Harry Monk:
Yes, but the case scenario gives the distance from Bristol to Inverness as 920km, and states that STGO movements travel at 40km/h on all roads, which would give a total driving time of 23 hours, so it could not be done in one shift by a double manned crew.
Good man Harry, that is what they are looking for, that you have read the scenario correctly!
If I am correct, there is very little actual working out to be done, the answers are there in the text
Thank you for your help.
One thing to remember is : if your doing any mathematical workings show them !! Because if the answer is wrong and you only put a figure in then you will get no points, but if you show your workings and they can see that you method was right but your end figure is wrong down to a bad working earlier you will get points.
The OCR site also used to have a section where the examiners showed how and where students had gone wrong by not reading the question properly and writing what it asked for, if it says “list” then just list, “explain” requires an explanation.
If anyone who has read the dec 2011 scenario, please let me know of any other questions you feel may be asked. Any tips I am grateful for.
Thanks
Liza
I reckon they will ask about legal issues that need to be addressed, and OCR has an amber rating on VOSA’s Operator Compliance Risk Score, so they will ask how you would propose to get that up to a green rating, and they will also want to know what you are proposing to do about Deuce Pallet Deliveries convictions for overloading and insecure loads.
There will be questions about the business with ZZK Containers, but as there are no issues with this customer, I imagine these will be based on costing work.
There will be questions about the proposed new business with Dietfest Frozen Foods and Armageddon Chemicals.
Just my guesswork though…
Harry Monk:
I reckon they will ask about legal issues that need to be addressed, and OCR has an amber rating on VOSA’s Operator Compliance Risk Score, so they will ask how you would propose to get that up to a green rating, and they will also want to know what you are proposing to do about Deuce Pallet Deliveries convictions for overloading and insecure loads.There will be questions about the business with ZZK Containers, but as there are no issues with this customer, I imagine these will be based on costing work.
There will be questions about the proposed new business with Dietfest Frozen Foods and Armageddon Chemicals.
Just my guesswork though…
The only calculation I can see so far is the available margins for both companies to increase the fleet without a major variation on the O licence.
OCR
Allowed 50 70
Actual 38 58
Margins 12 12
Deuce
Allowed 40 60
Actual 32 45
Margins 8 15
Harry the PDF and Novadata are funding a sick driver through a course this week with the exam in early December.
If you’d like to contact him by email ( available under his posts on our website (neatly done, not mentioned it at all!)
I’m sure he’d be happy to tell you more I will be down there tomorrow and will know more then.
All he’s posted to date is that ‘his head hurts’ 
Pat
Thanks Pat, I’ll have a look at that. I’m sure my head is going to hurt too… 
PM me if there is anything specific you want me to ask for you Harry, I won’t be back till Sunday and may (or may not) have a dongle working, but I will get back to you with some answers 
Pat
The sample multiple choice tests on the OCR website are really useful to give yourself an idea of where you are knowledge wise before the training course, i did them after a few weeks of using the home study kit and found i was doing ok. The sample case study gives the format of the expected answers as well.
Harry, only one BIG tip, don’t answer as you do it but answer as written in the books.
Many people fail for the reason, “we do it already years like that, the book is BS”
the people who check your answers haven’t been a truck driver, operator or mostimes had anything to do with transport.
They only can go as the book describes it.
Put your experience for once beside you, and be theoretical instead.
Many of the people who check the exams, are teachers, office people, higher students who can make a few extra bob with that kind of work, the OCR has regular adverts where they ask people to apply for such a job.
Also very important in the case studies to show your calculations, the end figure is not the most important as long as the way you calculate is correct, make plenty of notes how your calculations are build up so they can see that you understand where you talk about, and not just put a figure down.
Good luck anyway.
Many thanks for that (and for all of the other advice given).
Yes, I do think it will be like being back at school, where it was drummed into us that we had to show our methodology, and that even if we got the answer wrong we would get points for showing how we had arrived at the conclusion…
I’m quite looking forward to it, rather bizarrely the course is taking place in a Garden Centre so being surrounded by plant life, I should be on an equal footing!
Harry Monk:
Yes, but the case scenario gives the distance from Bristol to Inverness as 920km, and states that STGO movements travel at 40km/h on all roads, which would give a total driving time of 23 hours, so it could not be done in one shift by a double manned crew.
But vehicles travelling at 40km/h are exempted for the working time directive and driver hours rules "Exemptions and derogations from the EU rules: Vehicles which cannot exceed 40km/h ", “If driving a vehicle which is exempt from the EU rules, the operation will come under UK domestic rules while engaged in domestic journeys.” (Road Legal section of this site). There is a question of interpretation as to whether the vehicle in the question “cannot exceed 40km/h” and is thus outside EU legislation or whether it is merely restricted to 40km/h for the purposes of the journey and thus remains covered by the EU rules.
