Pete S:
There’s more than one way to skin a rabbit, they say. But my first lesson looks like:Personal introduction. Do you smoke? Do you know where the toilets are in the training centre?
Vehicle familiarisation. Walk round, explain what stuff is and what it does and why.
Vehicle controls. Inside the truck, every knob, switch and button explained.
Mirrors. Why are they there? Why 7 of them? Blind spot checks. When to check mirrors as a minimum.
Q + A on above.From there, I drive for around 20/25 minutes with a full commentary, explaining what I’m doing - and why. Towards the end of the short drive, I’ll ask the candidate for advice on where to position, when to start braking, what to look for etc etc.
Then we swap seats, making sure the driver is comfortable and has good view of mirrors and instrumentation. Point out the lack of dual controls and making the point that, as long as you do as you’re told, we’ll be the best of mates!
Repeat explanation for move off procedure (already covered once during the demo drive).
Q+A on above.
Move off, driving around a quiet industrial estate. Left turns, right turns, quiet roundabouts. Stop, start.
This will continue until I feel the person is sufficiently competent to go on the open road. And then I ask them if they feel comfy to do so. Most do, some prefer to spend a few more minutes on the industrial estate.Then it’ll be onto the major road - national speed limit - but, very importantly, plenty of overtake opportunities for other road users, loads of width for us so we can enjoy doing more than 25 mph! Some folk will achieve 50 mph, others less. It doesn’t matter.
From there, a choice of routes depending on competence demonstrated thus far. Could be more wide main roads, might well be slightly narrower.
Eventually, we’ll be able to drive around town and the route will be sensibly challenging. Enough to be interesting but well within the ability of the candidate.
The whole essence of lesson one is to concentrate on groundwork. Without that being in place, everything else will simply fall apart.
Hope this helps, Pete S
I have to say this method of training/initiation into driving a truck seems spot on.