All set for a 2 o clock start at Peter Smythe’s today. 50 minutes drive away and I had been told to get there 15 minutes early. I’m dead keen so I set of good and early. Just made it to Mansfield with only one hour fifty minutes to spare
After a couple of coffees and a long wait in a local service station I made my way to the training centre and met my instructor, Chris. I won’t get to meet Peter unfortunately as he is on holiday this week. (At least I hope I don’t get to meet him as that would mean I had to go back sometime for a retest). After initial introductions it was round to the yard to meet the truck. After Chris showed me some of the check list for the “show me, tell me”; I’m gonna need more practise and study on that before I’m comfortable enough for the test, we started in on the reversing. If I’m honest I’d have to say I was really pleased with how it went. I did a straight line reverse first and then after Chris showed me how I did two reverses with Chris walking and talking me through it and then another two on my own and all four of them would have passed on test day. No chance of me getting cocky though as my class 2 reversing was good all through my training and I very nearly screwed it up on the test !
Out on to the road next and it was a lot to get used to, for the last year I’ve been working on roadsweepers which are only about the size of 7.5 tonners, have a normal six speed gearbox and are left hand drive. Forget the left hand drive thing, it was the gears that seemed like “another country”. I remember having the same trouble when I did class 2 so I just have to have faith that it will become more familiar in time.(Let’s just hope it is in time). Chris told me I was changing gears too fast, and that I wasn’t changing gears fast enough! I’ve deliberately written that in a confusing way for effect, but I know what he means; when I change I do it too quickly as if it were a car gearbox but I don’t change quick enough and let the revs get too high. Anyway, there were some issues on road positioning and I was a rizzla paper away from the kerb on a couple of occasions, what with that and getting used to the gears it seems like a very big hill to climb right now.
Back in the yard and we did a couple/uncouple, that also seems like a lot to take in at the moment.
so; to sum up:-
1/ Got a lot to take in on the walk through/show me, tell me.
2/Got even more to learn on the couple/uncouple.
3/Got to get those gears clear in my head.
4/Got to never forget even for a moment how long this thing is.
5/Got to keep an eye on my road positioning to avoid “rizzla” moments.
All in all not a bad first day, I must keep in mind what Oddball says in “Kelly’s Heroes”
The reputation that Peter Smythe Transport Training have is in my opinion second to none, Chris is a great bloke and a very experienced trainer he’ll get you through this no problem. Try to enjoy the training and keep a positive attitude and you’ll be fine. Good luck for test day.
DAY 2
Started today with 4 more reversing attempts. Chris told me the first two were very good the third was perfect and the forth was a bit messy at the end but would have still got me a pass so I’ve got to be happy with that. Next on to couple/uncouple, all OK but I still need to do it a bit more. After that it was out onto the road and it was no better than yesterday and chris said I seemed more tense. I managed not to hit any kerbs again but the gears were still trouble and my line and speed approaching junctions needed more work. we had a coffee break (if you can call the rubbish that comes out of the machine in PSTT HQ coffee, come on Peter you must be making enough to put a better machine than that in there, there isn’t even a black coffee option), and when we went back out Chris told me I was hunched up over the wheel and holding it at “ten to two”, also the knuckles were getting a tad white during the pressure moments at junctions. On his recommendation we moved the seat and the wheel position which left me with my shoulders relaxed and my hands at “twenty past eight” and went out to drive again. What a difference! It felt better and I drove a lot better. I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, I just hope it’s not a train coming
Before I set off this morning I printed off a list of all the “show me/tell me” questions and have used yellow and green highlighters to differentiate the “show me” from the “tell me” and that’s all I’ll be reading until test time. Also my flat and car is covered with post its which say :-LEFT UP—LEFT and RIGHT UP—RIGHT. They are on the tele, the fridge, by my bedside, stuck on doors, on my dashboard, on the bathroom mirror, next to the laptop I’m writing this on… you get the idea. It’s my way of working out which way I turn the wheel to do the reversing.
That’s it for day two, Chris tells me we are not reversing tomorrow so that we can concentrate on the road driving. I’ll let you know how it goes.
All the best
Rich
Chris was my trainer at Mansfield your in good hands tell him jen says hi , your doing great its only the second day , you will only have to worry if he gets his pencil out (that dont sound good does it ) u will get a rap on the knuckles if you start driving one handed lol , seriously though dont get to panicked just crack on take in what he says to you and you will hold that blue cert in ya hands at the end of the week , as has been said before on here dont worry if you get that dip in training were everything goes wrong it happens , keep going and all will come good
DAY 3
No reversing today, we’re going to do a bit more tomorrow before the test. Out on the roads straight away and I had my first taste of the motorway. Did everybody feel like me when you did that for the first time. “Wow! this is what I want, miles and miles of sitting up high and just trucking along a motorway, fantastic!!!”. Anyway the driving was a bit better again, I’m much more comfortable with the gears now and just a few mild panic moments, but I am able to take a few deep breaths and get over them a lot quicker now. It helps that they were minor things like being in the wrong gear to slow down or not changing up fast enough. I still havn’t hit any kerbs and didn’t come too close to any today but Chris did tell me off for getting too close to a parked cars wing mirrors once. One potentially scary moment was going to Asda to fill up with fuel, there was some very tight manovering to do getting in and especially out again through the payment barriers, but all in all it went well.
Back to the yard for a coffee, ( I brought my own in a flask Peter, before you ask but that’s the last time I’ll mention it on here, I don’t want you getting a complex, just a more complex coffee machine
Then out to do four uncouple/couple attempts, all OK there, another drive which was the best one so far and back for the end of day debrief and a run through the show me tell me. I think I’m as ready as I can be with the time I’ve had and Chris assesed my driving at 90% and then just before I had the chance to start feeling smug about it he told me that Jennie was at 100% after day two. (He says “hello Jen” by the way, and “thanks for the biscuits”.)
Tomorrow is test day and I start at ten. My test is at 12.15 so by two o’clock I should be crying with joy or despair.
Thanks to all for the best wishes and I’ll let you know tomorrow evening come what may.
All the best
Rich
P.S. Anybody need any bricks, I expect to be producing a lot of them between now and 12.15pm tomorrow.
R
richvanho:
Hi LJ(First name tems eh)
Love the bold text on Rich!
Hehe. Well, I hope you understand that you won’t be Rich by name and rich by nature in this job!
All the very best with that test tomorrow. I’m sure you will be fine. As dar says just think of the examiner as a new trainer that’s all, and try to enjoy it! As strange as it might sound, I actually enjoyed my tests. Of course I was a bit nervous (who isn’t?) but I really did enjoy the challenge of it all. In saying that, I really wish I hadn’t failed a couple of times before eventually getting it, as my poor credit card got such a bashing!
Nice diary btw. Let’s hope it ends with really good news.
get all ur lapses in concentration out the way between 10 n 1215 and then for just under 90 mins concentrate fully and look forward to congratulating u later
) u will get a rap on the knuckles if you start driving one handed lol 
