Thank you for the informative forum, I’ve undoubtedly got a lot to learn and would welcome feedback.
Apolgies if I don’t reply quickly.
So far I have a pre 1997 car licence with very little experience of vehicles of 7.5t and zero experience of the vehicles above. (except the occasional epsiode of B.J. and the Bear.)
Booked my £60 medical for Friday, will post an update of name and location following the medical. (my GP wanted £120)
My plan to do a CPC course pre Christmas, then gain pratical experience of 7.5t via agency work.
Theory and perception awareness test again pre Christmas/New Year.
I have finally reduced the the Cat C training providers down to:-
If Swansea is not to far out or Carew in Pembrokeshire if you’re further West then this lot seem ok (I’m doing my DCPC Periodic with them atm) cotsolutions.co.uk/
I did my C+E with a small two man outfit called Welcome School of Motoring in Merthyr Tydfil in 2006 so I couldn’t comment on any of the ones you linked
I did my cat c and cat c+e training with big wheelers Cardiff and highly recommend them! The guy I had was very helpful and friendly and even though I was anxious at times he was very understanding. I don’t think they are the cheapest provider but I think you could do far worse. Good luck.
Best way to choose, go to all of them for a driving assessment, if they don’t do a driving assessment knock them off your list, any good company will want to get you the right length of course not just take your money over the phone. Then just simply choose the one you like best, if you really like the instructor then insist he teaches you not a colleague, again if they can’t offer that then walk, same applies to what truck you want to learn in. Because remember - your the customer, you choose.
Also if you want to ensure you pass on the first attempt go with a company like us that only use automatics, you still get a full licence! and once you have passed you can have a go in our manual truck 12 speed, that is in the yard pensioned off, 2006 Volvo Globetrotter XL.
I’m sure in South Wales you won’t go far wrong with COTS - Jason runs a very professional operation with testing on site- have a couple of assessments and don’t be rushed into making a decision, some trainers will promise the earth.
I would say do artic as you’ll most likely get those in the field. That being said, give W+D a go if you want. It presents a different set of challenges.
IMO there’s no right and wrong. A major employer near me has to spend time training artic drivers to use drawbar. And, of course, the other way around.
There are more artics on the road, but it’s certainly not exclusive.
As far as test goes, there is no doubt it’s a bit easier on drawbar.
Consider training/test on drawbar then conversion course (no test) to artic. That’s the best of both worlds.
