Finally passed my Cat C (3rd attempt)

Yeaaaaah! I finally passed my Cat C driving test on my 3rd attempt with just 1 minor! I’m over the moon!

I posted my progress in another thread, long story short I failed twice and was extremely discouraged, questioning whether I was any good at driving… decided to do a few more hours with Peter Smythe’s driver training before this test and nailed the small issues… I want to thank everyone at PSTT and a super special thanks to Clifford and Helen.

If anybody reads this in the future and is in a similar position, I can’t emphasize enough having a few more hours to just really smooth everything out and go again.

Onto the big trucks next! Can’t wait

Well done on your pass

Congratulations mate! It took me 6 (that’s right, SIX!!) goes to finally pass my class 2. I’ll admit, some fails were my fault, hitting a kerb two minutes after leaving the test centre, or hitting a marker cone during the reverse. Other times, I’m not so sure. One time I was approaching road works, marked out by cones, with wooden sleepers around the outside. Despite no-one being at the site at all, I was told I’d failed because ‘if someone was stood on the sleepers, I’d have hit them’. Apparently saying I’d have driven further away from them in that case was the wrong thing to say!
The time I finally passed was possibly the worst I’d ever driven on a test, did something early on and convinced myself I’d failed again, so my driving completely fell apart. When I got back to the test centre I was told 'I’m not actually sure how, but congratulations, you’ve passed!)
That was the best feeling in the world, and it allowed me to learn how to drive properly, gain confidence and experience.
That was just over 5 years ago. 3 years ago I passed my class 1, first time!!
These days I work for a fuel company having gained my ADR and PDP at various points over the last 5 years.
Before passing my test, I worked 48 hours a week in a job I hated, nowadays I work less hours, in a job I love, earning money I couldn’t have dreamed about.
With a but of persistence, hard work and a bit of luck, the sky really is the limit in this job. Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you, but don’t forget the hard work it took to get there

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CookieMonster:
Congratulations mate! It took me 6 (that’s right, SIX!!) goes to finally pass my class 2. I’ll admit, some fails were my fault, hitting a kerb two minutes after leaving the test centre, or hitting a marker cone during the reverse. Other times, I’m not so sure. One time I was approaching road works, marked out by cones, with wooden sleepers around the outside. Despite no-one being at the site at all, I was told I’d failed because ‘if someone was stood on the sleepers, I’d have hit them’. Apparently saying I’d have driven further away from them in that case was the wrong thing to say!
The time I finally passed was possibly the worst I’d ever driven on a test, did something early on and convinced myself I’d failed again, so my driving completely fell apart. When I got back to the test centre I was told 'I’m not actually sure how, but congratulations, you’ve passed!)
That was the best feeling in the world, and it allowed me to learn how to drive properly, gain confidence and experience.
That was just over 5 years ago. 3 years ago I passed my class 1, first time!!
These days I work for a fuel company having gained my ADR and PDP at various points over the last 5 years.
Before passing my test, I worked 48 hours a week in a job I hated, nowadays I work less hours, in a job I love, earning money I couldn’t have dreamed about.
With a but of persistence, hard work and a bit of luck, the sky really is the limit in this job. Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you, but don’t forget the hard work it took to get there

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Awesome to read cookie.

A old quote springs to mind reading through a lot of peoples experiences during the tests.

“Hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard”

Congrats on the ADR and gaining work. I’m fresh faced to the industry and that would be a dream come true for me.

Was thinking of doing the ADR but I’ve heard its difficult to get a start in that. How did you find getting a start?

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markdoc10:
Awesome to read cookie.

A old quote springs to mind reading through a lot of peoples experiences during the tests.

“Hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard”

Congrats on the ADR and gaining work. I’m fresh faced to the industry and that would be a dream come true for me.

Was thinking of doing the ADR but I’ve heard its difficult to get a start in that. How did you find getting a start?

Hi Mark. I’d been doing class 2 work for about a year, bouncing between different agency assignments, just trying to keep the money coming in while getting experience. Then a different agency near me, Driver Hire opened a new office, and in an effort to attract new drivers were offering bonuses of £50 for every 10 shifts completed.
I went in to speak to them was just general accent chat about the work they had and what I wanted to do. I mentioned wanting to get my class 1 and do ADR work. They told me they had a class 2 ADR role that they hadn’t been able to fill, no class 2 drivers on their books had ADR and any class 1 ADR drivers weren’t interested because it was less money.

I said I would put myself through my ADR if they would put me forward for the job.
I booked an ADR course, cost about £500 for a 5 day course (3 days for packages, with a test at the end of the third day, fourth and fifth day for tanks, again with a test at the end, and you can put the hours towards your CPC).

