I have been looking at this forum on an almost daily basis since it started, however today is the first time I have added content!
I have been a HGV Driver Trainer for over 25 years and have held a HGV licence C+ E and PCV D since 1984.
Until recently I was Senior Driver Trainer with Scania GB for eight years.
I am now semi - retired and living in the North West, however I still do occasional driver training for a few companies that I respect.
I have the DVSA ADI qualification and and was on the former DVSA LGV Register.
I have always maintained that driver training for large vehicles should be regulated however successive governments have never made the qualification mandatory.
Trucknet has always tried to ‘steer’ potential trainee licence seekers away from the brokers and those companies that do not care about their customers.
My name ’ The Professor’ was given to me as a nickname by other driver trainers because of my professional approach and encyclopedic knowledge of many aspects of driver training.
In recent years the DVSA vocational driving tests have become a lot easier to pass since the removal of the gearchange and the controlled stop exercise, however there are now the CPC tests which are not perfect but do give the trainee extra knowledge for their driving careers.
When I took my C + E test back in 1984 there were no theory tests and I could gain
Category C for nothing, simply by passing the C + E driving test.
In recent years DVSA Customer Driving Test Centres have been introduced which is usually better for the trainee for many reasons, however many training companies cannot see the benefit of having their own test centre.
A good friend of mine now has the use of three customer sites and his business is thriving and the high first time pass rate that usually goes with customer sites is great for the trainee.
I have trained vocational licence seekers at seven different test centres so I have a broad experience of the standard required and also the poor standard of training / vehicles / customer service that sadly haunts driver training.
I hope my experience and knowledge can help Trucknet readers.
you should fit in nicely along with all the other professors in here covering a broad selection of qualifications ranging from fridge engineering specialists,telecommunications boffins,diving instructors,those with former carreers that can only be guessed at ( official secrets ) and those with phds in almost everything compared to myself where the only time i was in university was when i got a job as a janitor.
its been quiet and uneventfull in here since some of them left,or went on premod.
are you going to be doing any agency driving,or just keeping your toe in the water on an advisory basis only?
We watched a 3 minute video explaining what the test is about
We were given a sheet of paper with 10 questions on it; really though, it was 5 questions just each asked in 2 different ways with 4 or 5 answers each - these had to be memorized
Our training vehicle was a 5t. van; we never started the engine or moved the vehicle - the examiner might ask you to show him how you would check the breaks - you’re supposed to drive a few meters forward and apply the brakes (practical test, remember?); well we were told if he asks, just explain what you would do…
2 of the questions were how would you check for illegal immigrants and drugs
There was one about the fuel - how you would check your fuel level and how would you ensure you would have enough fuel to complete your trip? Check fuel level, check for fuel leaks, make sure you have means for paying for fuel should you have to fill up
There was something about fire extinguishers, too - all we had to remember is “use anything but water”
Load securing devices - ratchet, bar tensioner and a chain; we each got to have 3 go’s at using each of these; I’ve learned a lot more about load security from youtube
All in all, cpc 4 is a very expensive, bad joke. A money-printing press for training centres. On my course there were 4 of us, each coughed up £255 for wasting 4 hours of our time + travel + lost wages if someone had to take a day off work, like I did. This company made £1000+ in half a day, 0 expenses apart from half a day’s wage for the bloke who had to entertain us for nearly 4 hours.
cpc2 was useless as well; half the questions were the same as the other half, just asked in a different way; mostly about breaks WTD/EU hours, one was “how long does alcohol stay in your blood?”
I would gladly have paid £100 to spend a day on the job in a real truck with a real truck driver (who was willing to teach and answer questions, of course) and I would’ve learned infinitely more about the job, tachographs, load strapping/securing etc.
Of course somebody who is/was part of the system will defend the system and claim it’s “all for the greater good”
We watched a 3 minute video explaining what the test is about
We were given a sheet of paper with 10 questions on it; really though, it was 5 questions just each asked in 2 different ways with 4 or 5 answers each - these had to be memorized
Our training vehicle was a 5t. van; we never started the engine or moved the vehicle - the examiner might ask you to show him how you would check the breaks - you’re supposed to drive a few meters forward and apply the brakes (practical test, remember?); well we were told if he asks, just explain what you would do…
2 of the questions were how would you check for illegal immigrants and drugs
There was one about the fuel - how you would check your fuel level and how would you ensure you would have enough fuel to complete your trip? Check fuel level, check for fuel leaks, make sure you have means for paying for fuel should you have to fill up
There was something about fire extinguishers, too - all we had to remember is “use anything but water”
Load securing devices - ratchet, bar tensioner and a chain; we each got to have 3 go’s at using each of these; I’ve learned a lot more about load security from youtube
All in all, cpc 4 is a very expensive, bad joke. A money-printing press for training centres. On my course there were 4 of us, each coughed up £255 for wasting 4 hours of our time + travel + lost wages if someone had to take a day off work, like I did. This company made £1000+ in half a day, 0 expenses apart from half a day’s wage for the bloke who had to entertain us for nearly 4 hours.
cpc2 was useless as well; half the questions were the same as the other half, just asked in a different way; mostly about breaks WTD/EU hours, one was “how long does alcohol stay in your blood?”
I would gladly have paid £100 to spend a day on the job in a real truck with a real truck driver (who was willing to teach and answer questions, of course) and I would’ve learned infinitely more about the job, tachographs, load strapping/securing etc.
Of course somebody who is/was part of the system will defend the system and claim it’s “all for the greater good”
