I come from a background of teaching car to artic (indeed, quite often not even car!) from the early seventies. So, until 1997, it was common practice and few schools ran a "Class 3" now known as CAT C. Some bright spark thought it would be a could plan to make everyone do 2 courses and take 2 tests and that's how we ended up with staged training. Personally, I always considered that to be a total waste of time. (IF there had been a requirement to demonstrate 200 hours of CAT C driving, then there might just have been a tiny scrap of sense. But we all know that wasn't the case and folks were regularly passing CE a month after C).
The driving test has softened almost beyond belief. In the past, we had a forward steer exercise (on the reversing pad), a much bigger reversing area (same exercise - but bigger), a gearchanging exercise (a common cause of test fail), a braking exercise, a "proper" downhill start. And, of course, no power steering. Sometimes the luxury of syncro gearbox but not always. Go back to the early seventies, we didn't always have air brakes! The task for a trainee now is so easy compared to 50 years ago. And that's not a bad thing. But it's baffling that anyone should have an issue with the course and test. Yes, there's a bit more traffic. O dear! The trailers now HAVE to be enclosed. I used a 40' box consistently for many years. And there's a bit of a load. A whole 8 tonnes - - on a vehicle probably capable of dragging 25 tonnes about. So it's virtually irrelevant. All this contributes to the fact that weeks of training are not normally required and it's perfectly possible for the average driver with reasonable aptitude to pass the test on around 20 hours - having got the reverse and upcoupling out of the way first.
My success rate for B to CE is second to none. Maybe that's down to close on 50 years practice and a bit of knowledge as well. Our friend has demonstrated in his post that not all instructors are capable of working to the same high standards. Pity.
The caveat: CE is not for everyone. For some, the very thought of it strikes panic. Rather than criticize these people, let them take the alternative which is C. If a candidate starts a B to CE course and their (properly qualified, trained and experienced) instructor recommends a move to C, the candidate does well to listen and take that on board. Over the years, I've had this a handful of times. Sometimes the candidate will return a year or two later to upgrade their licence. For others, C is enough. And that's totally fine in my book.
In the meantime folks, take care who you listen to on the forum!! Some of us have been here a lot of years and have an idea of what it's all about!
Pete S
