Anyone any experience/reviews of training with Tockwith near York?
Thanks
RoadRunner92:
Anyone any experience/reviews of training with Tockwith near York?
Thanks
From memory I can only recall really great posts about them in this forum
Pretty sure they used to contribute on here as well.
I’ve never heard anything bad about them.
I passed my Class One with them a few years ago:
Different trainer every single day! Which naturally led to problems, such as each having their own version of how to do the reverse, hence lots of “No! Do it this way” to which I would reply “but the other guys said to do it this way…”
First trainer of the week wanted to spend far too much time driving himself, with me just watching like a proper numpty: we all learn by DOING, not by WATCHING. Even my extremely poor class 2 trainer many years before (Sterling Training, need I say more?) had me in the driving seat from the first minute of the first day.
Every single training-day also involved queuing up at a busy motorway fuel station, taking valuable time out of my lesson - I think fueling up is something that should be done on the company’s time, or at least fill the tank(s) at the start of the week.
But I think what really sticks with me is that there was a crucial piece of information that I could have easily been given in advance with regard to the layout of the Test Centre and the exit onto the main road; had this one fact been pointed out to me during my training, my first test would have resulted in a pass. Yes, as an experienced driver you would look at the situation and it would probably be relatively obvious, but as a keyed-up trainee it was easily missed. A training provider should coach you for every aspect of the test, and should already know that what might be very familiar to them may not be obvious to the trainee.
Nice truck to drive, but at the time I did my training with them I felt like just-another-bum-on-the-seat, rather than “a valued customer”. At the time I had been very tempted to try PST, but family commitments (then and now) mean I don’t have the option to stay away from home for several nights.
Zac_A:
I passed my Class One with them a few years ago:Different trainer every single day! Which naturally led to problems, such as each having their own version of how to do the reverse, hence lots of “No! Do it this way” to which I would reply “but the other guys said to do it this way…”
First trainer of the week wanted to spend far too much time driving himself, with me just watching like a proper numpty: we all learn by DOING, not by WATCHING. Even my extremely poor class 2 trainer many years before (Sterling Training, need I say more?) had me in the driving seat from the first minute of the first day.
Every single training-day also involved queuing up at a busy motorway fuel station, taking valuable time out of my lesson - I think fueling up is something that should be done on the company’s time, or at least fill the tank(s) at the start of the week.
But I think what really sticks with me is that there was a crucial piece of information that I could have easily been given in advance with regard to the layout of the Test Centre and the exit onto the main road; had this one fact been pointed out to me during my training, my first test would have resulted in a pass. Yes, as an experienced driver you would look at the situation and it would probably be relatively obvious, but as a keyed-up trainee it was easily missed. A training provider should coach you for every aspect of the test, and should already know that what might be very familiar to them may not be obvious to the trainee.
Nice truck to drive, but at the time I did my training with them I felt like just-another-bum-on-the-seat, rather than “a valued customer”. At the time I had been very tempted to try PST, but family commitments (then and now) mean I don’t have the option to stay away from home for several nights.
Just to give a counterpoint.
I failed my first car driving test within the first 5 minutes.
I pulled out of the test centre but as I was pulling the instructor said I had just got a major fault for causing another vehicle to slow down. (I still to this day dont think I did as I got up to speed quickly).
At the time I put most of the blame on my instructor but it is the natural thing to do.
I took my HGV test with roadtrain in Essex and had more than one instructor. I saw it as an opportunity to expose myself to different learning styles though. Some trainers are very hands off, some are very hands on, some are verbal and some are silent. It can be difficult to get the trainer that best fits your learning style.
You can learn a lot from navigating a busy motorway MSA in a class one.
I’m not trying to detract from your experiences but what I’d say to the OP is dont let one bad review detract you. Tockwith in the past at least were very highly regarded here.
That being said. The obvious choice is Peter Smythe Transport Training. They never seem to get any complaints on here and are highly regarded.
Thanks all! Will have a think!
My experience was a couple of years ago, things could have changed a lot since then.
IIRC, at that time the main guy was seriously thinking of selling the company so it may very well be in different hands entirely by now, and if so I wouldn’t want any new management to be tarred by my negative experience.