Evil8Beezle:
tachograph:
I do know that it won’t be long before someone tells you that driving a manual lorry is the same as driving a manual car so auto is best for trainingAs for someone saying it’s the same as driving a car, that’s a new one on me!
Here you go then 
ROG:
tachograph:
if a learner passes the test in an automatic they have not shown that they can handle a manual vehicle on the road.But they have shown that if they passed car manual
Peter Smythe:
The massive missing link is with proper induction training. It’s frankly ridiculous to expect trainers to teach on every type of gearbox out there. Even if the equipment was available, I don’t believe that many candidates would be willing to pay for the additional time that would be involved - running into a few days and probably doubling the length of the course.It is the employer’s responsibility to provide suitable training for each bit equipment to be used. This includes not only gearboxes but tail-lifts etc. I am sadly fully aware of what happens in the “real world” but it is all down to the employer. It’s their gearbox that will be wrecked and their tail lift that will be removed without benefit of spanners.
This situation can be tracked back to a) the removal of the traditional route into driving ie trailer boy/driver’s mate as well as the upsurge in agency work.
So work it out. The employer has decided to put his work through an agency and doesn’t want to provide suitable training to the driver. Who is at fault there?
I spend an inordinate amount of time explaining various gearboxes to folks, certainly not all my own customers. This demonstrates the mess that the industry has got itself into IMO.
Just my thoughts.
Pete [emoji38] [emoji38]
I passed my test in a Ford D series with a six speed gearbox, a double H pattern, nothing fancy.
My first few years of driving had me stirring all kinds of gearsticks, from simple four over four range changes with and without splitters to back to front and round the houses David Brown 6 speeds, 9 and 13spd Fullers, ZF 12spd splitters, Eaton Twin Splitters, EPS, you name it.
If you were lucky you had a shift pattern on the gearstick or a sticker on the dash telling you where the gears were, if not it was a matter of trial and error. One such case involved a 2800 Daf, I had already driven a few of these, one had a back to front 12spd ZF splitter, another a 13spd Fuller and another newer one had the 16spd synchromesh ZF ecosplit, so I get back to yard and given the keys to my “new” motor, a 2800 Daf, it had a generic Daf gearstick, so I threw my gear in it and off I went, tried to change gear and all I got was a lot of crunching and grinding, I tried again, same result, hmmm, WTF was going on here, it was a 2800 Daf, the gearstick was the same as the last one I had driven with the 16spd ZF, but it didn’t work like it should.
It turned out to have a 9spd Fuller, I figured it out for myself by trial and error, that’s how it used to be, you got in a lorry and worked out how to get it to move in the first couple of hundred yards.
Now it seems that it’s a big drama if you have a clutch pedal and a gearstick in a lorry, I know the Internet is a wonderful thing and the very true statement that the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask, but come on, seriously, stop flapping and stressing about it, it’s a gearstick ffs, it moves back and forth and from side to side, it may have a couple of switches for the range change or the splitter, just jump in do a lap around the yard and play with it, flick the switches and see what they do, if you flick the wrong one it’s no big deal.
Pretty much every day I’ve been in a different truck and driven several different gear boxes in a short space of time.
So have been easy some have been hard.
What I’m getting at it doesn’t really matter what you learn you come across a gear box you’ll struggle with when you work anyway.
ROG:
Evil8Beezle:
tachograph:
I do know that it won’t be long before someone tells you that driving a manual lorry is the same as driving a manual car so auto is best for trainingSo you’re not disappointed!
For passing your test, Auto is probably easier! (One less thing to think/worry about…)
However,that’s not going to help you when you’re thrown the keys to a 16 speed manual!
So you pays your money and takes your choice. Do you put all your eggs in one basket, and risk learning a manual whilst trying to pass your test, or do you pass your test and learn how to drive a manual later…
As for someone saying it’s the same as driving a car, that’s a new one on me!
Not the same as a car but the principals are the same = using a clutch to change gears
It seems from what you are saying that learners would need to master every type of manual
If not saying that then what are you saying
I’m not saying that a learner should master all types of manual, not at all…
What I would say though is that if you can drive a manual, whatever it is, you’ve probably got an advantage of being able to handle a different type of manual, compared to someone who has only driver an auto. i.e. I’ve yet to drive a slap box, but driver plenty of 4 over 4’s so can’t see that I’d have much problem…
The argument of what to pass your test in is pointless though, as the powers that be have decided that you can do it in an auto. And who in their right mind isn’t going to choose the path of least resistance? 
And the argument of whether a driver who passed in an Auto is safe driving a manual and learning as they go, is to my mind very similar to whether a driver who passes their test one day, and is safe the next day out on their own. They probably aren’t compared to an experienced driver, but you have to start somehere…
I guess it’s down to getting through your test with whatever you’ve been given to drive and then it’s a baptism of fire in the real world after… you either do ok using your own savvy/ initiative/ research etc. or you ■■■■ up.
tachograph:
Evil8Beezle:
tachograph:
I do know that it won’t be long before someone tells you that driving a manual lorry is the same as driving a manual car so auto is best for trainingAs for someone saying it’s the same as driving a car, that’s a new one on me!
