet safety and reliability sit at the centre of how the business runs, and that depends on engineers who hold current, recognised qualifications rather than experience alone.

The challenge

Safety inspections are the point where maintenance standards become evidence. For a PSV operator, the quality of those inspections is what a Traffic Commissioner or a DVSA examiner will eventually be looking at.

P.C. Coaches had capable engineers. What it wanted was a way to certify that capability against an external benchmark, so that inspection sign-off rested on a recognised qualification rather than on in-house judgement alone. IRTEC is the industry standard for exactly that, and it needed to cover PCV safety inspections specifically.

The wider aim was continuity. Rather than a one-off exercise, the business wanted a training route it could keep sending people down as the team changes.

The solution

Six engineers, Rob, Adam, Dean, Martin, Kamil and Maks, were enrolled onto IRTEC training delivered by Lloyd Morgan Group, the largest IRTEC delivery centre in the UK.

The programme covered the coursework required for PCV safety inspection competence, with candidates supported through to examination. Training was structured around the operator’s schedule so the workshop kept running while the team qualified.

The results

Six of six candidates passed their IRTEC examinations.

Every engineer on the programme is now certified to carry out PCV safety inspections. For P.C. Coaches that means:

• Inspection sign-off backed by an externally recognised qualification
• Greater in-house capability, with less reliance on outside cover for inspection work
• A documented, verifiable standard of competence across the engineering team
• Evidence of a maintained training culture, which matters when compliance systems are reviewed

The operator has confirmed its intention to put further staff through the same training, making IRTEC accreditation a recurring part of how it develops its workforce rather than a single project.

What P.C. Coaches said

“We wanted to invest in our engineering team and give them a recognised qualification that demonstrates the standards we expect within our workshops. Having six IRTEC-qualified engineers gives us greater resilience and confidence in our safety inspection process, and following the success of this first group, we’re already planning to put our next six engineers through the programme.

Andrew Rae was fantastic throughout the training and was a real credit to Lloyd Morgan Group. His knowledge, approach and ability to engage with our engineers made the whole experience extremely positive for the team.”

Stephen Bryce, Managing Director, P.C. Coaches of Lincoln Ltd

Why it worked

Informal, on-the-job training builds skill but leaves no external record of it. IRTEC turns that skill into something an operator can point to, and something an individual engineer keeps.

For a bus and coach operator, the value is practical rather than presentational. A certified inspector is a qualified second pair of eyes on the fleet, and the qualification gives a clear standard for anyone joining the team to be measured against.