Hello everyone, after what seems like an eternity of waiting, I’m relieved to say today I finally got my first lesson under my belt!
After doing shunting for nearly 3 years I thought I would have an advantage to someone taking the step up straight from a car, how wrong was I?! Ok, so maybe when it comes to manoeuvring ,but with next to no experience of driving on roads it was a real eye opener to me!
I was told that overall for a first drive out I done quite well, although the area which I will need polish up is my approach speed to roundabouts, so hopefully over the next few days I’ll see some improvement. I also need to get out of the habit of going to change gear mid way through turning! It’s so easy to lose track of lane position.
So all in all I’m pleased with how things went, hopefully through out the week things will start to become more natural and flowing! Cannot wait to get back out on the road now.
It shocked me first time I got behind the wheel of a wagon. I do also have the problem of trying to change gear whilst going round a roundabout. There have times where its in the red as I’m trying to get round before changing gear as going from 4th to 5th takes a little time in a 4 over 4.
If T&C still go to that separate place to do a reverse, there is a right ■■■■■■■ of a corner to contend with. It’s a sharp left hand turn into an offroad section, where loads of trailers have been dropped, then you tootle off through some gates to practice your reverse. The left hand turn into there is where I hit my first curb!
Good luck buddy,I hope on your test day you get a sound test examiner. I don’t envy you taking your test out of Atherton!
Good luck John, When I took out the 44 foota through Cardiff City I had only ever driven a car before and it was daunting to say the least!
Some good advice my trainer gave me was when reversing the trailer do it it small steps and keep straightening the cab up so you can see exactly where the back end is going!
Welshlad32:
Good luck John, When I took out the 44 foota through Cardiff City I had only ever driven a car before and it was daunting to say the least!
Some good advice my trainer gave me was when reversing the trailer do it it small steps and keep straightening the cab up so you can see exactly where the back end is going!
Endgame:
If T&C still go to that separate place to do a reverse, there is a right [zb] of a corner to contend with. It’s a sharp left hand turn into an offroad section, where loads of trailers have been dropped, then you tootle off through some gates to practice your reverse. The left hand turn into there is where I hit my first curb!
Good luck buddy,I hope on your test day you get a sound test examiner. I don’t envy you taking your test out of Atherton!
Mate the pass rate now is down to 42%, I would be lying if I said it hasn’t got me worried, fingers crossed all goes well for me on the day
Just had my second session of training today and to be completely honest there’s not a lot of possitives to be taken from it, it only takes a few mistakes on my part for it to really start affecting my confidence. On Sunday I felt like I made good steady progress where as today was a different story, not helped by the fact that I had a different instructor who has a different style of teaching, it’s bad enough being neverous without your trainer basically shouting at you at the slightest error.
I don’t want to sound negative but after 2 days of driving and 2 different instructors Im not exactly instilled with confidence for what the rest of the week has in store, if anything I’m now really worrying that I won’t be anywhere near ready come test on Friday.
Ahh well! Tomorrow is a new day so I guess I need to put today’s mistakes behind me and start a fresh in the morning!
johnsop2:
Just had my second session of training today and to be completely honest there’s not a lot of possitives to be taken from it, it only takes a few mistakes on my part for it to really start affecting my confidence. On Sunday I felt like I made good steady progress where as today was a different story, not helped by the fact that I had a different instructor who has a different style of teaching, it’s bad enough being neverous without your trainer basically shouting at you at the slightest error.
I don’t want to sound negative but after 2 days of driving and 2 different instructors Im not exactly instilled with confidence for what the rest of the week has in store, if anything I’m now really worrying that I won’t be anywhere near ready come test on Friday.
Ahh well! Tomorrow is a new day so I guess I need to put today’s mistakes behind me and start a fresh in the morning!
Blimey - 2 different instructors in 2 days and one of them shouting at you ! - I would not like to train at town and country in Kirkby if that is how they perform
If it had been me I’d have pulled up and had it out with him explaining this is costing a lot of money so shouting and undermining confidence is not in anyone’s interest especially yours and that’s the one that counts !
Raise with the powers that be and say the day effectively lost because of the changes and more importantly the attitude of the trainer.
Keep chanting to yourself you can do it, and believe it - you’ll get there.
P.S - easier said than done for some people to go see management about this sort of thing I know, I could as I’m an extremely confident person and able to , you might not be but I’d bring it up nonetheless to give yourself a fighting chance for your licence
P.S.S Still amazed at vast differences in trainers, mine never said a dicky bird for 3 days, one of yours shouting on first day with him
dcgpx:
P.S.S Still amazed at vast differences in trainers, mine never said a dicky bird for 3 days, one of yours shouting on first day with him
The voluntary DVSA LGV instructor register or any other sort of accreditation cannot stop that from occurring but I would also say that if they got a reputation for doing it then they are likely to be out of business before very long
If its a big concern then its probably just one bad apple in the bunch and they need reporting to the boss
johnsop2:
Just had my second session of training today and to be completely honest there’s not a lot of possitives to be taken from it, it only takes a few mistakes on my part for it to really start affecting my confidence. On Sunday I felt like I made good steady progress where as today was a different story, not helped by the fact that I had a different instructor who has a different style of teaching, it’s bad enough being neverous without your trainer basically shouting at you at the slightest error.