Surprisingly, the agency actually came through on their word, and a few weeks later I started doing class 2 ADR package multidrop work for Univar.
I stayed with them for a year, then did my class 1.
I then started doing class 1 work, doing non-Adr tank work for a few months, before getting a job with Brenntag doing ADR tanker work.

Try looking for companies in your area to see who does ADR work, get your qualifications and start applying. The best jobs I’ve had are ones I never thought I’d get, so keep applying, keep fingers crossed, and pretty soon you’ll get there.

Hope this helps you

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CookieMonster:

Awesome to read cookie.

A old quote springs to mind reading through a lot of peoples experiences during the tests.

“Hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard”

Congrats on the ADR and gaining work. I’m fresh faced to the industry and that would be a dream come true for me.

Was thinking of doing the ADR but I’ve heard its difficult to get a start in that. How did you find getting a start?
[/quote]
Hi Mark. I’d been doing class 2 work for about a year, bouncing between different agency assignments, just trying to keep the money coming in while getting experience. Then a different agency near me, Driver Hire opened a new office, and in an effort to attract new drivers were offering bonuses of £50 for every 10 shifts completed. I went in to speak to them was just general accent chat about the work they had and what I wanted to do. I mentioned wanting to get my class 1 and do ADR work. They told me they had a class 2 ADR role that they hadn’t been able to fill, no class 2 drivers on their books had ADR and any class 1 ADR drivers weren’t interested because it was less money.
I said I would put myself through my ADR if they would put me forward for the job.
I booked an ADR course, cost about £500 for a 5 day course (3 days for packages, with a test at the end of the third day, fourth and fifth day for tanks, again with a test at the end, and you can put the hours towards your CPC).
Surprisingly, the agency actually came through on their word, and a few weeks later I started doing class 2 ADR package multidrop work for Univar.
I stayed with them for a year, then did my class 1. I then started doing class 1 work, doing non-Adr tank work for a few months, before getting a job with Brenntag doing ADR tanker work.
Try looking for companies in your area to see who does ADR work, get your qualifications and start applying. The best jobs I’ve had are ones I never thought I’d get, so keep applying, keep fingers crossed, and pretty soon you’ll get there.
Hope this helps you

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk
[/quote]
Thanks bud. Just starting using this tapatalk app for the phone and sent some kin points your way.

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CookieMonster:
Congratulations mate! It took me 6 (that’s right, SIX!!) goes to finally pass my class 2. I’ll admit, some fails were my fault, hitting a kerb two minutes after leaving the test centre, or hitting a marker cone during the reverse. Other times, I’m not so sure. One time I was approaching road works, marked out by cones, with wooden sleepers around the outside. Despite no-one being at the site at all, I was told I’d failed because ‘if someone was stood on the sleepers, I’d have hit them’. Apparently saying I’d have driven further away from them in that case was the wrong thing to say!
The time I finally passed was possibly the worst I’d ever driven on a test, did something early on and convinced myself I’d failed again, so my driving completely fell apart. When I got back to the test centre I was told 'I’m not actually sure how, but congratulations, you’ve passed!)
That was the best feeling in the world, and it allowed me to learn how to drive properly, gain confidence and experience.
That was just over 5 years ago. 3 years ago I passed my class 1, first time!!
These days I work for a fuel company having gained my ADR and PDP at various points over the last 5 years.
Before passing my test, I worked 48 hours a week in a job I hated, nowadays I work less hours, in a job I love, earning money I couldn’t have dreamed about.
With a but of persistence, hard work and a bit of luck, the sky really is the limit in this job. Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you, but don’t forget the hard work it took to get there

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Thanks for sharing. I needed this before my FOURTH attempt at Class 1 Like you last time I drove over the curb as you go outside their test centre - the right-left turn into the street leading to the main road. Unfortunately there was another artic at the end of the street I was turning left, he didn’t reverse so I had no other option as he wanted to come right (into my street) and there was no space for him, either…I was FURIOUS, as soon as I made the turn the examiner said “Pull over to the left” and I thought “That’s it, I can’t ■■■■■■■ believe it, he’s going to terminate my test right here and now”, but he didn’t…I kept on driving thinking I had failed anyway, I just wanted to get it over with. He failed me for another curb-mount, however…5 mins before we got back to the tst centre; long story - I made a thread about it somewhere. Next re-test coming soon.

Your story gave me a bit of a spirit-lift, thanks for that!

