Well here we go, a bit of an indepth blog but not too indepth, about my class C&E training.
It all started off I was going to be doing my C&E in a wagon and drag, a deposit was put down for me whilst I was away for a week about a month back, then my funding route got held up and had to cancel the booking as I wasn’t going to be able to go through with it. Was quite annoyed about it all but these things are sent to try us. About two weeks back my brother was ill whilst on easter holidays and the childminder who he goes to couldn’t have him incase he passed the bug to the other children so I went up and looked after him, cut along story short my mum offered to lend me the money to do the course. GET IN.
Rang up and booked up with a different company to do my test in a unit and trailer which I think is my more preferred setup up to do it in, was told it’d be the back end of May for my course, no worries I thought, gives me a month to get apprehensive about it all 
I then received a call from the training company the start of this week saying they could get me on a course starting this Thursday 23rd with test on the following Wednesday, I jumped at the chance to do it and my course was brought forward.
Thursday 23rd April
Turned up at the place where I was told to meet the trainer, got there about 7.45am to make sure I was there in good time. By 8.05 there was no sign of the instructor, so I put a call into the office to make sure I was at the right place, which they said I was they said they’d try to contact the instructor and call me back. Got a call back at 8.10 no answer from him, he must be on his way. He turned up about 8.20in the end. Went inside to check licenses and get given a booklet with the test structure and theory of reversing and stopping and some stuff on the cpc. On the road by about 9.00am I volunteered when asked who wanted to go first, the other guy hadn’t done an assessment with the training school, neither had I but I’d had two with two other trainers [who both advised four days then test on fifth day] so felt confident about jumping up and going first. Got in,wagons roll bob, took a nice steady drive from moulton park up to the a5 truck stop whilst having a tea break in between, I thought god no please don’t be stopping us for tea breaks every hour
Got up to the truck stop, swapped and the other guy took over he took us to Hinckley where we then stopped and went for some lunch in Morrisons cafe, it smelled of impending death so much, I think the average age of the customers would be about 70. After grub I jumped in again and we took it up to the Hinckley Rugby Club where they do their reversing. We did some straight line reversing into the ‘garage’ which thankfully was easy I thought, then went to doing going from an angle to parking in the garage, then did the whole exercise. I must say the breaking it down into striaght line reverse then backing in from an angle was a brilliant approach to doing it as it gave you the opportunity to get a grasp of what you were doing before getting through the whole thing. We both had a few attempts at it, we both messed it up once but our other attempts were of a pass quality, which was very nice to hear. From here I drove back through Hinckley and out passed the Island hotel down the a5, nipped passed Magna Park then onto the M1 came off at the A14 and jumped into a layby to swap over again. We headed back to base from here going down the a508 through up to Moulton Park again.
Today went better than I hoped it would, was glad we got the chance to do the reversing so soon after starting and I’m glad when doing it in practise it clicked fairly quickly for both of us. I only clipped one kerb which was a tight as you like junction coming out of Hinckley, which won’t be a problem as we’re testing from Weedon so we’ll only go round the roads of Northampton and surrounding villages possibly. I was on top of my mirrors followed everything over 7.5tonne through when I passed it, gears were fine as it was the same slapover set up I had on the rigid, I need to polish up on the speed on approach as it was a little too fast, but was slower by this afternoon.
Looking forward to tomorrow, we’re going to St Albans where they have a properly marked out level reversing area apparently just like at the test centre in terms of quality and space to do controlled stop, then we’ll do the couple/uncouple, then head back to Northampton to drive round the local roads get used to setting ourselves up for any tricky junctions we may come across.
One question for those who may know, are you allowed to use cruise control on your test■■? The instructor said the DSA recommend using it where you can as it helps with eco driving, however I’m sure when I did my test in Nov for the C we were told specifically do not use it 
I will ask the examiner on the day but wondered what other people thought the rules with it were.
