How hard is it to drive a modern truck, select drive, take the parking brake off and press the right hand pedal - easy!!!
Ditto modern cars with their electronic parking brakes, reversing sensors and other gizmos to make the task easier.
We all know the real learning experience comes after you leave the test centre and get confronted with hundreds of new road layouts and traffic situations that we have never encountered before.
2 late for me
Ive passed now so there is no going back, They cant stop me now! 
A modern vehicle is a complex piece of kit.I would be making sure that a new start was familiar with what all of the knobs and buttons do.A man can pass in an auto and not know about range changers or splitters.I want the DCPC nonsense binned and some sort of practical training put in its place.
A modern vehicle is a complex piece of kit.
Maybe so but certainly not for the driver.
To be honest I find these just passed my test P plates on nervous car drivers very annoying .
They attract more attention which leads to them being intimated by experienced drivers.
Radar19:
You look at someone who has just passed their test, most are far too scared to do anything more than a quick dash to Tesco. I
erm, the firs thing i did when i passed my test was find the nearest motorway and bury my right foot…
3 wheeler:
FFS why not just contact Keloggs and make the licence a free give away with the purchase of your Cornflakes !
Its an interesting concept that only a few have the skills to drive. Some would argue everyone has the skill to drive. Given the amount of traffic on the roads it certainley looks like anyone can drive. The challenge, which i’ll admit some will find hard is…how do you drive when the road is full of idiots. Some will manage fine, others, as you point out just may struggle !! 
beefy4605:
I’m afraid its to late anyway .
Last two drivers we had appear in our yard looking for work - lots of experience , been there done that . Taken out for a driving assesment (Fh 12 and a 45 foot curtainsider ) -on entering the truck-
"We have a problem here "
“What do you mean ?”
"I’ve never driven a truck with a gearstick only ever had an auto box "
One walked there and then ,the other muddled through and a week later was sent to lift a trailer and bring it home . 100 miles up the road on the bounce ( unit only ) got hooked in to the trailer . Made it 50 miles back down the road before he pulled the center out of the clutch (he was grossing 25 ton ) .He told the mechanic he didn’t know there was a high and low box or a splitter - he’d been using 3 gears (8,10and 12 )£2k plus in recovery charges and repairs . Lesson learned -now anyone who shows the slightest hesitation with a gearstick is shown the gate .
Well you’re only ever going to get more of them. Might I suggest that your gaffer would do far better to turn the assessment into a training session? For all he knows, once the blokes have got the hang of the gearshift they could turn out to be the best drivers on the fleet.
Sounds like its your driving assessor who needs to be answering a few questions too; if he couldn’t be arsed to at least show the bloke the basics then he’s not doing his job properly; half an hour’s supervised familiarisation is a ■■■■ sight more cost effective than a week’s downtime plus the parts and recovery.
After all we were all new drivers once.
beefy4605:
I’m afraid its to late anyway .
Last two drivers we had appear in our yard looking for work - lots of experience , been there done that . Taken out for a driving assesment (Fh 12 and a 45 foot curtainsider ) -on entering the truck-
"We have a problem here "
“What do you mean ?”
"I’ve never driven a truck with a gearstick only ever had an auto box "
One walked there and then ,the other muddled through and a week later was sent to lift a trailer and bring it home . 100 miles up the road on the bounce ( unit only ) got hooked in to the trailer . Made it 50 miles back down the road before he pulled the center out of the clutch (he was grossing 25 ton ) .He told the mechanic he didn’t know there was a high and low box or a splitter - he’d been using 3 gears (8,10and 12 )£2k plus in recovery charges and repairs . Lesson learned -now anyone who shows the slightest hesitation with a gearstick is shown the gate .
I very nearly had the opposite of that once … I was dropped off to drive a truck back late at night, as soon as i got it moving the other bloke just pishes off into the distance, at this point i realised there was no lever on the stick and i was stuck in low range, 60 mile to go and the range change flap was missing, it was like some sort of bad joke, couldn’t see any other levers, cab light was crap and didn’t have a torch. It was late at night, before mobile phones, so i had to drive 2 or 3 mile to this village and find a pay phone. At this point I learned i was in my very first slap box.
The motorway driving bit worries me a little, what happens if you live in Cornwall, Skegness, Cromer or North of Perth
Sidevalve:
beefy4605:
I’m afraid its to late anyway .
Last two drivers we had appear in our yard looking for work - lots of experience , been there done that . Taken out for a driving assesment (Fh 12 and a 45 foot curtainsider ) -on entering the truck-
"We have a problem here "
“What do you mean ?”
"I’ve never driven a truck with a gearstick only ever had an auto box "
One walked there and then ,the other muddled through and a week later was sent to lift a trailer and bring it home . 100 miles up the road on the bounce ( unit only ) got hooked in to the trailer . Made it 50 miles back down the road before he pulled the center out of the clutch (he was grossing 25 ton ) .He told the mechanic he didn’t know there was a high and low box or a splitter - he’d been using 3 gears (8,10and 12 )£2k plus in recovery charges and repairs . Lesson learned -now anyone who shows the slightest hesitation with a gearstick is shown the gate .Well you’re only ever going to get more of them. Might I suggest that your gaffer would do far better to turn the assessment into a training session? For all he knows, once the blokes have got the hang of the gearshift they could turn out to be the best drivers on the fleet.
Sounds like its your driving assessor who needs to be answering a few questions too; if he couldn’t be arsed to at least show the bloke the basics then he’s not doing his job properly; half an hour’s supervised familiarisation is a ■■■■ sight more cost effective than a week’s downtime plus the parts and recovery.
After all we were all new drivers once.
Agreed,
How many drivers here going on about new drivers not being ready because they trained in an Auto and might have to drive a manual, passed their test on a vehicle with a similar gearbox to the ones they went on drive?
I passed on a truck with a 6 speed box, and a 30ft flatbed trailer, the next truck I drove was an F12 with splitter and range change pulling a 45ft tilt.
I also had a days work driving a Foden with an Eaton Twin Splitter, but the owner had the sense to let the regular driver take me on a familiarisation drive so I could have half a chance with it when I turned up next day to do the job.
Mike-C:
That’s not real traffic - they are all going the same way and there are no pedestrians or donkeys:
Taking driving lessons is expensive. Many young people don’t have the funds to pay for lots of lessons and a test so anything to relieve this burden is a good thing surely
The-Snowman:
Taking driving lessons is expensive. Many young people don’t have the funds to pay for lots of lessons and a test so anything to relieve this burden is a good thing surely
If your talking about parents etc teaching them there are very few that can do it well. Just take the average driver. They do not know the highway code never mind the correct procedures for passing a test. I would go as far as to say some would even end up costing their kids more because of their interference.
It’s like most things. To do the job properly you need to be trained.