Having been involved in many types of training and testing I would definitely say the LGV test is far too easy.
I have seen many candidates who are not fit to drive a car never mind a heavy truck pass the test.
One of the problems is that a driver can be lucky and not meet any awkward hazards on his or her test.
I have had occasions where I have had an excellent driver fail and his co driver who is very poor pass.
Nerves can also come into play and have a big effect on the outcome.
If anyone has worked as an examiner they will realise how difficult it is to fail the test unless you do something dangerous or potentially dangerous.
To me the only way the test can remain the same is if remedial training is carried out by professionals at regular intervals.
Just look at the standard of driving on our roads.If it is not the test to blame what is it?
3300John:
Hiya…when drivers had a mate years ago. the lad learned the profession…i learned by going with a friend
and having a sneaky drive on unfinished motorways…now you can’t carry passengers how can kids learn
not only driving but routes. when i was only 21 i went to the London area with 18 drops with a artic from
the Stoke area. i had good training by going with other drivers before i passed my test…new laws have
killed the profession. some laws for better some laws are not so good.
John
There is no law that says you can’t carry passengers - That’s just (yet another) petty rule brought in by some of the big companies in their drive for Elf & Safety.
Lets turn this thread around… and ask the question are the examiners competent to test ppl…considering that many have never driven a HGV for a living…
I would say that commercial vehicles are now much too easy to drive (in that they don’t need a driver any more, but someone to attend the wheel for the time being), and has encouraged a sizeable minority of those not really suited to the job into the industry, the odd move to allow a pass in an automatic to qualify for a manual ticket isn’t going to help, but it will ensure more bums on seats and thats all that matters now.
Worrying trip there for the OP, i had similar many years ago, took him out for one truly frightening day refused flat to train him any more, boss got the arse with me and ‘‘trained’’ him himself, several weeks later this ‘trained’ bod stuffed the outfit fully loaded into a railway bridge…found meself asking what plank of an examiner ever passed the twerp in the first place.
Some people are not cut out for this job and never will be even if you trained them for thousands of hours, invariably (but not always) they won’t be paid much, so at least the boss has saved several hundred ££’s in wages to offset the umpteen thousands of ££s in damage thats going to happen, hard lesson for all, but the incompetent can swan off into the sunset and carry on doing exactly the same ad infinitum.
A weeks course at a driving academy doth not a lorry driver make.
Vysie, were you in the lorry that took out the traffic lights at Frilford crossroads yesterday?
If so, your driver must’ve got a sore arse, the day he passed his test… 
no matter how hard or easy the test is or whether the examiner is competent it’s how the driver perform’s on the test if he/she get’s enough ticks then its a pass, I used to pull my hair out when I was an instructor on car’s I would take driver’s that could drive perfectly and fail and some that despite being told they would never pass get the ticket I once had a go at an examiner for passing someone who in my opinion needed a lot more practice but they ticked enough boxes to pass so until compulsory training is brought in this will continue and that like our wages getting better is never going to happen as long as ive got an ole in my ■■■ 
samsgrandad:
no matter how hard or easy the test is or whether the examiner is competent it’s how the driver perform’s on the test if he/she get’s enough ticks then its a pass, I used to pull my hair out when I was an instructor on car’s I would take driver’s that could drive perfectly and fail and some that despite being told they would never pass get the ticket I once had a go at an examiner for passing someone who in my opinion needed a lot more practice but they ticked enough boxes to pass so until compulsory training is brought in this will continue and that like our wages getting better is never going to happen as long as ive got an ole in my ■■■
Glad somebody has had the same experience as me.As I said there is too much luck involved.
Swampey2418:
Lets turn this thread around… and ask the question are the examiners competent to test ppl…considering that many have never driven a HGV for a living…
Most of the ones I dealt with have driven LGVs but it is not a requirement to be an examiner.They are not the one driving the truck on test.They are there to test whether the candidate is capable of handling that vehicle and to do that they do not need to have driven them for a living.Some of the ones that have driven them for a living probably have to eradicate their bad habits before being an examiner.
trubster:
In General, No.The reverse exercise should be changed completely, I have never had to reverse blindside round “Cone B” since passing my test, I remember my first run out after my test, it took me about 10 minutes to park in a easy slot at a RDC.
You are taught to pass, not to drive.
Your last sentence is exactly correct and this is another big pitfall.In earlier years candidates were taught to drive but now with all the cost cutting standards have dropped dramatically.
Roymondo:
There is no law that says you can’t carry passengers - That’s just (yet another) petty rule brought in by some of the big companies in their drive for Elf & Safety.
which will bite them on THEIR arris’ as there’s no young blood coming through! 
albion1971:
trubster:
You are taught to pass, not to drive.
correct WE CAN ALREADY DRIVE!
Cotswoldcrunch:
Vysie, were you in the lorry that took out the traffic lights at Frilford crossroads yesterday?
If so, your driver must’ve got a sore arse, the day he passed his test…
No mate we were up north lincon way.
as for the person saying i should take some blame i frigging screaming to go wide and stop before we crash but didnt listen other than slam the breaks on what can you do?