Friday 24th April
Today I let the other guy ‘Dave’ start we trundled through Northampton down onto the A45 then onto the M1 South, THAT’S GOING AWAY FROM WHERE OUR TEST IS IN FIVE DAYS TIME,TWO OF THOSE DAYS WILL BE SPENT NO WHERE NEAR THE TRUCK AND THE FIFTH DAY IS WHEN OUR TESTS ARE AND THEY’RE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING 
we popped into Toddington services where our instructor was mightly upset Burger King wasn’t open yet, how very bloody dare they 
Grabbed a coffee sat down, then twenty minutes later we’re back on the M1 I’m driving heading even further away from our test area. if I get taken on the test down to junction 12 and back I’ll pass as I’ve had loads of motorway training today, you know those big roads where everything moves in the same direction and the lanes are nice and wide…like hell do i need to use the money i’ve spent on this course to learn to drive in a straight line at 55mph in a area that won’t even be part of my test route
Anyway we come off at J7 and head into St Albans where the company have a nicely tarmacked and painted out reversing pad, just like the test centres.
There was someone on the reverse exercise pad so we buggered off out the way and did the uncoupling/coupling process, it went well I was first up I already knew BLACK from ROG’s tips, but we were taught do BLACK then BN [i remember this cos of the bn biscuits] recheck trailer brake and say you’d take number plate out after you’ve parallel parked near trailer, that is fine with me. Also once youve done’ KCALB, do LNB [cos i used to smoke Lambert ‘n’ Butler] check lights, put number plate on and brake test by pulling forward and testing trailer brakes, i know this is in ROG’s tips but i remember them better if I use the acronym of BN and LB after black. We then did the controlled stop, which was easy enough, same as on the rigid build up speed to around 20mph then brake in a controlled and safe fashion, which we both did.
THEN IT ALL WENT TO ■■■■ FOR ME
Dave did four reverses, got each one of them in perfectly no shunts, nice one mate, I step up and say the famous last words,
‘I’ve got to get mine just like that’.
The first one I did fine in the garage nicely no shunts nice and square, the second one I got too near to the line at the start when taking my right hand lock off, that really messed my head up and I went to ■■■■ from here on in. Aborted the second attempt, third one was too far from the line so when I started swinging the trailer back in I was too far away from the garage and wouldn’t have been able to swing it round, fourth one was fine until i cut in too sharply on getting the trailer to the nearside of the garage, shunted forward got it in ok second attempt, fifth one was much the same shunt and sorted it out, then the sixth one had too much right turn on it and when i shunted I got myself into a worse position if that is possible aborted that go the last go I got it in with one shunt again. I really let the few ■■■■ ups get to me and with each practise I was getting more wound up with it, which doesn’t help I know but when you’re in the situation where you are trying to learn and do it and keep messing up then it gets to you, especially when the other guy got four in no shunts perfect each time, it plays on your mind a little.
Then we head off to lunch, had a lovely BLT sarnie and calmed down a bit, Loose Women was on the tv and I was losing the will to live, that programme is just ■■■■ whoever thought four women moaning about stuff would make good tv were sadly mistaken 
Back on the road again, Dave took the wheel, we went onto the M25 off at whichever junction the M10 is, and round onto the M1 came off at Dunstable headed up the A5 through Dunstable [the sun had brought the ladies out, which helped pass the time 
] then into a layby we swapped over. I had got rid of the angst in my mind about the reversing and set to going forwards, cos I am happy doing that bit and I can confidently do that direction 
kept on the a5 until we got to Fosters Booth, took a right onto the road that takes you to Rothersthorpe.
I didn’t like this road when I was learning in a 12 tonne rigid, so in a artic I though it’d be worse, the first bit was fine, then an inconsiderate c word man in a puddle jumper took more space in his lane than he needed, I’d slowed down as I was passing a biggish vehicle, but had to turn into the left a bit because this guy was tanking it and too far over and was going to ■■■■ my mirror, this resulted in me clipping a kerb which I thought was further away than it was, I obviously turned more than I thought I had, nevermind didn’t let it get to me carried on and drove as you should all was good. Found some hilly bits on this back road, did some uphill and downhill starts, got caught out by the handbrake taking a while to let off the trailer brakes, thought i’d given it enough time hadn’t went to pull away stalled DOH. Nevermind just got on with it. Pulled into a layby Dave took over did a couple of hill starts then we headed back to ‘base’
For Monday and Tuesday we’ve got a different instructor as ours has been booked to go down to Portsmouth and do some MOD driver training, so will be nice to have a change of face, mean that in a nice way, Tony has been very good to us the last couple of days very to the point when you’ve not done something right, but not in a blunt or horrible way, just says you’ve done whatever wrong, it should be like whatever. Maybe a new face will help me with getting the reverse cracked, we’ll see. On Monday we’re going to be going round Northampton woo ■■■■ ing hoo learning where to position ourselves on all the awkward junctions etc and doing some of the routes. Tuesday will be doing town/route work again and back to St Albans to do more reversing, stopping and un/coupling.
