Instructors, trainers, + driving related qualifications

Hi all, as promised in the Instructor Debate, i’m starting this thread specifically for people involved with or interested in, the industry. Aswell as those of us with further driving related qualifications.
You may freely brag about what you’ve achieved :laughing:
Newbies are welcome to ask questions related to their progress or any specific driving matters.

Have put it here in the Newbie section for now & hope that is acceptable to all. If you feel it should be moved to the Professional Drivers forum, say so, but personally, i think its more appropriate here.

I would suggest we start off by introducing ourselves & stating what qualifications we have…

NVQ = Not Very Qualified.

Grade 3 Cycling Proficiency Diploma

I’ve passed 7 driving tests in my life, all of them 1st time.

Agricultural tractor @ 16. Car @ 17. Driving Standards Agency Apprroved Driving Instructor @ 29 LGV C+E @ 31
BARSA (Blackburn Area Road Safety Association)
2 x RoSPA Gold (car) Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents.

I’ve done quite a lot of car driving tuition, from total novices to test standard. When i had my own training car for a while i had a very high pass rate.
Most of my work has been on a part time relief basis… just as was my LGV C & C+E instruction.

I’ve also driven C + E, mostly on general haulage work (some say the hardest!) again on a part time basis for some 17 years. Apart from when i had my own Scania 112 for a while doing 1800 miles a week in 1999. The year i also delived a new Land Rover for Save the Children by road to Thessalonika, Greece.

Started off gaining experience of many different types of vehicle, axle configuration & gearbox by doing Trade Plate delivery work for a while. Then got a lucky break through a contact onto driving for a local owner driver. This included some flat work, which i used to like. Though never did learn to rope & sheet.

Right now i’m not involved in the training industry at all, although i’ve just renewed my ADI registration. If i had the time available would like to get into teaching blue light emergency response driving. maybe LGV (fire engines, bomb disposal, etc).

I drive part time for an Irish sea freight haulier & shipping co. Although this may change after a meeting with management this Friday as they are downsizing the own fleet & Fleetwood, from where i work, is losing ALL its 12 units. :cry:

Wheel Nut:
NVQ = Not Very Qualified.

I like it Malc. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Driveroneuk:

Wheel Nut:
NVQ = Not Very Qualified.

I like it Malc. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

GNVQ = Generally Not Very Qualified

Wheel Nut wrote:-

Grade 3 Cycling Proficiency Diploma

I don’t remember getting a grade, even though it was a long time ago, I didn’t take mine on a penny farthing! Three speed Sturmey Archer with drop handlebars.

Got my Class one in 86 (or was it 87) and more or less went straight onto driver training.
Learned all about instruction from my old boss who was the best teacher I could have wished for.
Did over 20 years in driver training and tought many other instructors along the way.
Felt I had done enough when one guy asked me to train his son, because I had trained him and also his own father as well :open_mouth:
Decided I wanted to retire.
Also got PCV (PSV as it used to be) and done some coach driving as well as coach driver training.
Had a motor bike licence in my teens but no longer.
Cant remember doing my cycling proficiency but remember falling off a few times.
Also qualified for teaching horse riding and did that for many years in my teens and also got a certificate for dog training if all that counts.
also got NVQ certificates for:-
Swedish Massage (steady lads!)
Aromatherapy
Indian Head Massage
Reflexology
Manicure and Pedicure
and am a qualified beautician - although I never used any of that - just fancied a hobby and fancied night school after seeing Educating Rita
Also got all my Food Hygeine certificates when I went into catering.
… but apart from all that I am just a trucker really :unamused:

Hi all

Well I wonder if I’m possibly the youngest LGV driving instructor on the web site, I’m currently 27 and have been training new drivers since 3 years after passing my LGV driving test (1st attempt) at 21 (but i had been driving trucks off road since 15 on a massive airfield). I doubt any driving schools would normally get any applicants under 40, I know we don’t, am I the youngest?

I spent the 3 years after passing my test driving LGV C+E for a national general haulier delivering many different goods to all different sorts of locations/businesses in the UK. To be honest, I loved the job but all I was doing was filling in time and getting experience because as you all know to be able to train LGV drivers the instructor has to had their truck licence 3+ years.

