Some training companies won’t let you go class 1 straight away?
There’s a big backlog with other companies and to get on a test can take up to 6 months maybe more?
There are various reasons why some training companies want you to do class 2 first. Sometimes this could be that the fleet balance hasn’t changed to reflect the changes over the last few months. So they haven’t got enough artics and have rigids stood about. There are some instructors who are deeply perturbed at the prospect of taking a car driver out in an artic. Training for these instructors can be thin on the ground. Then there are some trainers who genuinely believe that class 2 before class 1 is the correct way.
I respect all these stances.
For me, I started training on trucks in 1974. Until 1997 it was commonplace to train on artics straight away. And some of these candidates hadn’t even got a car licence! But no problem - given correct instruction. Then the nice people in Brussels decided that it would make sense for people to learn to drive a rigid first. Unfortunately, they forgot to back this up with a minimum driving requirement before taking class 1. So it was a pointless exercise apart from it raising lots of cash in driving tests. So what has changed? The DVSA simply couldn’t provide enough tests to keep the system the same. So the actions they took were scrubbing the need for class 2 before class 1. Also abandoning the need for a trailer test for a car. Then allowing trainers to conduct the off road section of the driving test. Now anyone would have thought that this would have solved the problem. In some cases, yes. In some, definitely not.
And this is why there is a backlog with many trainers. Some haven’t got the fleet to cope. Some haven’t got the trainers. Few have the tests they need.
At PSTT, the new owner has tried to mitigate this by purchasing more training centres around the UK. But the lack of tests still haunts most of us.
Pete S 