My name is Nige and I have just joined this wonderful site. I have been reading allsorts on here and can’t get enough of it tbh. I couldn’t resist and just had to say hello! So “HELLO”
I have been married for 20 1/2 years (I’m only 38 now lol) and have two children. My daughter has just left college and my son has just left school. I have two springer spaniels too.
I work for a large logistics company that recently changed its name. I have recently passed my class C this June (first attempt). I did my test at swinnerton test centre and although it was stressful (as are all test situations) I loved the experience (only cos I passed). I had two instructors because one went on holiday half way through but they were both very good.
I start training for my C+E on Thursday 19th of this month and have my test on friday 27th at swinnerton again. I will be doing my controlled stop and reversing at Irlam then driving around the test routes (around Stone etc) on training. The examiner on my class C test was very friendly and made me at ease so I hope I get the same one :0)
I have funded my own training as I really wanted to do it and am so pleased I did. I hope it opens a few doors for me. My line of work has mainly been warehouse and office based (stock inventory, FLT etc)
I feel I will have more stability in my new carreer. I’ll let you know if I pass my C+E.
Anyway enough about me for now please feel free to say hello.
Kind Regards
Nige
Hello Big Nige, congratulations on your pass and good luck with the C+E. Looking at the time your message was posted, you are either the perfect early-start trucker or a dirty stopout!
Hello Big Nige & welcome to the forum. I have found this a great forum for information & help. Also a lot of laughs. Caught myself laughing like a loon on a number of occasions at some of the posts.
Glad to hear your Class C went so well & all the best with C+E. I’ll be training the same week as you, I start my C on 16th July with test on 20th at Walton (Wetherby)
Nervous already
Hiya i have my C+E test at Swynnerton on the 21st July, so would be interesting to hear any comments you have about it, i have never been there, and dont know the roads etc.
Welcome to trucknet and lovely to have you with us
Hello Harry Monk thanks for the welcome mate and the rest of you guys. I,m an early riser (that’s always been my problem with women) I’m really looking forward to my C+E. What job do you do Harry?
Hello Keano1 I can get lost on this forum for a good hour or so just reading posts etc. I love it. I enjoyed doing my C and wasn’t sure if I’d passed when we got back to the test centre. I couldn’t think of anything serious I’d done wrong and anyway he passed me. I hope your looking forward to it mate, your bound to be nervous as I was. There where two of us training with 1 instructor and steve (the pupil) had done 10 yrs 7.5 ton work and seem to find it a breeze right through where as I came straight from a car (a total novice) and must admit I did struggle the first 3 days but then it started to click into place. I really though by the end of the 3rd day this wasn’t looking good for passing but then on the fourth my instructor said I’d put my worzel gummidge driving head on (I had a good morning drive) and from there it got easier. My test was the last test on the Thursday afternoon (14:30) so that morning I did really well and he said if I drive like that on my test then I’d pass.
Advice given to me was stay on the line ( as close to the centre line as possible) and you’l be fine (this stops you from clipping the kerb) well it worked for me. Don’t be scared of driving over chevrons when turing corners as you need to use as much road as you can to avoid clipping your back end wheels (obviously depending on oncoming traffic). The big one for me was take your time when approaching roundabouts. I approached them at 20 mph in fifth gear and this gives you plenty of time to assess whats happening and you aren’t rushing your gear changes. One more bit of advice is pop a boiled sweet in your mouth just before your examiner gets to you, This avoids you having cotton mouth on your test cos you do dry up through nervs etc. That’s what I did and it did help. The amount of advice I have read on here all makes sense to me and this advice/experience I had worked for me.
Anyway Keano good luck mate, enjoy the experience you can do it. Let us all know how you get on
Hiya Firebird! Thanks for the lovely welcome. I hope your looking forward to your test as I am. I think Swynnerton is a great place to have your test. When I found out it was there I was well chuffed as when I’d been looking at the map for that area it looked a good one for lorries.
One bit of advice I’ll give you is be careful pulling out of the test centre on your test as that road is a 50 mph for cars and they go up and down there pretty quick. Don’t let the length of the road deceive you, it is long but not long enough. If you see a car at the bottom of the road before you pull out then don’t pull out as they will catch upto you very quickly and have to brake (due to your slow acceleration). I waited until there was no cars in sight then pulled out. What I will say is this though. If you commit yourself to pulling out and then a car appears then the examiner shouldn’t penilise you for it because the car wasn’t there when you made that decision. If you turn right from the test centre then you will be asked to turn your next available right (there is a weight restriction on the road so you have to turn right) once you have turned right you will probably be asked to pull in as this is where you will usually do your gear change exercise (just near a wooden hut/bus stop). From here I was taken all around Stone and I recognised most of the test route because I had been driving around it all week. My instructors where spot on.
If you go left out of the test centre then you go down quite a long road. They call this death mile because the road is very narrow (two way traffic). On my second day in training I drove down there and bounced all the way down off the kerbs because the countour of the kerbs are in and out. On the morning before the test I went down the same road and didn’t clip the kerb once because I kept to the centre line and it worked. One thing you have to watch for is clipping mirrors with oncoming lorries but I slowed down to 30mph and they also seemed to slow down too. That road is a 40 mph for lorries and the examiner expects you to do 40 mph although most of it I did around 37 mph.
Well Firebird good luck and I’m sure you will be fine. You have a good test centre and route there so I think its on your side. The cafe at the test centre is good too. I had a full breakfast an hour before my test and it was lovely
