Hi everyone, I’ve told some of this story in another thread and I know ROG has posted a short version for all to see, but I’d thought I’d share the full experience for the benefit of any other newbies out there. So here I go…
I’m a nationwide garden decking fitter (self employed) and spend alot of time driving up and down the country with my car and trailer. As another vehicle that’s limited to 60 and banned from the fast lane on motorways I started to feel a connection with all the truckers and so when I wanted to learn something new to fill up those empty weeks in my diary driving was my first port of call. I’ve very little experience driving anything bigger than a transit so knew this would be a challange. I heard that Stockport LGV had a good reputation locally so thought I’d try them.
Stockport LGV do a special deal for new starters that includes:
-medical
-provisional licence
-theory test
-DSA theory test book
-hazard perception test (what a waste of time and money that is)
-2 hour assessment
all for £130 which I thought was quite good value. They even fill in the forms for you and you just sign where they tell you to. The theory and hazard is booked for you and once you’ve got your provisional back from the DVLA you’re off on the 2 hour assessment.
So my first time in a truck…
I had my assessment (let’s call the instructor ‘Mr R’) and was shocked at how unprofessional he was. He seemed to be a good driver but made some very inappropriate comments and his coaching skills involved insulting me and generally swearing alot. There were also several phone calls made and received. This didn’t give me a very good impression of the company but I figured I just got him on a bad day. The drive went well, I sort of got the hang of the vehicle (Volvo) and finished with the news I’d need 18 hours tuition including test.
The week after I went to do my Theory and Hazard perception. My advice for the theory test is get the DSA book of questions and read it cover to cover at least twice. Mark any questions you don’t get right and do these again. With a bit of revision the theory shouldn’t be a problem for anyone (even my wife knew most the answers 
). The hazard perception is a different thing altogether. It would easily be possible for someone with 20 years driving experience, who’s never had an accident to fail this. It’s more like a computer game than real life. Make sure you get hold of a practice DVD (my library had one) and run through it a few times. The key seems to be to click the mouse whenever anything happens no matter how trivial. On some of the clips I must have clicked about 20 times or more, but be warned if you go too OTT the computer will fail you.
I passed my theory 99/100 and the hazard 87/100 so got straight on the phone and booked the training. Even after the bad experince on the assessment I’d decided to stick with Stockport LGV. But I was thinking if I’m feeling the same a few hours into the training I’ll just go straight back to the office and demand a new instructor or a refund. My advice is if you are out with ANY company and the instructor does anything inapproriate that affects the quality of your training get them to take you straight back to the office, complain and get a new instructor or a refund. Stopping your training because of an incident will also give you a much better case if you end up going to trading standards. If you carry on and then fail your test, it could be seen as sour grapes.
Fortunately I arrived on the first day to find Mr R was on holiday and I was with an instructor called Karl. I started on Wednesday with 4 hours in the afternoon. This first session gave me chance to get used to the vehicle(Scania). The hardest bit for me was the gears and I’d spend so much time thinking about them I’d be going to fast into corners, forgetting my mirrors and general being crap. At the end of day 1 I still had a mountain the climb before I’d be ready for my test on Friday. Day 2, Thursday with a full 8 hours driving. I’d got a better feel for the gearbox but was still trying to do everything at the same time. On many occasions I’d find myself halfway round a corner, going far too fast, in the wrong gear and bouncing over the curb. This is where Karl really began to “get into my head”. He’s got some great little analagies that helped me loads. Here’s my 2 favorites:
- You arive home and walk up to your front door. First you need to take your key out your pocket, then put it in the hole, then turn it the right way, then push the handle down and open the door. My driving was more like walking upto the door and beating the crap out of it until it opened
- You’ve got 3 footbals to catch. Given the choice would you want them thrown to you all at the same time, or one after the other? Obvious isn’t it!!
Thinking like this really helped me to get into the driving and more and more if found myself at the junctions doing the right speed and in the right gear. Although I did still hit the curb, ALOT
Going home on Thursday night my head was mashed. I dreamt about gears, mirrors and blindspot all night.
Friday morning and 4 hours of driving left before the test. Overnight everything and I mean everything had gone in. Karl thought I’d sent along my twin brother it was so different. No hitting curbs, no crunching gears and everything was calm and smooth. Technically I’d known how to drive the truck by the end of the first few hours, the problems had all been in my head-me not doing what I knew I should. Karl really gets this and knew what to say and do to get me thinking right.
All the training was 1 on 1, with the same instructor thoughout. I thought that 1 to 1 was great. When I did feel that my brain was going into meltdown, Karl would spot this and drive for 10 minutes while I calmed down. Seeing someone with his skill driving really helps you to relax and inspires you to do better. He’s like a duck; calm on the surface with all the work going on underneath. I’m not sure in a 2 to 1 situation how watching someone else hit curbs and not check their mirrors would help me improve, I did all this by myself anyway
By time I arrived for my test I felt confident in the skills I had learnt and knew that if I failed it would be down to me making a silly mistake on the day.
THE TEST…
First I did the show me/tell me questions . This was no problem as Karl had done really good walk rounds with me showing me all I needed to know. He’d also given me some question sheets to take home. Next came the controlled stop followed by the reverse. With the help of the genius little marker on the mudflap that you line up with the yellow box I completed the reverse perfectly, with the back end right in the middle of the box.
Next out onto the streets… The drive went perfectly to begin with until 10 minutes into the test I went though a green light at some roadworks to be met be an OAP coming through the other way after missing the red light 
. Did I panic—no, I went into duck mode, got under control and waited for him to back out and let us all through (thankyou Karl, 24 hours early I’d have gone into meltdown, missed my gear, probably stalled and then hit the kerb for good measure ).
Five minutes later and I’m approaching Crown point in Denton (coming from the Bredbury side if you know the area, a very busy signal controlled crossroads if you don’t). The lights turned green and off I went following a bus. Again Karl’s advice kicked in and I thought, this bus is my problem, I’m going to let him clear the junction before I get in the yellow box. What do you know, straight after the junction the bus stops with no signal and would have left me stranded blocking the whole junction. As it was I’d passed the lights but wasn’t into the yellow box and was far enough forward not to block the pedestrian crossing when the lights went red.
After this everything else went fine and on return to the test centre I was feeling as positive as I could be.
Did I pass■■?
YEEEEESSSSSSS 
and with only 3 minors too.
If it hadn’t been for Karl and the other staff at Stockport LGV this wouldn’t have happened. Every learner I talked to thought the place was great and everyone else who took their test that day passed. All the instructors (except Mr R) were professional and highly skilled. This is a small family business with a close team.
I would recommend Stockport LGV to anyone. They take pride in getting people to pass their tests first time and don’t (like some other companies) claim that you will pass after just a few hours training (I was quoted just 10 hours 
) to make them look cheaper and then make the money later when you fail 3 times.
Well that’s my story so far. I’m now waiting for my licence and digitacho then I’ll be off round local agencies and firms looking for some work to fill my recession hit diary. Thanks to everyone who’s thanked me elsewhere and goodluck to anyone who’s about to take the plunge and start driving.
CONGRATULATIONS on your test pass 