ETS:

CookieMonster:
Congratulations mate! It took me 6 (that’s right, SIX!!) goes to finally pass my class 2. I’ll admit, some fails were my fault, hitting a kerb two minutes after leaving the test centre, or hitting a marker cone during the reverse. Other times, I’m not so sure. One time I was approaching road works, marked out by cones, with wooden sleepers around the outside. Despite no-one being at the site at all, I was told I’d failed because ‘if someone was stood on the sleepers, I’d have hit them’. Apparently saying I’d have driven further away from them in that case was the wrong thing to say!
The time I finally passed was possibly the worst I’d ever driven on a test, did something early on and convinced myself I’d failed again, so my driving completely fell apart. When I got back to the test centre I was told 'I’m not actually sure how, but congratulations, you’ve passed!)
That was the best feeling in the world, and it allowed me to learn how to drive properly, gain confidence and experience.
That was just over 5 years ago. 3 years ago I passed my class 1, first time!!
These days I work for a fuel company having gained my ADR and PDP at various points over the last 5 years.
Before passing my test, I worked 48 hours a week in a job I hated, nowadays I work less hours, in a job I love, earning money I couldn’t have dreamed about.
With a but of persistence, hard work and a bit of luck, the sky really is the limit in this job. Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you, but don’t forget the hard work it took to get there

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

Thanks for sharing. I needed this before my FOURTH attempt at Class 1 Like you last time I drove over the curb as you go outside their test centre - the right-left turn into the street leading to the main road. Unfortunately there was another artic at the end of the street I was turning left, he didn’t reverse so I had no other option as he wanted to come right (into my street) and there was no space for him, either…I was FURIOUS, as soon as I made the turn the examiner said “Pull over to the left” and I thought “That’s it, I can’t [zb] believe it, he’s going to terminate my test right here and now”, but he didn’t…I kept on driving thinking I had failed anyway, I just wanted to get it over with. He failed me for another curb-mount, however…5 mins before we got back to the tst centre; long story - I made a thread about it somewhere. Next re-test coming soon.

Your story gave me a bit of a spirit-lift, thanks for that!

When I hit the kerb, the examiner made me pull over so he could inspect the tyre for damage! Was only a standard kerb, about 2 inches high!
Glad my story helps, keep your chin up and keep trying, you’ll get it next time!

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Thanks all, and great story CookieMonster. I felt bad failing it twice but my dad kept telling me his mate took 6 attempts (maybe he’s you? ) to pass his class 2 and that he kept trying as he really wanted it.

I failed my first test with two serious, one was lane positioning on a small roundabout (I was in the left, and took a right on the roundabout - don’t ask why ) and the second was I went through an amber traffic light which just went red before I had cleared it. I was doing 30 towards the light which had been green for some time, didn’t ease off early enough, saw the lights change and made a split second decision to floor it rather than slam the brakes on… I was annoyed but it was completely my fault so I only had myself to blame.

Rebooked a second test a for few weeks after the first, failed it within 2 minutes. Answered the questions correctly, started doing the reverse, didn’t put enough steer on and was focusing too much on my wheel not going over the solid line, lost sight of one of the cones and ran it over. Absolutely gutted. Confidence completely gone.

After that I didn’t know whether I was good enough, I considered jacking it in but had spent a fair amount of money so that was not a good option and I really wanted to do this! Decided to do an hours assessment drive with another training company a couple of weeks later in my home city, just to see what they thought of my driving and whether it was any easier in a familiar place… was told I basically needed to redo the whole training and was doing nearly everything wrong… righto.

After some reflection I rebooked a third test where I originally trained, was nervous but booked additional training a couple of days before the test and on the test day. This helped massively… one thing the examiner said to me after my first fail was that I was rushing, which was true… I took a step back and slowed things down… improved my timing of mirror checks, eased off and covered the brake coming up to traffic lights, slowed down more if the road was bumpy/bendy… On the test I relaxed, nailed the questions and reverse, had a really good drive, felt confident and finally passed with one minor which was for anticipation – there was a tight bend in the road and a bus was coming, I didn’t slow down enough in case the bus didn’t move over (fortunately he did) which would have meant kerbing it or stopping suddenly.

The real experience will come from driving day in day out on my own… the test just shows you can drive to that standard but just like with your car test, when you pass that you’re still learning for months/years afterwards with different scenarios.

Sorry to ramble on, just thought maybe somebody might find it interesting. In all honesty, I think failing the first (and maybe second) test helped me to look at how I was driving and make adjustments which allowed me to pass.

Class 1 training is now booked for August, really looking forward to it!