Hi to you all.
I would like to introduce myself to what seems like a very approachable community.
I am 27 and live in North Cornwall and have done since I was 11. Born in Portsmouth.
I have lived the Cornish lifestyle for as long as I can remember and wouldn’t live anywhere else although I did live in Worcester for a number of years while I “Studied” lol, for a degree I never completed. Lovely part of the world I love the outdoors and the midlands has plenty of it.
I finally passed my Cat B license in August last year, it took me a while because I’ve lived the Cornish motto. “I will do it Dreckly”. I never passed my test before this as I never got round to doing it. Busy surfing, fishing, hiking, gardening.
It took my mother in law to pay for my test for me to actually do it.
I have lived with my In Laws on thier family farm for 6 years. I have driven tractors, quad bikes, landrovers and trailers and kind of describe that I drive pretty much everything to an expert level when im going backwards. My Father In Law drives to the destination and I do all the reversing.
I love the lifestyle and am quite happy with the hard work. This would seem like the perfect career if it was my own family. My partner on the other hand wants little or nothing to do with the farm. Accept maybe when their are cute little lambs running around and then she loves it.
So I have considered trucking as a potential career for many years but I have never got round to actually applying myself to following a career. It was always something I would do “Dreckly”.
Well 2 and a bit years to go and i will be 30. I don’t want to reach 30 and not taken a career path.
I have always watched the trucking TV shows in envy. Ice road truckers, Stobarts, Lady Truckers, to name a few. I know they glam the career up from reality but I can think of nothing better than travelling around the country or the world in my own company, listening to my own choice of music at a temperature of my choosing. I love driving. When I passed my driving license the one of the first things I did was drive up to the Lake District for a week. My partner used to drive me everywhere and has done for the 8 years we have been together. I now drive her everywhere.
It might sound strange to some people but I love stopping in Motorway service stations, Everyone is different in some way or another.
We do a fair bit of travelling, when i’m not helping on the farm or working we go to as many different places as we can. National Parks and National Trust properties. Seeing our friends from University and anywhere else we can think off.
So after 10 years of working in a number of shops and customer service positions as I have no skills or qualifications to do much else, it is definitely time to start a career and one I enjoy. Working for minimum wage serviving ungreatful customers for supervisors who feel the need to make their staff miserable because they too are miserable.
I have got what I think is enough money in my account to get my Cat C license and CPC training. My Medical is booked for next week and that will be the decider of if I can or I cant become a trucker.
I am in talks with SRTS in Exeter to do the training and when I have passed my medical and my provisional has arrived I will do my theory which I am already studying for in every free moment I have.
So thats me and my plans.
I have some questions that I was hoping the lovely community here might be able to help my with.
I have searched the forum and read so many of the posts, but a certain subject confuses me every time.
It has definately been explained and talked about in so many posts but I still need someone to clarify it for me.
I understand Peter Smythe and the other training organisations on here are very helpful and I would consider you all for my training but your all a bit far from home for me.
Any way my questions.
The biggest one confusing me is the CPC training.
Most of the discussions talk about it with both people with grand father rights and none. This is probably why I need to confirming to me.
Once I have passed my Cat C License I need to get my CPC. Including 35 hours of training.
I having passed my cat B license last year will need to complete module 2 and 4 as well as the 35 hours.
I thought these were part of the Cat C license. I do module 1 and 2, Theory, Hazard Perception which are Mod 1 and then I thought Mod 2 was the case study. Then module 3 and 4 were the practicals. I thought I would have to do these to get my Cat C license and then I could do the 35 hours.
But some conversations make me think that I do the Cat C then I have to do Mod 2 and 4 again before I could do the 35 hours.
Im so confused by this can anyone help.
Next question, I saw on one conversation on here that I could do the ADR license and this would count as 28 hours of the 35 CPC. Is this true?
Next question, regarding the training for Cat C, in a 5 day intensive course, how many hours per day should I expect to actually practice driving? How many practice hours is the average for most people to pass their Cat C.
One more question that im pretty sure I know the answer but just want to make sure. Once I have a Cat C license will I also qualify to drive a B+E.
Thanks in advance to all of you who have read this essay, and to any of you who can help my with my current and future newbee questions.
Regards
The Cornish Geek
