I was made redundant from a multi-national computer company - I’m 55, with a clean licence and an 800,000 mile record on Big bikes, cars, and mini-buses - so after six months of fruitless job-hunting, set out to get the C and eventually C+E tickets…
Read as many hints and tips as I could find here - and these have been a big help.
Last week was the start of the practical training which I did with “Driver Training Wales” in Swansea…
Day one.
Straight in at the deep end
- 30 seconds of intro
- 30 seconds on the mysteries of the slap-over 4 beside 4 gearbox
and off out onto the road with real live traffic!
Drove round Swansea - Aberavon, Port Talbot, Ty Bach, Neath, Pontardawe - and lots more Swansea.
Met Motorway, dual carriageway, open single carriageway, tight twisty town roads - and believe it or not - a purple bendybus on a mini-roundabout.
Clipped the odd curb - had to stop occasionally to remonstrate (plead) with the gearbox
Lessons learned.
1 - The rear wheels are a LONG way behind the fronts - so you need plenty of width on any tight corners - you can wait but you cannot cut.
2 - One Two Three Four - these gears will start but then no more.
Five six seven eight - gears for going places
2a Downshifts - Five to four or six to four → ONLY WHEN STATIONARY
3 - There is no acceleration - use planning and foresight instead
4 - Brakes - Thank [zb] it doesn’t go fast - dire lack of finesse - more planning needed.
Day two in the big truck game…
Split into three sessions…
1 - Out and about - looking for pokey narrow steep roads with mini-roundabouts, walls, roadworks and temporary traffic lights.
2 - Reversing in the yard
3 - More out-and-about in Swansea and Neath - searching out the awkward bits.
Lessons:
Making friends with the gearbox and slowly getting the hang of the spaces and lines needed - fewer curbs hit.
The clutch is brutally heavy - stand on it hard enough to floor the thing and the seat rears up, then the seat control system lets the air out to bring you back to the right level, at which point you release the clutch and the seat sinks to four inches lower than wanted… and half way down I met the bloody barrel coming up.
When reversing, the pivot point is the inside rear wheel - NOT the end of the truck…
Sometimes the brakes can be used smoothly.
Overall - it feels like progress.
Day Three - Wednesday
Three hour drive - Swansea - Neath - Briton Ferry twice (inc Old Rd.) - P.T. - Pontardawe - back streets of Swansea.
Folowed by a half dozen reverses in the yard - round poles and so forth.
This was the day of tight corners - beyond square turns - horrid mini-roundabouts on STEEP hills - clipped one curb, rubbed another in a contraflow/roadworks.
Overall it seemed to be under better control - prepared to go slower for a more comfortable time - Aberavon sea-front in fifth is better than in sixth.
Day Four Thursday
Improving - got the reverse sequence down pat - beginning to feel comfortable with the whole thing - can now talk and clip curbs at the same time - hill starts and such all going well.
Day Five - Friday.
Whole thing coming together - tried out the controlled brake thing - took a couple of goes to leave the clutch alone - but that is now working - the road work now feels much less intimidating:
Need both lanes? - use both lanes.
Need to wait for the right gap - OK then Wait - one will come along
Speed Humps - these are evil barstewards - some are a real clatter - the secret is to SLOW DOWN
Day Six - Monday
Half hour in the yard - practice Controlled stop and a reverse - then an hour out on the road
Then
The Test
Nice man called Gareth - went pretty much by the book - didn’t bend any metal or squash any pedestrians and as a result - I passed…
So now there remains the small matter of adding the “E”… - oh and finding some sort of job.
CONGRATULATIONS on passing your “C” test 
