After a lot of thought and consideration over the past few months I finally picked up the phone today and booked C+E training with Peter Smythe.
Reading what people who have trained there had written on here made choosing the school the easy part. The hard part for me was getting the justification to do it with the job situation still as it was when I was trying to get Class 2 work. The firm I work at also have artics so maybe not a totally lost cause there but i’m more concerned with getting that pass first then worrying about job options.
I’m actually raring to go, when I did Class 2 in Dunstable all those years ago I wasn’t looking forward to it one bit but this time is different I have every confidence in Peters training school to give me the best chance of passing and probably make me a better driver overall than I am now.
Thanks for the kind comments - not much to live up to then!! Seriously, I’m sure you’ll be fine. You will benefit from an hour or two on an artic once youv’e passed but you’ll find it a lot easier than you probably imagine.
Not getting ahead of myself but if you pass the test then must the licence be sent away straight away for upgrade? only I need it for a hire car i’m getting on holiday Dec 10th and i’m concerned 14 days turnaround is a bit tight- it only just occurred to me this morning.
SaintAndy:
Not getting ahead of myself but if you pass the test then must the licence be sent away straight away for upgrade? only I need it for a hire car i’m getting on holiday Dec 10th and i’m concerned 14 days turnaround is a bit tight- it only just occurred to me this morning.
On passing the test the examiner will ask you if you wish them to deal with the licence or whether you want to deal with it = your choice
If you opt to deal with it then you will have to send off your pass certificate along with both parts of the licence to DVLA and … YOU DO NOT GET THE PASS CERTIFICATE BACK … but you can scan it if you want to print off a colour copy for yourself
I personally wouldn’t risk it if you need it for something as DVLA have been a bit slow recently. It will be Sod’s law that if you send it off it won’t come back in time. I’d just do it yourself afterwards
So- three days into training now and overall feeling pretty good
Day 1
Arrived up at PSTT in good time for the afternoon start, met my instructor Nick and had a quick chat about the outline of the training. With the daylight fading and the heavens about ready to open it was straight onto the reversing exercise. I’ve never reversed anything not even a garden trailer so this was the area I thought would be the hardest to crack- i’d watched loads of examples on Youtube etc but nothing really prepares you for sitting in the cab doing it yourself. the first and second attempts were a little lairy but I did manage to put them in the box. We then tried a couple of straight line reverse exercises to get a feel for how much adjustment was needed to pivot the trailer. Another 4 or 5 goes at the reverse exercise and now things are much tidier. We now moved onto the trailer couple/uncouple, this went really well although I have to confess i’d been a bit of a swot and burned the procedures into memory from the material sent to me beforehand!
Evening was beginning to set in now so time to complete the vehicle checks and crack on out onto the road. I had told Nick that I hadn’t used the range change box in a while so erring on the side of caution he drove up to a nearby industrial estate and demonstrated the box along the way. Now it was my turn and as it turned out there was nothing to worry about I was used to the box in a few minutes all the gears slotted in nicely with no dramas and it’s actually a nice box to work with.
So onto the drive. I was well aware of the longer vehicle but despite reading from many people just how well the trailer follows I was still surprised just how well it actually does. By now it was dark but having driven commercially in the dark many times this wasn’t really a problem. We done one of the popular test routes and went back to the yard and finished for the day. Feedback from Nick was that it was a good drive. Mirrors needed working on and shoulder checks before moving off.
Day 2
An earlier start today so got up to PSTT early trying a different route to avoid Nottingham traffic. No reversing today this will be concentrated on tomorrow so a couple of trailer drops/re-couples and the show me tell me questions before checking the vehicle and getting out onto the road. Now in daylight finally getting to see the sights of Mansfield and Sutton in Ashfield. Overall quite an eventless day but on the way back from our final test route I think fatigue began to get the better of me and stalled the truck at a roundabout. The end of lesson report was hopeful though- Mirrors improving but could still be better! shoulder checks still need to be more frequent and I also seem to have gotten over my ‘keeping to the left’ phobia (courtesy of a road sign in Slough I scraped last year I always seem to drive about 3ft from the kerb). I asked the question at this point could I pass the test and was told yes but with quite a few minors. In fairness this is about where i’d hoped to be after 2 days out of 4.
Day 3
Another 1100 appointment this morning and feeling pretty good after yesterday’s lesson ready to do more of the same today. The test area is set out so it’s straight onto reversing exercises. The first attempt was about bang on and the second i’m also happy to admit to. A further 4 were attempted and now I seemed to be understeering and oversteering the trailer. On my penultimate attempt I have to take a shunt. A quick breath and one final attempt which is as good as the first ones so i’m quite happy. Although you’d like it to be perfect on test it’s nice to know how to get out of a mess if you do find yourself getting into one.
Trailer drop and re-couple, show me tell me questions vehicle check and out onto the road. Today I feel like I’ve taken mirror and shoulder check steroids, we go around one test route and i’m told it is one of the trickier ones. I have a lot of problems with parked cars- judging when it’s appropriate to signal passing them and not. Also I lose my nerve with oncoming traffic a few times (multi dropping in London instincts have to be tempered here ) but by far the worst thing to happen was at a traffic light the signal began to change to red just as I was reaching the line and I carried on around. To make matters worse though it had red light cameras on it though Nick had said he hadn’t saw it flash so i’m hoping I’ve kept my licence clean but time will only tell…
As it turned out the traffic light incident and a quick coffee seemed to snap me out of my funk and the second route went a hell of a lot better.
Areas left to improve- mirrors still (i’m beginning to wonder if the DSA ever expect you to be looking forwards) and generally trying to tie everything together.
andygt4:
Thanks for posting this. Gives me an insight what to expect when my provisional finally come back from the dvla (wish they’d get their arse in gear).
No problem always glad to help- All the best with the training and good luck with it when you do finally get around to it. In my opinion having ‘been there, done that’ the transition from a car licence to Cat C is a bigger jump than Cat C > C+E.
andygt4:
Thanks for posting this. Gives me an insight what to expect when my provisional finally come back from the dvla (wish they’d get their arse in gear).
No problem always glad to help- All the best with the training and good luck with it when you do finally get around to it. In my opinion having ‘been there, done that’ the transition from a car licence to Cat C is a bigger jump than Cat C > C+E.
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Agree there
Well test day has been and gone and the end result was a pass with 2 minor faults.
Not much to report from day 4 of training, fairly straightforward drives and manouveres. No dramas either.
The test was a fairly relaxed affair, picked up one minor for nearly pulling out in front of a car at a mini roundabout and the other for a very sharp pull up at some traffic lights (any further and i’d have been blocking a pedestrian crossing which would have been a fail). I was very pleased with two minors in the end and can’t thank Peter and his team enough for the quality of training from start to finish.
) but by far the worst thing to happen was at a traffic light the signal began to change to red just as I was reaching the line and I carried on around. To make matters worse though it had red light cameras on it though Nick had said he hadn’t saw it flash so i’m hoping I’ve kept my licence clean but time will only tell… 