Got the weekend off I’ve already got a vodka in my hand and its only 6pm.
By the way, I’ve asked V8 Actros for a million quid to bribe the examiner, he said cheque is in the post if anyone else wants to help me with the bribing/buying of my C&E license please let me know how much you will pledge. Cheers guys and gals
Monday 27th April
Today got off to a blinding start, we were waiting in the car park for our new instructor to turn up, it got to about 8.20am no sign of him so I rang the office [note i had angry wife in the car as it wasn’t a drop me off see me later routine, our son who has been ill this weekend and had to be at the docs for 10am and our three year old daughter who is sometimes like someone ten year her senior ie girly strops ] Lady in the office answered said he was stuck in traffic would be with us soon… At 9.30am the new instructor turns up, says sorry for being late he thought he was working in Leicester this week and only realised when at the Leicester office at 8am that he should be in Northampton… So the office lady saying he was stuck in traffic blatantly lied to me, and I do not like people who lie to me, it really doesn’t sit well with me. Anyway he says I owe you a hour and a half training is it ok if we stick it on the back of today, yep no worries.
Our instructor from last week said he’d write up notes on us so our new instructor would have a full insight as to what we had done last week, including each trainees strong points, and where we need to get stronger, as well as what we have generally been doing for the first two days of training. When our new instructor turned up he says ‘should have had some notes written on you but they weren’t done, so we’ll have to start from scratch in terms of what you need to improve on’… I can see this day turning into a nightmare
I jump up into the driving seat first, and we just went around the roads of Northampton {finally} and went round all the roundabouts coming in from different directions to make sure we knew if the lanes narrowed or what have you. We swapped over after about an hour and a half of me driving and Dave drove for the same amount of time. When we had both had a good drive round some of the awkward turns, our instructor told us what he thought, didn’t really have a bad word to say on Dave’s performance, said to me that my speed on approach could be better my entry into/out of some junctions could be better, but overall a very good drive.
The fact he’d not said anything negative as such about Dave’s drive could ■■■■ some people off if they were the other trainee as the ‘he’s better than me’ mindset may set in. However in my case I love being the ‘underdog’ the one who doesn’t come out on top at the start, as it gives me something to achieve, if the sun was shining out of my arse from the outset, that wouldn’t suit me [not saying the sun shines out of Dave’s arse or that that particular sentiment was shown, but its the best way I can describe the scenario.
That said after lunch I took the advice of the instructor and did my thing, my speed on approach was spot on at each roundabout/ junction, as was my positioning, there was one right ■■■■■■ of a turn we did where I kissed the kerb, but we went round did it again and second time round got round it fine, the instructor came out with a cracker, he said ‘treat all kerbs like 16 year old virgins, its not so much of a problem just kissing them, but whatever you do, don’t mount them or there’ll be trouble’ made us both smile and I think it is ranked second in the list of good things instructors say to make sure you do/don’t do something, the first being don’t be a tnuc have a shunt.
The day went fine, nothing really of note to say we went round the town did all the possible roads we may be taken down on test and that was it. Tomorrow we’re going back to St Albans to use the reversing area, where we will and I quote ‘practise the reverse until you are both happy you know what you need to do on Wednesday morning, if you don’t feel confident doing it, then its not time to leave the reversing pad’ sounds good to me, I’ll be able to but into practise the advice I asked folk from here for until I find something that works and gets me in. We’ll also run over the couple/uncouple and the controlled stop.