I guess I’m lucky because my father set up Tockwith Training in 1971 and I could easily join the company, I have been training new truck/coach drivers for over 3 years - to be honest its an easy job, its not rocket science but it does take a good amount of skill, common sense and a professional approach to become a good instructor.

I passed my DSA Instructor Test at the first attempt a year after working as an LGV instructor at Tockwith. I’ve always scored well at tests, so I got 100% on the theory and took both part 2 and 3 in the same day at Darlington, I scored fives and sixes so I was happy with the result. I had never driven a truck around Darlington before - but as I always say - A good driver should read the road well and notice the signs and you can drive perfectly wherever you are.

So, is anyone younger than me doing this Job?

Also I became an RTITB Accredited Lift Truck instructor at 21, if you ask me it was more a challenge to pass that test than the DSA one, but maybe having done the lift truck one first prepared me for the correct way of how these bodies expect you can instruct that as we all know doesn’t always work in the real world.

LGV C+E
PCV D
RTITB Lift Trucks, inc Hiab, counterbalance, reach, telescopic, pedestrian, rough terrain (passed 7 lift truck related tests in total)
DSA LGV Registered Instructor
BAHons in Web Design (comes in handy)
BTEC in Graphic Design

But, I failed my cycling proficiency! Which figures because I’m a downhiller on a weekend if anyone knows what that means - i ride at stupid speeds down mountain courses designed for full suspension bikes.

oh and yes, many trainees ask ‘aren’t you young to be a driving instructor?’ I don’t ever find it problem because I approach the job very professionally. In my opinion the industry needs to attract far more younger drivers. My father set the company up at the age of 21 so that should prove age is not a barrier - he still trains every day and has 37 years experience (1971-2008), can’t think many have been doing it that long.

Maybe we can also see who is the oldest/most experienced!

How interesting. keep it coming guys n girls.

Night yard for one year shunter at National Carriers Leicester at age 18 - no licence at all :exclamation: - great experience - got to shunt all sorts of artics including scammel couplings and various rigids.

Late 70s - sent to National Carriers own training school at Peterborough on a one week residential course - passed in 7.5 tonner - first time :smiley:
spent 3 years cycling to work and then driving 7.5s before getting into a car - felt like a dinky toy :exclamation:

1988 did 7 day HGV Class1 artic (now C+E) course in Leicester and passed first time :smiley: :smiley:

1997 did car advanced with IAM - passed first time :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

1998 did lorry advanced with IAM - passed first time :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

1998 became ‘observer’ with IAM in which I ‘assist’ others to advanced test standard - got nearly 90 through the test in the past 10 years :smiley:

2005 became senior observer with IAM :smiley: - I can now teach others to become observers

2006 did IAM Special Assessment advanced test where the marking is done the same as for the police traffic drivers but without the use of Blues & Twos - oh, and not allowed to break the posted speed limits :frowning: :frowning: - this is not a pass or fail test as to pass it would require a score of 100% (perfect driver) and there is no such animal - got 84% which is considered a ‘VERY GOOD’ score for a civilian :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Every 3 years I do an assessment drive with one of our advanced examiners and in the interim 2 years I have an assessment drive with another senior observers

Got into LGV C instructing in 2005 (Jan to Nov) via a contact in my advanced driving group - got 1 hour of ‘how to do it’ and then got sent with another new trainee instructor in a truck to Northampton and got told “learn the test routes” - that was my training :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: - start of week two I got 2 C trainees for a week and managed to get first time passes from both - they had the same examiner so I had a good conversation with that examiner and got some good feedback from him for the future :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

May 2007 to May 2008 - more LGV instructing but this time on artic C+E as well as C - various fortunes as most of the early trainees were on free Peugeot redundancy funding and the majority were not bothered whether they passed or not - this will make some of you sick - they got a 7 day course plus a day and retest plus a day and retest - and most took the lot, all 9 days of training and 3 tests :exclamation: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: - very few passed - the ones that did want it passed first time and then used the rest of the funding towards their C+E where my pass rate was MUCH better as the ones doing that REALLY wanted it :exclamation: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

I’ve also got an ECDL - European Computer DRIVING Licence - but I don’t think that counts :unamused: :wink: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: