Daani:
This proves how incompetence the UK Government is. Most people fail their tests on the reversing. These idiots are going to put a new breed of driver’s on the road without having the appropriate skills. They are only doing this to divert the blame that they have contributer to the driver shortage by introduction IR35. It is the IR35 which causes the shortage not brexit.
Also by removing the experience of driving class 2 first will contribute to alot of accidents as their mentality will be as of a car driver.
I would love to see how they will pass an assessment with any firm when they are asked to couple and uncouple and most import reverse on to a bay. I almost guarantee everyone will fail their driving assessment.
You really expect a new pass to do store deliveries and be confident reversing. Haha
Have you willfully misunderstood the proposed changes?
Perhaps the reverse and coupling will become better taught and harder to pass when it is handed to the training organisations to sign off.
Daani:
This proves how incompetence the UK Government is. Most people fail their tests on the reversing. These idiots are going to put a new breed of driver’s on the road without having the appropriate skills. They are only doing this to divert the blame that they have contributer to the driver shortage by introduction IR35. It is the IR35 which causes the shortage not brexit.
Also by removing the experience of driving class 2 first will contribute to alot of accidents as their mentality will be as of a car driver.
I would love to see how they will pass an assessment with any firm when they are asked to couple and uncouple and most import reverse on to a bay. I almost guarantee everyone will fail their driving assessment.
You really expect a new pass to do store deliveries and be confident reversing. Haha
Absolute tosh yet again. What bearing does the reverse exercise have on real life reversing absolutely none. Everyone learns how to reverse properly on the job.
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Even if it doesn’t. It atleast teaches you the basics on positioning and a little practise how how the trailer behaves.
Yes I agree you do learn on the Job but now the instructors won’t bother teaching the reverse as its not required on test.
Daani:
This proves how incompetence the UK Government is. Most people fail their tests on the reversing. These idiots are going to put a new breed of driver’s on the road without having the appropriate skills. They are only doing this to divert the blame that they have contributer to the driver shortage by introduction IR35. It is the IR35 which causes the shortage not brexit.
Also by removing the experience of driving class 2 first will contribute to alot of accidents as their mentality will be as of a car driver.
I would love to see how they will pass an assessment with any firm when they are asked to couple and uncouple and most import reverse on to a bay. I almost guarantee everyone will fail their driving assessment.
You really expect a new pass to do store deliveries and be confident reversing. Haha
Absolute tosh yet again. What bearing does the reverse exercise have on real life reversing absolutely none. Everyone learns how to reverse properly on the job.
Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk
Even if it doesn’t. It atleast teaches you the basics on positioning and a little practise how how the trailer behaves.
Yes I agree you do learn on the Job but now the instructors won’t bother teaching the reverse as its not required on test.
The reverse will still be taught as it says in the guidance. It just won’t form part of the test.
The reverse in it current form is about as much use to a trainee/new driver as a chocolate teapot would be to a busy cafe.
Its one exercise that bears almost no relation to what the driver will face when they go out on their own.
By allowing proper trainers to teach maneuvering, and then subject to an examination, means some proper maneuvering the type found in the real world can be taught and practiced, this should, assuming they don’t balls up the implementation, see new passes having a much better idea of real world reversing than the long past its sell by date current reverse.
There will no doubt be some short cut practices by messrs bodgit and scarper training agencies, but i am sure training pros like Pete Smythe will jump at the chance to send drivers out into the game considerably more competent and confident than they are by having to concentrate on perfecting the present requirement…it can only be good for a training school as well as the trainee, when customers who value their equipment find that new drivers taught to maneuever by certain trainers are well worth investing in, its a win win for everyone concerned, especially when the Smythe taught newbies wipe the floor in maneuvering competence with those who got a 4 day special via B&S.
Been talking to fella at local test centre. When you take your test you don’t have to unhook and reverse on your test.
You do do it as part of your lessons though.
As long as your driving lesson instructor is happy you can do it that’s fine…
Also there’s rumours the goverment is planning to provide grants / subsidiaries to newly passed. Class 2 to upgrade to class 1
granddaddylow:
If it was ok way back when, and it’s ok now, why was it so unsafe in between? Surely staged licenses were not just a money making scheme?!
It wasn’t unsafe in between.
The reason for the changes was the EU. The changes were made in order to harmonise licence standards throughtout the EU. That is the same reason that a few years ago the government altered the rules so you could get a LGV licence at age 18 instead of age 21, its the reason the DCPC was brought in as the UK government didn’t want to do that but as it was an EU Directive they had no choice.
So the only reason it changed in the first place was our membership of the EU. Now we’re no longer in the EU we’re free to change it back to what it was and what worked fine for decades despite the protestation of the forum handwringers that it’ll mean mass carnage and trailers dropped on their knees everywhere. Talking of the latter, if having a coupling up procedure as part of a driving test is a guarantee that trailers don’t get dropped on their knees then why do companies like Wincanton have those bloody BRAKE posters and 6 inch keyfobs everywhere and why are there often photos of people who’ve done such things on social media? If having the reversing test as part of the driving exam is a guarantee drivers can reverse then why do new drivers struggle so much even getting a trailer on a nice marked out loading bay in a massive yard with loads of room?
“Everyone else on the road is an idiot out to kill you” works as a maxim as well.
I always wondered why clearly unroadworthy vehicles were both allowed on the roads, and then allowed to stay on the roads - merely for being “of a recognized ethic group”, such as Citizens of Pike, or anyone else pulling a travelling fairground with kit older than you need to be to get a licence these days…
“Careful Driving” to these types - is “not drawing the attention of anyone to report one for not having tax/MOT” I would imagine.