Uk domestic rules state - “10 hours is the maximum daily driving time, on and off public roads. The rule applies from 24 hours from the time the driving began. If a driver does not drive more than 4 hours per day each day of the week, he/she is exempt from the daily limit.
A driver must not be on duty for more that 11 hours on any working day. A driver is exempt from the daily duty limit on any working day when they do not drive.”
Uk domestic rules do not allow double manning
bfcmik:
But vehicles travelling at 40km/h are exempted for the working time directive and driver hours rules "Exemptions and derogations from the EU rules: Vehicles which cannot exceed 40km/h ", “If driving a vehicle which is exempt from the EU rules, the operation will come under UK domestic rules while engaged in domestic journeys.” (Road Legal section of this site). There is a question of interpretation as to whether the vehicle in the question “cannot exceed 40km/h” and is thus outside EU legislation or whether it is merely restricted to 40km/h for the purposes of the journey and thus remains covered by the EU rules.
I could be wrong but I would interpret that as meaning “vehicles that are incapable of exceeding 40kph” and not “vehicles whose speed is limited by the law to 40kph” and so EU regs would apply as normal.
Paul
Hi all, new here but finding these discussions very usefull.
I’m also doing the December exam so all help greatly appreciated.
Paul
Sunnydevon:
Hi all, new here but finding these discussions very usefull.I’m also doing the December exam so all help greatly appreciated.
Paul
Hi Paul
Welcome to TruckNet UK
You probably will have noticed the sticky at the top of this forum with lots of useful stuff in
If you have any questions just ask , someone will know the answer
I did National in March and International in September this year and the best piece of advice I can give is don’t waste your time trying to guess what the scenario questions are going to be!
Mods 1 + 2 quite easy (especially 2 if you have been a driver)
International was unbelievably easy, maybe due to the new rules coming in next year? I was bricking it looking at previous papers and couldn’t believe it when I sat down and saw the paper.
£1300 seems a lot, mine combined were £600
Denis F:
Sunnydevon:
Hi all, new here but finding these discussions very usefull.I’m also doing the December exam so all help greatly appreciated.
Paul
Hi Paul
Welcome to TruckNet UK
You probably will have noticed the sticky at the top of this forum with lots of useful stuff in
If you have any questions just ask , someone will know the answer
Yes had a good look at all that, very helpful.
I am finding the financial stuff challenging as I have never had to be involved in that at work ( and prob never will) but I’ll keep plugging away at it lol.
I have looked at the case study and it seems like a tough one compared to previous ones on the OCR website, or is that just me starting to panic!! 
Out of interest, I was looking through past examiners’ reports, very useful in seeing where candidates have gone wrong.
I came across this…
Question number: 2
A French customer has asked UK based operator for a price per kilometre to pull the customer’s
trailers 80,000 kilometres per annum. The operator has calculated that his costs for this contract
would be £40,000 per annum plus running costs of 50 pence per kilometre and required a profit
mark-up of 15%. What price per kilometre should the operator quote in Euros using an exchange
rate of £1.00 = €1.1.
Assessment objective reference: 7A number of candidates, in attempting to calculate the standing costs, divided 80,000
kilometres by £40,000 causing the rest of the calculation to be incorrect.
I would have made the same mistake here. Why would it be wrong to divide the distance covered by the annual standing cost in order to find out the standing cost per kilometre before adding running costs and profit?
Harry Monk:
Out of interest, I was looking through past examiners’ reports, very useful in seeing where candidates have gone wrong.I came across this…
Question number: 2
A French customer has asked UK based operator for a price per kilometre to pull the customer’s
trailers 80,000 kilometres per annum. The operator has calculated that his costs for this contract
would be £40,000 per annum plus running costs of 50 pence per kilometre and required a profit
mark-up of 15%. What price per kilometre should the operator quote in Euros using an exchange
rate of £1.00 = €1.1.
Assessment objective reference: 7A number of candidates, in attempting to calculate the standing costs, divided 80,000
kilometres by £40,000 causing the rest of the calculation to be incorrect.I would have made the same mistake here. Why would it be wrong to divide the distance covered by the annual standing cost in order to find out the standing cost per kilometre before adding running costs and profit?
I’m not sure what the reason is but it makes a big difference, I’m hoping the answer is 1.27 Euro per km?
If not I’m going back to the corner of the room 
I’m sure someone will be along soon to help.
Paul