I don’t want to sound negative but after 2 days of driving and 2 different instructors Im not exactly instilled with confidence for what the rest of the week has in store, if anything I’m now really worrying that I won’t be anywhere near ready come test on Friday.
Ahh well! Tomorrow is a new day so I guess I need to put today’s mistakes behind me and start a fresh in the morning!
Mate, I had the exact same problem with them. For weekends, they get Colin in, who is sound, then during the week it’s either Steve or Sean. Steve is quick tempered, I had to,as nicely as possible, tell him to not speak to me like I’m some kind of prick, given that it was costing me £1000 to do the training. Sean is the better trainer of the two to get, by a long shot - he doesn’t lose his temper.
Stick with it matey, hopefully stuff will come together for your test. If not, I wouldn’t take it too harsh, I tried with them twice and failed twice, after that, I went to chevron in Flint and passed with them first time, not once did I get shouted at and not once did my instructor lose his temper.
Exactly, fair enough if I’m making mistakes but there is a right way to go about things, as said above Im paying over £1000 pound for this, so being spoken to like some sort of child was annoying, endgame I had Colin on Sunday and didn’t have any issues with him, he was layed back and calm, different story with Steve though!
It’s in my hands to make the improvements that are needed to get up to standard, I’m just hoping that I have enough time to do that before Friday’s test.
He is hot headed. Also, what I noticed, is that he’s on his phone quite a lot, always having you pull over so he can go into shops, stop for cups of tea, stopping to talk to people he knows, stopping to go into the bookies, etcetera.
I’m quite a nervous guy when it comes to tests. Any other kind of situation I’m quite a confident guy, but with tests, nerves get the better of me, and having someone shout and get annoyed with me over something just makes it worse. We once stopped at atherton test centre so he could go in and watch his other trainee who was with Shaun do his test, we was there for nearly an hour and this was on my time! I didn’t realise until after the day, but the time we spent there had been knocked off my driving time!
First time I failed was due to the reverse. The place they take you for the reverse is NOTHING like the layout at the test. We did about 2 hours altogether on the reverse in my whole training, then on my first test I failed for hitting a cone. Apart from the come, I only had 5 minors. Second fail was due to positioning on a roundabout, I’d got the wrong lane, so indicated to get into the other lane, and the a**hole examiner, Mike Burton marked it down as a serious, despite the fact the car driver FLASHED ME THROUGH!!
Also, after failing, he has you booking your own retest. Gives you the dimensions on the truck, gets YOU to check on available dates, then you have to ring him back and check that he is available. I had to wait nearly 2 months between my fails and retests.
Hope this “trainer” never hopes to work with us - I’d give him 2 days before he was down the road looking for work. We have a strict “no shouting” policy and always have had. No professional trainer should be abusive at any time let alone shout.
Peter Smythe:
Hope this “trainer” never hopes to work with us - I’d give him 2 days before he was down the road looking for work. We have a strict “no shouting” policy and always have had. No professional trainer should be abusive at any time let alone shout.
Pete
I know the trainers. There is 3 of them. The owner is hot headed and clearly ready for retirement. His son is spot on and the weekend bloke is also spot on. If you’re unfortunate enough to have the owner, Steve, then you have to brave yourself to be shouted at if you don’t grasp things straight away! Perhaps being shouted at works for some people? Who knows. With me though, it just made me more nervous! That’s why I ended up going with chevron instead.
The voluntary DVSA LGV instructor register or any other sort of accreditation cannot stop that from occurring but I would also say that if they got a reputation for doing it then they are likely to be out of business before very long
Interesting comment. T+C make no claim to be accredited or have registered instructors - so presumably neither apply.
I agree totally that the DSA instructor register doesn’t stop folks shouting - - there is one in Nottingham who is famous for it.
But the comment about accreditation is simply incorrect. If a trainee is using a DSA Accredited Training Centre (dft.gov.uk/fyn/lgv.php) I’m sure the DSA would like to know if the person has not been treated properly. Apart from Trading Standards, this is the only redress a candidate has in the event of something going wrong. In addition to this, the accredited training centre has to have an internal complaints procedure in place.
Sadly, most folks assume that all instructors are registered (few are) and that schools are accredited (very rare - look at the list).
that’s lifted my spirits slightly!