I had my assessment drive today with Paul Tunstall ( of Lindley Green Lgv Training, Wigan, ).
Met up with Paul at his premises at 12 oclock and had a brief chat and he showed me over the controls.
The truck is an Iveco Tector with a slapover gearbox which i found a bit daunting at first.
Paul drove the truck to a business park which was about 10 minutes from his yard and on the way he was explaining positioning of the truck when driving and showing me how to master the gearbox, with me watching carefully!!
Once we were in the business park it was my turn to drive, i have driven 7.5 tonners before but not for about 5 years or so, so airbrakes weren’t an issue ( never catapulted Paul out of his seat once 
).
Had a few laps of the estate going through the gears and around a few roundabouts, going over the positioning and crunching the gears a few times, pulling up near the kerb etc, Paul had previously shown me that if i can line up the indicator light on the wheel arch ( when looking at it through the mirror above the passenger door window ) with the kerb then that is fine ( approx5" from kerb ), i tried it and it was spot on!!!
Next it was my turn to take it out onto the main roads 
, and we were going to go back the way that Paul had driven us, don’t think that i drove too bad, Paul has a calm and assuring manner although he did have to keep reminding me to check my nearside mirror a few times 
Got back to the yard unscathed ( pretty sure i didn’t even hit any kerbs 
), apart from the occassional crunching of the gears (sorry Paul! ) i felt like i hadn’t done too bad .
Enjoyed the experience and it has prepared me for my lessons which start on April 11th and my test is booked for the 15th