I took over after the crash, i think if people here were involved in this same thing you would feel the same as i did when posting. I go to work to earn my money to feed and clothe my family what i dont go to work for is to worry about a new driver trying to impale me on a traffic light.
as for grammar police up there 
Thought it was common sense to use as much road available on the right ( Within reason ) when turning left, sounds as thought he had it the gutter trying to perform the manoeuvre and failed very badly… and not listening to someone that was with him…
Are we sure there wasn’t some sort of language barrier …
3300John:
…now you can’t carry passengers how can kids learn
not only driving but routes.
I think it’s easy now, there are now purpose built nav systems & there’s now talk of trucks that drive themselves so no need to know anything. Personally I think ‘kids’ should be nowhere near trucks.
Swampey2418:
Thought it was common sense to use as much road available on the right ( Within reason ) when turning left, sounds as thought he had it the gutter trying to perform the manoeuvre and failed very badly… and not listening to someone that was with him…Are we sure there wasn’t some sort of language barrier …
When turning right a driver should(within reason and normal conditions) should position his vehicle early and on approach to the turn.The position obviously depends on the width of the road they are on and the width of the road they are turning into.
Ideally in most cases the vehicle should be positioned somewhere near the centre line of the road they are approaching.
Once the road they are turning into is clear they can then the opposite side of that road to manouvre.
If there are any vehicles in the road they are turning into they should wait in a straight line on the approach road till the road they are turning into is clear.
Now who does it different?
The test is fine apart from the reversing exercise which is a joke. The exercise should be to reverse into a parking bay from any given direction of approach the examiner chooses, so you have to demonstrate you can figure out how to set yourself up rather than just following a method your trainer caught you. At least that way, trainers might actually have to spend a bit more time actually teaching you reversing.
rob the reversing exercise is the same standard as the rest of the test…BASIC.
Have you ever tried teaching a complete novice how to reverse?
I dont understand why new drivers are just given the keys and told to get on with it.They should be put out with an experienced driver and shown how to do things in the commercial world.I recently went out with a new start and told him twice to slow down or I would take it from him,which I did after about 2 hours and a few parts falling off.
albion1971:
rob the reversing exercise is the same standard as the rest of the test…BASIC.Have you ever tried teaching a complete novice how to reverse?
In fairness albion I haven’t, but I think the fundamental problem with the reversing exercise is that it’s exactly the same for every candidate. This means that driving schools can replicate the course and attach stickers etc. onto their training vehicles as markers and basically teach drivers a method for completing one manoeuvre. I was taught to put on full right hand lock until the red sticker on the headboard appears, then put left hand lock on until you can see the letter H on the trailer etc… That isn’t teaching somebody how to reverse.
So far as the on road test goes, I think it’s good enough. Yes, one candidate might get lucky with the traffic conditions but theres no much you can do about that - an hour is long enough. The only way of making it harder would be to make it longer & given the demand for tests that’s simply not feasible. At the end of the day there is nothing to stop somebody driving impeccably on test & then being a different animal once they’re on their own. A lot of drivers know how they should be driving but choose not to.
rob22888:
albion1971:
rob the reversing exercise is the same standard as the rest of the test…BASIC.Have you ever tried teaching a complete novice how to reverse?
In fairness albion I haven’t, but I think the fundamental problem with the reversing exercise is that it’s exactly the same for every candidate. This means that driving schools can replicate the course and attach stickers etc. onto their training vehicles as markers and basically teach drivers a method for completing one manoeuvre. I was taught to put on full right hand lock until the red sticker on the headboard appears, then put left hand lock on until you can see the letter H on the trailer etc… That isn’t teaching somebody how to reverse.
So far as the on road test goes, I think it’s good enough. Yes, one candidate might get lucky with the traffic conditions but theres no much you can do about that - an hour is long enough. The only way of making it harder would be to make it longer & given the demand for tests that’s simply not feasible. At the end of the day there is nothing to stop somebody driving impeccably on test & then being a different animal once they’re on their own. A lot of drivers know how they should be driving but choose not to.
Thanks for your opinion rob.I agree totally with what you say about the reversing to a certain extent.Any decent instructor will not use aids etc to teach a candidate to reverse.Of course as you know it gets them through the test but then they do not have a clue afterwards.When I was training I did not only do the test manouvre.I gave them the chance to do real life manouvres also if the time was available.
The problem is when you have 2 drivers that are not grasping anything the 5 days training (as it was then) went very quickly.
You can only allocate so much time to reversing as there is plenty to do out on the road to get them to test standard.
Regarding the actual test I do think it is too easy.It is the same as the car test hence the poor standards on our roads.
As I said before if the test is to stay the same then there needs to be some sort of remedial training every so often so stop drivers slipping into bad habits.Of course there are some that will just do what they want anyway!
The big problem is cost and time and nobody wants to spend money or waste time training drivers.It does not seem important to some how many people are killed on our roads every year through bad driving.
I just think there should be more done about it.