Here you go then
ROG:
tachograph:
if a learner passes the test in an automatic they have not shown that they can handle a manual vehicle on the road.But they have shown that if they passed car manual
LOL
And I’ve met a few people that have manual cars, and then said they failed an assessment because the truck was a manual.
I think the issue here is that your brain is programmed to go from left to right going up the gears, and it takes a while to teach it that 5th if left in the same place as 1st for a 4 over 4. So to me it’s all about practice and rewiring your brain a bit…
That’s it, practice, as in going out there and doing it, having cold sweats about it on an Internet forum isn’t going to help one bit.
It’s part of the disease of overthinking things that is all too common nowadays. Remember when you were a kid at the top of a massive hill and you got on your bike or skateboard and went down that hill totally out of control and got this incredible feeling of speed and excitement, well that wouldn’t have happened if you did a risk assessment first, you wouldn’t even attempt it.
Forget about what could go wrong, just do it.
newmercman:
That’s it, practice, as in going out there and doing it, having cold sweats about it on an Internet forum isn’t going to help one bit.It’s part of the disease of overthinking things that is all too common nowadays. Remember when you were a kid at the top of a massive hill and you got on your bike or skateboard and went down that hill totally out of control and got this incredible feeling of speed and excitement, well that wouldn’t have happened if you did a risk assessment first, you wouldn’t even attempt it.
Forget about what could go wrong, just do it.
Completely agree with this reply! Pretty much what I’d of said [emoji846]
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Our place has 3 pedal Opticruise Scania’s. Auto boxes but you use the clutch for starting and stopping. I hated them when I was on the rigids, so much so I kept in an auto Premium instead. Having been on the artics though, I changed my tune pretty bloody quick.
Radar19:
Our place has 3 pedal Opticruise Scania’s. Auto boxes but you use the clutch for starting and stopping. I hated them when I was on the rigids, so much so I kept in an auto Premium instead. Having been on the artics though, I changed my tune pretty bloody quick.
I drove an opticruise once, couldn’t see the point in it? It’s either auto or manual this seemed the worst of both worlds! But I’m happy for someone to put me right??
At the place I’m at, they have 64 and 65 plate 18 ton 6 speed manuals (Daf LF220) and a few 26 ton 4 speed splitter box manuals, so 8 gears in total (Daf CF330)
They also have a couple of older MAN trucks, one is a 7.5 ton 6 speed manual and one is an auto
Apparently there’s 3 new autos joining the fleet but yet to see those.
spacemanZ10:
Radar19:
Our place has 3 pedal Opticruise Scania’s. Auto boxes but you use the clutch for starting and stopping. I hated them when I was on the rigids, so much so I kept in an auto Premium instead. Having been on the artics though, I changed my tune pretty bloody quick.I drove an opticruise once, couldn’t see the point in it? It’s either auto or manual this seemed the worst of both worlds! But I’m happy for someone to put me right??
To me if you have to put up with an automated manual gearbox then these three pedal Scanny’s are just about the best (unless you happen to have Volvo which rarely needs any driver input), for the plain simple reason that you, the driver, have proper clutch control for maneuvers, and even if the box is rubbish at moving junctions (it is), junctions where you don’t come to rest so don’t need the clutch, the box programming hasn’t a bloody clue what gear it should select in auto but its one saving grace is that it is very responsive and accurate to manual input.
It might make little difference if all you do is go to RDC’s where there’s acres of room and its all on the level, but if you go to places where steep reverses and sharp jack knife’s are the order of the day, that extra bit of clutch control is a blessing.
I’ve changed me mind completely about testing in automatics and getting manual licences.
The industry should carry on exactly as it is dumbing the job constantly down so eventually all the person behind the wheel has to do is steer, and the best of luck re-skilling the industry when that happy plateau is reached, the transport industry richly deserves to be where its going, all they have wanted for a long time now is cheap compliant bums on seats, well when all they can get is bums on seats capable of nothing but steering and the job grinds to a shuddering halt they’ll have to think again.
If you pass your test in a 3 pedal Scania is that classed as a manual pass or an auto pass? just curious as surely your still changing gear even if its just drive or reverse and by the sounds of it they still response like a normal manual clutch would when pulling away?
RB84:
If you pass your test in a 3 pedal Scania is that classed as a manual pass or an auto pass? just curious as surely your still changing gear even if its just drive or reverse and by the sounds of it they still response like a normal manual clutch would when pulling away?
If it has a clutch then its a manual
Thanks ROG i thought it probably would be!
But a pass in an auto gives a manual licence provided the candidate already holds a manual car licence.
Pete 
Did mine in a 6speed manual and on a trial for a recovery firm the wagons were all 6spd manuals. Up on the quarry this week and I’ve been on an i-shift auto.
I was glad my test wasn’t in an “odd” (for want of a better word) box that I’d of had to get to grips with ontop of the test stress but now I’ve passed I’m relishing the first time I get an “odd” box to get to grips with. Can’t be worse than the Edwardian Dodge car I drove a few years ago (3spd crash box, central throttle and manual advance/■■■■■■). Only took a few miles to work out 
If I’m sitting in a cab for 50+ hours a week, then I want an auto. All that extra shifting changing up & down in today’s traffic. I don’t think so. Would have worn the joints out on my left side dipping clutches, working a stick? It’s the 21st century now. Sit back & let the truck help you out with all this technology. For £10 an hour I’m a stop start attendant