Looking forward to tomorrow and getting this reverse nailed so I’m happy to do it on Wednesday and the nerves are starting to creep in a bit now, that could be due to the test or due to the fact my team need to win tonight {Newcastle v Portsmouth} I think it might be a bit of both, but if the Toon win I’m hoping it’ll be a good omen.
I’d just like to say thanks to those who I pm’d[Mothertrucker, Rog, Peter Smythe, Gogs, Garth, A Mc] and got a reply from over the reverse thing all advice has been taken on board and it was pretty much all along the same lines and I look forward to putting it into practise tomorrow and sorting the reverse technique out. Also ta to Rog for taking the time out on Sat to answer my various other queries, and looking at that light sequence was a bloody good idea .
Until tomorrow when I have news on cracking the reverse/cracking me head open on brick wall, I bid you goodnight
Tuesday 28th April
Today’s agenda was to get the reverse so that we were both happy and fairly confident of what we were going to do. With this in mind off we go down to St Albans to use the reversing pad down there. Dave drove all the way down which I was fairly happy with as it gave me time to reflect on the tips I’ve been given for the reverse. In my head I’ve decided, that if I know it won’t go into the garage, that trying to force it in is not the way, just stop have a decent shunt and take it back from there. The problem I had last week was that I was trying to correct myself when I was too far gone in terms of being able to resurrect a good finish because I wanted to get it in first time every time no shunts, like Dave was doing. I’ve learnt from this and I was ready to go with my battle plan.
We got to the reversing area, as Dave was in the driving seat he did one first, you guessed it, in first time perfect. He gets out, I jump in, take it to the start line, do my thing, realise at the point of where I am not going to get this in, shunted it, then got it in the garage no problems, I like this technique I did a couple more each one I did, I got it to a point where I was happy to grab a shunt, did so then put her in the garage. I jumped out, Dave jumped back in again did three spot on reverses, lovely stuff. I hope he is able to replicate his reverse tomorrow, because I’m worried that if the nerves or whatever get to him, he may not take a shunt or whatever if he gets into a position where he needs one as all he’s done for all the reverses is just pop it in the garage. I’m sure he’ll do it spot on again.
We were going to go for lunch after Dave had done his last one, however I fancied doing one last one just to make sure I was happy, Darren our instructor said make sure you end on a high jon, don’t fluff it. With those words in mind, I got it straight into the garage the first time, a one hit wonder that helped the old confidence a bit, but I said I was going to do my way on the test still so I know the plan of action.
We went for some grub then did a couple of controlled stops, these were fine again, then we did a couple of uncouple/couples. Mine went fine no worries I know my BLACK BN and my KCALB LNB and I stick to them, saying in my head what to go onto one after the other. Dave did his first one fine, with his second one, he did BLA then got in the cab, the instructor shouted out have you forgotten anything, ‘no don’t think so’ …■■■■ the clip and kingpin He climbed down and did those, and then did the couple up fine. Back on the road up to Northampton, I drove back M10, M1 came off at J16 went up to the test centre, I slightly kissed a kerb in the drag up to the test centre, but he said it would have been fine as it was a very slight touch. Got up to the test centre changed over. Dave drove down through Weedon, Flore, over to the A45 came off to go up to the Lodge Farm ‘tight as you like’ junction, did that fine no worries, nipped onto the industrial estate, I jumped in drove back down through town then up to Moulton Park, where we did one more uncouple/couple but we did it together as it’d started to chuck it down dave did the BL i did A he did CK move unit away, I did walkround ‘new’ trailer, reverse back on he took the A off I did LB and then the light check.
Meeting up with the instructor at 6am then we’re going up to Weedon as Dave lives there, Dave will drive for a bit then we’ll head to test centre his test is at 8am mine is at 9:45am. All I can do now is hope the nerves don’t come in too much and give it my best shot, I’ll try to do you all proud I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow and just see what happens.