Come to that, when you attempt to report someone via the gov.uk website - I never actually saw anyone in uniform turn up to tow reported perp away…
Santa:
Coupling/uncoupling wasn’t part of the test I took. I did do that reverse around the cones, but my instructor told me exactly how to do it. It bore little resemblance to reversing a fridge blindside onto a bay between two other trucks.
One of my instructors sat in on a reversing practice, they normally walked at the side but it was raining.
He told me to shut my eyes, turn the steering wheel five times one way, then ten times the other way and turn it another five times, when we stopped the vehicle was just about in the box.
chalk marks on the chock rail, tyre marks on the floor, flags stuck in a cone, all clues to an easy reverse.
I asked when I did my Class 1 if it was possible to have a ‘proper’ trailer rather than the 30ft flat they used and no chance
You almost need an HGV ‘Pass Plus’ course which will bridge the gap between the test and real work. As we all know the difference between the test vehicle and a full weight full length vehicle is the biggest thing you need to adapt to along with the lack of manoeuvring space in most of the UK locations
For me personally, this is great news.
I am currently taking on drivers and we will be training up van drivers that already work for us.
This cuts down on time and cost to get their licence, and then once they have passed we can begin teaching them how to actually drive…
JeffA:
Once talked to a traffic warden and he said citizens of pike can park anywhere and never get a ticket cos the plates are false anyway.
Also remember that you can neither criticize nor wantonly destroy their hallowed places of worship (recognized as they are), the Bruddosque - unless you’re the top gear team of course.
Juddian:
The reverse in it current form is about as much use to a trainee/new driver as a chocolate teapot would be to a busy cafe.
Its one exercise that bears almost no relation to what the driver will face when they go out on their own.
You’re not wrong. Even after years of gently (mostly) touching the bay buffers I usually get out and look to see where the arse end is if I’m parking against a fence.
Much better idea than guessing where it is in relation to a set of cones.
Should be part of the test.
“When reversing, what do you do if you notice a load of lamp posts at an angle?”
Aim for the one that isn’t at an angle, because transport managers like everything to match.
Keep going until you feel a bump.
Get out to have a look.
Reverse until you see a post wobble, then pull forward, leaving enough room for your end of shift walk-around.
Still think testing uncoupling is a good idea, mind. I didn’t get tested and nearly killed myself by pulling the pin first on a slope on my first week out. Still gives me the cold sweats today. Got saved by a mud bank. An inch more and I wouldn’t be writing this.
I think a motorcycle type CBT would be more use than the current system, reverse and braking exercise, do that as part of the basic training, maybe even the show me / tell me part.
Then the actual driving test could be shorter being just an observed drive with the examiner. The testing stations could sell some land off too.
Wermy:
I asked when I did my Class 1 if it was possible to have a ‘proper’ trailer rather than the 30ft flat they used and no chance
You almost need an HGV ‘Pass Plus’ course which will bridge the gap between the test and real work. As we all know the difference between the test vehicle and a full weight full length vehicle is the biggest thing you need to adapt to along with the lack of manoeuvring space in most of the UK locations
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but for the past few years they’ve used full size vehicles, which also carry a dummy load, usually IBC’s filled with water; precisely to address the concerns you mentioned.
Incidentally a 30 foot trailer is potentially a ■■■■ sight harder to reverse than a 44 foot one, especially if it’s a single axle right at the back…
The devil is in the detail. I havent posted the full email, just some relevant parts.
Since 16 September, you have not been able to book or name any existing car and trailer test via our online services.
As a result of stopping car and trailer tests we have added an additional 2,759 bus and lorry tests between Monday 20 September and 21 November in various locations across Great Britain.
This includes:
• 728 appointments in the Midlands
• 1,055 appointments in North of England
• 590 appointments in Scotland
• 1,052 appointments in London and South
• 188 appointments in Wales
We are sharing this information with you to help give you an up-to-date picture of test availability in your area. You can use the trainer booker service to book these appointments.
There were 316 unsold vocational test appointments last week. We all have a crucial role to play in helping to tackle the worldwide HGV driver shortages.
The booking service is constantly changing, so all the figures above might have changed by the time you read this email.
We will also be increasing the number of lorry, bus and coach tests once the law has changed to allow:
• learner lorry drivers to take an articulated lorry test without the need to pass a rigid lorry test first
• learner bus and coach drivers to take a bus and coach test with a trailer, rather than having to pass a test without a trailer first
The government laid the legislation in Parliament for the change to the car and trailer testing on 16 September and we are aiming to introduce the change in November.
The legislation for the change to staging is due to be laid in October and the earliest this change can be brought in would be 4 weeks afterwards, however this will be dependent on Parliamentary processes so is likely to take longer.
To clarify, the change to allow a DVSA-approved trainer to assess the off-road manoeuvre in the future applies to lorry, bus and coach driving tests.
We will work closely with the industry on these plans and keep you updated.
We have recently carried out a survey with vocational trainers which closed on Tuesday 14 September. Thank you to everyone who responded to this.
The aim of the survey was to find out how we can improve our support to vocational trainers and help build their business.
We also asked trainers questions about whether they had access to an off-road manoeuvring area and about the risks and benefits of trainers assessing the off-road manoeuvre.
We will use this feedback and insight to help inform the plans we are developing in partnership with the industry to support this change.
Like I mentioned recently, if the DVSA Test Centres are not being used for off road exercises there are many of these sites could be sold off, especially as more ATF (approved haulier MOT testing sites) come on line.
