i’ve spent the past 5 years driving Tesco.com vans for my sins. I’ve just left there as i’m fed up with it and working with people who’ll smash up a brand new van and say you have to it’s the job! Then moan becasue they dont have new vans
Anyway i’ve got my medical booked tomorrow for my C provisional, no reason why i wont clear that hurdle.
I’m wondering how bigger step it is from our 3.5t box vans to a 17t rigid, i mean our vans were pretty gutless so you had to work the gears quite carefully. Also we went down a lot of narrow medevil streets etc which i’m guessing is going to be relative to taking a large wagon down slightly wider streets?
reversing down narrow driveways has never been a problem for me, i’m proud to say i never lost a single tail light! unlike some of my coleages who lost one or two a week!
Welcome dennisw1. I don’t think you’ll have any major problems with the class C, I was only used to driving cars when I did my lessons yet managed to pass.
I’ve done the two mock theory tests on the DSA site and got 35 on both of them (ok a couple were just guesses!) but the multiple choice things are easy, i thought the one i did for my car license a few years ago was a joke!
I know after spending a day in the van if i get in my car to drive home i find myself sticking to 50 and swinging wide on roundabouts to stop the rear wheels catching. Perhaps not so bad but you look a touch daft doing it in a Mini! Anyone else find them selves doing this kind of thing?
dennisw1:
I know after spending a day in the van if i get in my car to drive home i find myself sticking to 50 and swinging wide on roundabouts to stop the rear wheels catching. Perhaps not so bad but you look a touch daft doing it in a Mini! Anyone else find them selves doing this kind of thing?
Yep, my 106 is about 8 metres long the way I drive it around roundabouts…
The only thing I might warn you of is the that the saying “the bigger the motor the less work you do” doesn’t often apply, “the bigger the motor the more drops they can put on you” often applies to class 2. I dunno what Tesco do in a day, but anything over 15 drops is hard work in anything in my opinion and even harder in a big rigid. But if you find a good little number you’ll be alright. It’s taken me just under a year after passing to land a nice little job, that doesn’t look like it’s gonna take the mickey outta me.
Well we could do anything up to 25 drops per 10 hour day on tesco.com and that, boxes of shopping that might weight 20kg each.
I guess it would depend what you have on, i mean if say your hauling bags of sand, then it’s unlikely that you;d have to take it off with a hand shovel? although i expect some places would expect you to!?
This is purely my opinion here but I’d try and avoid learning in a DAF, I did and on reflection I don’t think the ride or the brakes on them inspire you with much confidence from a beginners point of view. I still feel much less safe in DAF lorries than other makes, they bounce around and the brakes seem very sharp and un-progressive. I have issues with the position of the mirrors as well.
But the finer points of different makes shouldn’t be your main proirity at the moment I guess. There are things like the price and the attitude and quality of your instructor to consider as well.
Like I said and I’ll repeat, that’s purely my own opinion on DAFs as a learner vehicle there.
dennisw1:
Well we could do anything up to 25 drops per 10 hour day on tesco.com and that, boxes of shopping that might weight 20kg each.
I guess it would depend what you have on, i mean if say your hauling bags of sand, then it’s unlikely that you;d have to take it off with a hand shovel? although i expect some places would expect you to!?
You’d be suprised what some people want delivered to places that are totally unsuitable.
Especially if you get pallet multidrop…you’ll get forklift unloading on an industrial estate one drop, then the next will be handballing a pallet or two of booze into an off licence or something on a high street.
I think i’ve found a ‘school’ for want of a better word, they’re not the cheapest but they do one-to-one lessons and the guy has been really responsive and friendly to my questions, even sent me the forms i needed. which the other schools just seem like they cant be bothered.
Looks like they have a Merc (or one atleast) going by the pic on their site, of the others i tried one is miles away but sent a nice shiney brohure, the other sent me a single roughly photocopied sheet of A4, and everything was quoted ex vat I generally got the impression it was goin to cost more than it said on the sheet.
Andyroo:
You’d be suprised what some people want delivered to places that are totally unsuitable.
Especially if you get pallet multidrop…you’ll get forklift unloading on an industrial estate one drop, then the next will be handballing a pallet or two of booze into an off licence or something on a high street.
Yeah had people on .com wanting you to put the stuff in their cupbords for them!
It;s like with the .com some places you could virtully park at the door and hand it to them, others was a bit of a walk. I just looked at it that the excesive was good for me and kept grinning!
dennisw1:
Well we could do anything up to 25 drops per 10 hour day on tesco.com and that, boxes of shopping that might weight 20kg each.
I guess it would depend what you have on, i mean if say your hauling bags of sand, then it’s unlikely that you;d have to take it off with a hand shovel? although i expect some places would expect you to!?
You’d be suprised what some people want delivered to places that are totally unsuitable.
Especially if you get pallet multidrop…you’ll get forklift unloading on an industrial estate one drop, then the next will be handballing a pallet or two of booze into an off licence or something on a high street.
Agree, and sometimes that pallet or two can have a habit of turning into five or six in my experience of multi-drop
Next comes the theory & hazard perception tests! i got 35 out of 35 for the theory & 50 for the hazard perception…pass mark is 50!! So I just scraped in
I have a practice disc for the haz perception if it would be any use to you? Will post it if you need it, it’s not the official test but it gives you some idea of whats in store. PM your address if you want it.
As for the van to class c thing, I only passed my C in April so it’s still pretty fresh & from my point of view, driving vans or 7.5’s is nothing like driving a full sized class C. I collected a few kerbs when I started my lessons cos I was driving in “car” mode but it soon sinks in & you’ll find yourself doing it naturally after a while.
God only knows how artic drivers get them things round some bends/corners, makes me sweat thinking about it
it’s just something you need to get used to 
