Today on my lesson I broke the fuel pumps on the west bound Reading services on the M4… 
We needed to fuel the truck which the instructor got me to do, but in the process of getting on the pumps, he got me to move from behind an artic to a pump that was free.
So reveresed out, back onto the pump, not helped by the awkward angle caused by a Transit driver anyway, the truck stopped dead, anyway once we’d untangled the truck from the pumps we found it had ripped off the metal holder holding the nozzle on!!!
Cue filling up rather quickly and going!!! 
You didn’t report it? 
Rob K:
You didn’t report it?
No the instructor said to keep it quiet…
Anyway, these pumps were OOU anyway…
Oh and today was one of those days - started off good, then it all went to pot by not being able to avoid the kerb at junctions/roundabouts, unable to go round a certain roundabout in Reading properly… 
Then not to mention the fuel pumps…
I once filled up at the TOTAL on the old F/Lux border at Midnight. filled up,paid & left. Going thru the city was stopped by this mad garage bloke in his car. Sort of cameras ,action. He said I had broken his pump & had to return to sort it out. Went back ,re-docked the pistol & it worked. Lost an hour over that. Never filled up there again. The instructor was right not reporting, they make enough out of truckers.
DAF95XF:
Today on my lesson I broke the fuel pumps on the west bound Reading services on the M4…
We needed to fuel the truck which the instructor got me to do, but in the process of getting on the pumps, he got me to move from behind an artic to a pump that was free.
So reveresed out, back onto the pump, not helped by the awkward angle caused by a Transit driver anyway, the truck stopped dead, anyway once we’d untangled the truck from the pumps we found it had ripped off the metal holder holding the nozzle on!!!
Cue filling up rather quickly and going!!!
No matter, you’re probably on camera anyway. 
DAF95XF:
Oh and today was one of those days - started off good, then it all went to pot by not being able to avoid the kerb at junctions/roundabouts, unable to go round a certain roundabout in Reading properly…
Then not to mention the fuel pumps…
… errrrrr, what’s the intructor doing whilst all this is occuring?
Hmm, my theory test isn’t even till Monday, so I’m not exactly qualified to comment on anything
But frankly I think the instructor is being a bit irresponsible letting a learner put the truck on the pumps at all considering what could go wrong
Is this a one off, or is it normal practice with other instructors too?
aimee:
Hmm, my theory test isn’t even till Monday, so I’m not exactly qualified to comment on anythingBut frankly I think the instructor is being a bit irresponsible letting a learner put the truck on the pumps at all considering what could go wrong
True, but when you consider what else could go wrong…
One of the test routes around Exeter takes you across an active railway level crossing which is on the uphill approach to a roundabout. Should they avoid taking you over the level crossing in case you stall out over the crossing and get hit by a train? Another route takes you past a school, and a number of times we went past during chucking out time; should we have avoided the school in case I ran off the road into a bunch of schoolchildren?
You could also have caused an accident with a petrol tanker; should you avoid driving on any roads at all, just in case?
We certainly stopped to fill up on both my C and C+E courses; in the second case, I put it on the pumps. IMHO, it’s up to the instructor. If they see that you’re obviously incompetent, then no, they shouldn’t be getting you to drive onto the pumps. Of course, there is the faint possibility that you really are incompentent, but your instructor is so useless that he/she hasn’t spotted it, but that’s unlikely.
Just take it as a compliment that he/she trusts you enough…
And not forgetting that the truck pumps are usually a reasonable distance from the car pumps, that they only pump diesel, and that diesel is much less flammable/explosive than petrol. If you crashed into a pump, you’d have a big mess, but you’d be rather unlucky to have a fire as well.
Yeah, I realise that, you can’t wrap people in cotton wool and avoid all risks, it’s all part of learning, but just seemed a bit iffy in passing sort of thing shrug and I was trying to prompt debate
One of the DSA books says something like “There is no such thing as an acceptable risk”, but if that was true you’d never get out of bed in the morning, let alone behind the wheel To my mind it’s more about being aware of the risks and managing them appropriately rather than eliminating them completely.
MrFlibble:
… and that diesel is much less flammable/explosive than petrol. If you crashed into a pump, you’d have a big mess, but you’d be rather unlucky to have a fire as well.
Had a nice illustration of that once, someone tried petrol bombing the school I used to go to, but they failed because they made their “petrol bombs” with diesel instead of petrol 
aimee:
One of the DSA books says something like “There is no such thing as an acceptable risk”, but if that was true you’d never get out of bed in the morning, let alone behind the wheel
The normal line from HSE (and the one written into the legislation) is to take “all reasonable and practicable steps to reduce risk”. It is simply a case of making a judgement on what is “reasonable and practicable”.
We could put speed limiters in every vehicle on the roads limiting them to a maximum of 5 mph, and that should dramatically reduce the number of accidents; however, one has to question whether those steps are “reasonable”…
aimee:
Had a nice illustration of that once, someone tried petrol bombing the school I used to go to, but they failed because they made their “petrol bombs” with diesel instead of petrol
ROFL!
One of the few situations where we should be glad that some children don’t get a very good science education…