Failed my Class1 today, didn’t even make it to the reverse manoeuvre. Forgot to put up the trailer legs before finally moving off. Personally i believe this is partly due to me never having got the chance to practice during training. This test was literally the first time I had ever tried it.
I had been due to practice my reversing and coupling during a 4hr training session last Thursday, that day i ended up only getting about two hours training in, 45 mins spent sat in a retail park waiting for my instructor to sort out some business. Then when we made it to the practice area for reversing and coupling work… I got three reverses in(after which we both decided i was probably good enough)when another trainee of his turned up to practice reversing and coupling as he had a test booked the next day and hadn’t practiced either yet. He wasn’t so good at the reversing so I spent a fair bit of time watching him trying to reverse, after that we both got told how to uncouple and couple the trailer but only the other guy got to actually do it. My instructor acknowledged that he owed me 2 hours more instruction and that i would get a chance to do the uncoupling before my test.
Fast forward to today and we meet for what i believed was a 2 hour session before test. After 50 minutes of road driving, he directs me back to the test centre. Turns out i had the test an hour earlier than i expected, 5 minutes before he asks me if i’m ok with the coupling. Stupidly i said yes, I thought i’d watched it enough times on youtube and although I wasn’t happy about not having done it before, i genuinely didn’t think i wouldn’t be able to do it and I was more concerned with getting a good road drive done. And what could i do about it 5 minutes before the test anyway.
Well,as soon as it came to that part of the test i had a complete brain freeze. I somehow managed to do it all, except remember to raise the legs after coupling back up… Well lets just say i was pretty ■■■■■■ off, both with myself and my instructor. His excuse was that he had been training a lot of people that week and thought he had done it with me with another group of lads. I realise that i shouldn’t have assumed he would or could track my training and i should have clarified with him, before the day of the test about what exactly we needed to work on. I assumed he was aware… Anyway i feel like a complete prat and no doubt he does too… You live and learn hey…
Just a regular training school. It’s a one man outfit. He’s a decent guy but he has let us both down a bit. And i should have made sure of clarification my end. Who knows, if i had not forgot the trailer legs then this wouldn’t have mattered. I know we all make mistakes and he has said he won’t charge me full price for the retest. But i do feel it’s a little unprofessional. Edit. He has just offered me a free retest, so i won’t name and shame. Obviously there is a lesson for everyone here.
I had the 4 days class 1 training. An extra 6 hours training on top. And 4 failed tests.
Throughout this I had 2 tests cancelled because of lockdown. 4 different trainers, used 5 different vehicles, and 2 different test centres. Same training company.
I failed the 1st test on the reverse. Training was poor regarding reversing.
2nd test on recouple. Different vehicle inc trailer that was used in training and 1st test.
3rd and 4th test taken at different test centre, which didn’t help as Class2 training and class 1 training undertaken around different area and route.
This is one of the differences between an approved school and non-approved. An Approved school HAS to maintain training records so this sort of thing cant happen. This is just one of dozens of differences.
rearaxle:
Name n shame, stops someone else wasting money then.
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TN doesn’t do name and shame, so we tend to remove that kind of stuff.
The reason is that there are two sides to every story, so with us only having one side of this story… it simply wouldn’t be fair.
That’s NOT to say that we don’t believe the OP, but the best way of dealing with this is for the OP to first take it up in private with the training school in question to see what (if anything) they’re prepared to do in the circumstances.
It doesn’t sound like bridges need burning at this stage because there may be an agreeable outcome to be had.
If anybody really needs to know, then it’s probably best dealt with by PMs, or on other social media.
Update, had another test and passed with no drama. I think it was handled well enough in the end and we both probably learnt something. Not a Scania but a very slow Renault.
Mikey P:
Update, had another test and passed with no drama. I think it was handled well enough in the end and we both probably learnt something. Not a Scania but a very slow Renault.
Mikey P:
Update, had another test and passed with no drama. I think it was handled well enough in the end and we both probably learnt something. Not a Scania but a very slow Renault.
