I got to the yard today (2 weeks later) at 7am to get in some practice before my test at 11:55, only to be told that we couldn’t go out as the truck needed 4 new tires before it could hit the road!!! Despite the mechanic apparently deciding that on Saturday, he did nothing about it. So during our practice time, we had to wait until a bloke came out and replaced them. We left the yard at 10am, so from there it was basically just a drive to the test centre.
Ok I passed so in the end no harm done for me, but I hope the other student (who has his test tomorrow) asks for some money back. It is he retest tomorrow after failing before so he had paid for an extra day of tuition, which turned out to be little more than a drive from the test centre back to the yard!
Anyway I can’t fault my instructor, but for sure the company I went with needs to improve their working practices!
Whilst I understand that your happy Its done I would be making a call tomorrow about a reduction of fee based on whats happened. 1 mistake can happen but 2 is ridiculous.
If they fob you off send a letter (recorded) and see what they say from there. Did you pay on a card? Worth giving them a call as well if so
Thanks and yeah I know what you’re saying, it’s just the first time around the cut in the tire looked to of happened that day as it was so clean and had gone unnoticed (it wasn’t small!), plus extremely deep and we had not hit anything, we assume it was a tire defect.
Today was ridiculous, but I guess at the end of the day I missed out on maybe 30-45 mins driving, as the other guy didn’t have a drive before my test.
I am already paid up for C+E with them, which I don’t regret as I liked my instructor and the others I met, but when I speak to them to book it I will indeed be bringing this situation up.
Yours is a classic case of a sound instructor working for a shambles by the sound of it. It’s all very well the mechanic deciding it needed new tyres - don’t the instructors carry out walk round checks? It’s not rocket science.
They should be relieved you have a sense of humour - cos I wouldn’t have.
All the best with your CE - and check the tyres before you go anywhere!
No way on this planet did the truck get 4 defective tyres in one hit, the firm is a shambles and should be named and shamed!
Glad that the instructor was good, so no comment on them…
Oh and by the way, CONGRATS PAL!
Although you’re not in the elite club of zero failures, so go and stand next to the Beaver…
Lol no plans for Advanced LGV for a while that’s for sure. To be honest I only found out a couple of days ago it even existed, it had never crossed my mind before.
Not all four tires were defective. Basically one of the inside tires was worn to the point of a bit of wire was showing. The mechanic or whoever gives the instruction to get tires changed said that all four on the rear axle must be changed at the same time otherwise if the circumference of them all do not match precisely the ABS will not function correctly. We may be wrong, but to me and the instructor this sounded like utter nonsense, unfortunately though he doesn’t have the authority to counter the instruction, plus it’s not his money and the truck he drives gets four nice new tires. One of the ones taken off appeared almost new anyway, so clearly they don’t have all four changed at the same times anyway.
Seems like it all came down to one idiot.
The company is Surrey & Hampshire HGV. All that aside I did enjoy my lessons, I liked their instructors, how the days were structured, etc. Obviously I am biased as I passed first time around, but despite all that happened I am happy to continue and do my C+E with them, as surely nothing else can go wrong…
