Hi folks, thought I’d give you a quick update as I’ve not posted for a while.
I emigrated to Calgary, Canada in February of this year.
Having spoken to and met up with Big Jon, I decided to go for my Class 1.
I booked a 22 hr course, which included 20 hrs driving time, my PDIC course (professional drivers improvement course), my airbrake course and the road test. Prior to this I took my knowledge test and had a medical.
Everything went great, passed all courses and my road test with no de merits. How chuffed am I.
So im now the proud owner my Canadian Class 1 licence.
The main difference in the trucks other than the length is the crash boxes and double clutching to change gears. Practice will make perfect I guess.
Anyway that’s my story upto now.
Take care guys n gals
Well done steab, remember to post a write up with plenty of pics when you get back from your first trip. Good luck.
Well done on getting your licence.
Quick question on the Crash box.
For the test are you expected to double de-clutch or can you do clutchless gear changes or is this something that drivers do once they’ve passed thier tests.
Double declutch on the test,afterwards you can practice without the clutch.On the 18 speed Eatons it’s relatively easy to get used to,and when mastered is a lovely box to use.Currently driving 9 and 18 speed Eatons,plus the 10 speed Spicer which is a total pig ,oh well the longest trip I do is less than 3 km nowadays so wtf.
Glad to hear you went for and passed your Class 1 Steve 
Our Freightliners have a 10 speed Eaton box, which is really nice to drive, Gears change smoothly without having to use the clutch, sometimes if im getting a little tired, I will make some occasional noise when shifting gears, but im sure time will make that happen less and less.
Getting 0 demerits on your test is excellent btw I ended up with 30 on my test, mainly for gears lol
Well done chap nice one
BigJon:
Getting 0 demerits on your test is excellent btw
What is the cut off for points to pass/fail the test?
Thanks for the congrats folks. I’ve not tried the clutchless changes yet, though once i find work I’ll ask how it’s done.
The fail mark is 50 demerits. The demerits are either in units of 5 or 10 demerit points depending on the severity of the ■■■■ up.
As in the uk, if it’s a serious fault it’s an instant fail.
Also if you make a serious error on the pre trip part of the test, you won’t get out onto the road.
The road part i would say is easier than in the uk, as is the reverse, but the pretrip is definately more intense than the uk test.