I’d like to thank those folk who have kept up to date on this blog thing and for the words of encouragement. Let’s be having it
Wednesday 29th April
Well today was the day of judgement, was down to Moulton Park for 6am the instructor was there,jumped in, drove through town and up to Weedon to the test centre where we met up with Dave he drove from here round Daventry to get himself warmed up as it were. Got back to the test centre. We went in sat around for five-ten minutes then Clive one of the examiners came out, checked Dave’s paperwork and took him out. I was fairly sure Dave was going to pass as he had been the better of the two of us throughout the course I thought. I spend the following hour and a half getting more and more worried and wound up. Darren said we should go and get some fresh air and try not to think about the impending doom I was about to face We were stood outside the gates of the test centre when Dave came back then he went to the reversing area where he did his couple/uncouple as he was checking his lights, our instructor started walking up to the truck where he waited for the news, once the examiner had walked off I got beckoned to join them. I got to the truck said how did it go, ‘Not good’ was the reply, he had got 5 minors and one serious for being in the wrong lane at a roundabout. It was the same roundabout where I picked up my single minor on my C test for being in the wrong lane, and from the sounds of things it was pretty much the same mistake but he got a serious fault against his name… ok then.
My turn now, I had Terry as examiner if anyone’s interested, pulled up to the reversing start, start moving put lock on…■■■■ didnt take it off in time i’m too near the line for my liking i’m going to have to shunt forward and try this again that’ll leave just one shunt for the garage, this is not the start I wanted. Eventually got it round and going diagonally straight, then thought I was going to get it in with no more shunts, but I wasn’t sure, thought it best to grab a big shunt forward and go into the garage straight from a distance out. Did that fine, another problem now, the shadow that was cast from the sun’s position made it really hard to see the marker, I had a guess at where I thought it was and stopped, got out and looked, I needed to go a few feet back so I got in went back and hoped I’d gone far enough back, but not too far…
Terry got in took me round to controlled stop, did that fine no worries, then onto the road. With the fact I’d really messed the reverse up playing on my mind, I wasn’t concentrating as much as I should have been I don’t think. Saying that I thought my positioning for junctions and roundabouts was pretty much spot on maybe pinching more road too much sometimes, and not enough at others but I got round them with no problems, no kerbs clipped and no horns beeped at me. We get back to the test centre I go to do my uncouple, do that fine park parallel to the trailer, Terry opens my door and says stay in there and recouple. At this point I think i’ve failed because I should be able to get out check the brake on trailer and say to take number plate out…
I pull forward then think ■■■■ i’ve not done check on new trailer. Get out walk quickly back to trailer he says ‘what are you doing?’ Checking my new trailer is my response, ‘Why have you left your unit so far away? You should just have brought it closer to the trailer then get out and check’ This really isn’t going well so I get back in unit reverse back to trailer, get out check it over check fifth wheel will go under ok then proceed to couple up. Check clip, put lines on, LEGS UP[GORDON 
] then brake off, ask him if he will check my lights, ‘why didn’t you turn them on when in the unit then you could check when you’ve coupled up save having to get back into the unit and asking me to do it for you’ God this is not going well. He checks lights for me then jumps in the cab.
Before I am able to tell him I’d put the number plate on then do a brake test as well as check height of trailer compared to height shown on cab indicator he says ‘I regret to tell you that the drive you just did was a pass’ I’m thinking what you regret you’ve passed me?? He then went on to say that my driving was good enough to pass a DSA driving test, but if it was up to him and him calling the shots, and it being done to ‘his standards’ I wouldn’t have passed.He said my positioning could have been better and my approach speed to junctions/roundabouts could have been quicker, the thing was I was too fast at the start of my course, and now i’ve obviously gone the other way with it
He said just make sure you learn from what I’ve said now and gave me my test certificate and took my license away to upgrade it, all in all got 8 minors which I guess is middle of the road score and its got me the license upgrade I was hoping for and again on my first attempt, won’t be complacent about that by any means as that’s not how I am, but its a good feeling to get that pass even better if its a first time one.
On that note, anyone wanna gisa job■■? 
Cheers to all who have followed my progress with this and for the comments and advice, also thank you to Tony and Darren at J. Coates for being very professional and helpful throughout the course. I’d recommend the training school to anyone, as I would do with what I know about Data Academy, but I ended up doing my test with J Coates, as they can be located in Northampton as I felt it would be easier to train and test on roads I knew better.
Off to get some beers in for tonight, I think I deserve one