Online vehicle remarketing and recycling company Copart has announced a major driver training programme.

The company has invested more than £1 million in its new Driver Academy Programme to recruit and train ‘the next generation of HGV drivers’.

Copart UK managing director Jane Pocock said the huge investment was possible because the business owns its own fleet and employs its own drivers.

She added: “The Copart Driver Academy is focused on ensuring that we continue to provide highly skilled and quality assured drivers across our fleet.”

It has been set up in partnership with training provider HGVC to ‘secure the future supply of highly skilled Copart drivers’.  

HGVC will offer carbon-neutral training, aligned with Copart’s Plan-Net-Zero-Programme, its formal commitment to becoming a fully sustainable business by achieving net zero emissions.

The programme aims to deliver 100 new fully trained drivers in the first year.

Copart says it operates the largest self-owned fleet in the salvage sector, with more than 250 directly employed specialist drivers and 18 throughout the UK.  

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.”

The announcement comes just months after Copart revealed it was creating a 698-acre ‘super centre’ in East Anglia.