Hi all, I passed CE yesterday with Flair, Chelmsford with 3 minors. I’m absolutely over the ■■■■■■■ moon about it!
John the trainer is an absolute credit to the industry, he is so passionate about getting people a pass. He’s like a big cuddly bear of hgv knowledge, and his training methods are spot on, I should know 
.
Well it all began on Wednesday with the Chelmsford test centre closed by the bailiffs! And I got my faults ironed out that first day - I clipped two curbs with the trailer and got a bit too close to the traffic light pole on the turn. You realise how much they stick out when you try and bend a trailer round them!! And getting used to the slapover 8 speed gearbox took a few attempts. End of day one me and Roy - my training buddy did the uncouple/recouple back at the yard, all did it ok. When parked up before the uncouple, johns advice is to place a pair of gloves just next to the front tyres when you get out the cab, then when you backup to recouple you know to stop a few feet before the gloves, get out and check the bar height, make sure it’s aligned and that the pin bar is raised, then with the gloves as a marker you know you only have to back up a little more to engage the pin. All done happy days 
2nd day we drove up to Gosfield airfield just past Braintree for the reverse manoeuvre, again we both do it really well, pull forward line up with the cones, turn the steering wheel one and half turns to the right and start backing up, keep an eye on the yellow line, all the time just using the clutch, when it bends round watch for the black mark on the trailer, that’s when you full lock to the left to catch it. And then it’s slowly back into the bay, taking two shunts if you need to, don’t be a c u next Tuesday
After the reversing Roy drove us to Enfield where we crammed as much leaning in as we could. Much different to Chelmsford, not so many tight turns but plenty of idiot car drivers - the closer you get to London the worse they seem to drive. But in a way the roads seemed a bit easier than Chelmsford, dare I say it! We stopped for break at the junction 25 truck stop, very nice in there! And at end of day I drove back to Chelmsford, a nice drive on motorway but quite a gradient at parts of m25/m11, we were struggling to do 40mph lol.
3rd day - test day. Drove down to Enfield this time and crammed in a bit more before Roy’s test - 9.45. Mine was at 11.30. A challenging road was Kings Head Hill, if anyone knows it’s a really steep hill with lots of parked cars and traffic islands, so your basically doing a slalom most of the way up. And then you get traffic at the top so your there doing hill starts! Well Roy had his test first and he failed, got a serious fault for causing a learner driving a bus to stop coming the other way, they both hesitated and then Roy kept going so made the bus stop! Apart from that he got 5 minors so it’s a shame, but he’s got a retest next week so good luck to him.
Well my test went a lot better, and we went up the Kings Head Hill again! Got one of the faults there for undue hesitation because I was waiting to pull out past the parked cars, and it seemed like the whole of Enfield was coming the other way lol! Then further up the hill I hit traffic leaving the tail end of the trailer halfway over the hazard line as I pulled back in past a traffic island, luckily I didn’t get a fault for that as traffic coming the other way was able to get past. I thought I’d blown it then! Also the examiner made me pull up to the curb 3 times, one was a downhill start - all ok. And on the independent drive he asked me to follow the signs to Waltham Cross, and half of that was in stop-start traffic so a bit of luck there! A few of the roundabouts were clear as well so I just cruised through them in 5th gear. Got back to test centre for the uncouple/recouple, used johns advice putting the gloves on the ground as a marker, I did it ok but I forgot to mention when you pull forward, this truck has a hazard bar which you have to mention you would lower after uncoupling. But luckily I remembered halfway through the re-couple so I apologised to the examiner and told him about the hazard bar and he was fine with it, phew!
So that was that, I passed with 3 minors - Thankyou very much. I have to say that sometimes you need a bit of luck to go your way, and everything else will fall into place. And in regards to Roy and the bus, if he’d of been through that gap 2 seconds earlier or later he would of had no trouble, but you can’t plan for things like that. It just happens sometimes,
I hope you haven’t got bored reading this blog, it’s good to share our experiences and like John said “it’s an adventure!”
Well your not wrong there mate, many thanks to you again, your a top bloke. I’d recommend you to anyone!
Regards
D’B
