Mike-C:
Taffos!:
Has any squaddy on here confessed to knowing it all?Conor ?
His facts are true facts though hahahah 
I love banter
where i work at downton we are inviting ex forces who are ready to leave and come back to civvy life a week with a driver covering all aspects of the job.
got to be better than them going straight to an agency for a job with no idea.
When I left the Army at the end of 79 they didnāt have Class One instructors, for our resettlement courses we were sent to civvie HGV training centres. I went to Liverpool with a group of lads from different units. We drove the usual HGV training vehicles, light artic Bedfords and Fords with an unloaded 26ft single axle trailer. A five day course purely driving, no roping and sheeting training or coupling/uncoupling, the motors were hooked up all the time and the course was geared up to just passing the driving test.
This was no different to what a civvie driver going from Class Two to Class One would do at the time. It wasnāt so bad for me I had previous haulage background before joining the mob but most of those other lads wouldnāt have known a Dolly Knot from a blow up Dolly! How they got on after demob I havenāt got a clue, it was hard enough for me and as I say I had previous experience but like me they were told āYeah, get your Class One, loads of jobs out there for drivers, you wonāt have any problemsā. Probably the last con the Army would pull on us.
Having said that, over the years I was driving I came across many ex forces guys who were and would continue to do the job no problem. There was just drivers who were good and those not so good it didnāt matter whether they were ex forces or civvie street. Remember also in the early days most drivers had learnt the trade during conflict in either the first or second wars and all the minor ones between and after, they were the guys that started some of the biggest and well known companies in British haulage history with drivers of ex military backgrounds as the backbone of these companies. True in more modern times the military hasnāt kept pace with their civilian counterparts, they mostly drive completely different vehicles anyway, that are loaded and secured in their own particular way because of the job they do. I donāt know how they go about HGV (LGV now I suppose) training for ex forces resttlement thesedays but I hope they got a lot more than we did in the early days. Franky.
I got all my licences bar the car licence in the Forces. When i did my class 1 coupling up was part of the test. I had a 30 ft trailer and picked the examiner up, went to the manovering area, coupled up, and had to talk the examiner through what and how i had done it, then did the manouvers and went out for the drive. Got shed loads of artic experience in my last 3 years, all of it in the RAF. The policy at Wittering was, if youāve got the licence you will use it, although initally we had to go out with civvies to prove we could drive them, then after a couple of jobs we were on our own. Load and restraint was a course on its own, and if you failed it you didnāt do the āheaviesā course. My inital heavies, hgv 3, was done in 1988, then i had to do hgv class 2, then the buses and finally class 1, and got loads of experience on all of them. Not all of the Forces are the same, nor are all RAF units. I was lucky. However, i have dropped a trailer, i backed under it, at the correct height, heard the trailer click in, did the pull forward test 3 times, and it was connected. I drove out the yard, having to turn right, everything fine, turned left out the gate and left the trailer behindā¦Now, i get underneath and visibly check itās connectedā¦But spending most days in Hull i see wagon and drags being used as the c+e, and only once have i seen an actual artic, so i think it is down to the inital training, and if they get no experience then these things will happen. Having said that, he should have asked if he was unsure. Iād much prefer to look a ā ā ā ā then leave a trailer at the gate
limeyphil:
āā¦ You may be in a carda of 30 men, and only 5 will get to drive.
It was an instructor that told me thisā¦ā
Maybe get back & ask if he meant cadre 
stevenmac08:
I am preparing to leave the army this week on redundancy, so for the last year when on leave I have been doing agency work and I have been very surprised by all the help I have received from other drivers. I thought that after all the threads that I read here I get no help but wrong.
i used to get the ex army guys to show them the ropes from an agency i worked for at the time. i was doing agency work while i was serving so i came out with a head start and i am always happy to give a hand to those that want it. you will find that ex forces run into each other and have an instant bond regardless of what you did when you served. all ex forces have a mutual cultural understanding and tend to stick with each other. maybe as a reminder of the good times cos you have signed them away now 
Taffos!:
dle1uk:
I worked with a guy 2 years ago that had HGV license from the army as part of his resettlement after getting injured in an accident. he drove rigids but got asked to take an artic out one day, but could,nt reverse it, turned out he had done training through the army but had never reversed a trailer, other then a sankey? Now i thought this was crap so asked lad I know who is a civvy driver after doing full years in army and coming out but still drives for the MOD, and he says he knows quite a few ex forces lads with the similar training or severe lack of itā¦Yet again a sankey? Never heard of it full years in army? Is that 1 year or 22? I know people who have been driving (non forces) for 30 years plus who canāt reverse an artic proves the square root of nothing really doesnāt it!
it was 22 years, the guy i mentioned actually got given his license and had never reversed a trailer, in training or on the testā¦ now defend it how you want but this is bloody dangerous practiseā¦ makes no difference to me wether its a civvy driver or ex forces as there is good and bad in both.
A sankeyā¦ Now that takes me back to my Land Rover days. With a proper NATO hitch I take it?
cieranc:
Was talking to my brother again today, his class 1 is valid from 16-03-2010. He was in Iraq between Feb and August 2010.
And he maintains heās never driven anything bigger than a 7.5 tonner.
Heās not complaining, heās got a free class 1.
But he readily admits heās not competent to drive a truck.
Itās happened to one of our rigid drivers. Sent his license off to change his address and came back with C+E on it. Never touched an artic or wagon and drag in his life.
You canāt tell me people think the dvla are perfect all the time 
Dear Trucknetfreands, 30 years ago in my Armytime driver for Trucks make
School about 4 Weeks. Drive on Day on Night , with and without Trailer.
on Highway , in a big Town in Wood on Mountains and 2 Days without
sleep.After finished = examination.
Today all quickly,quickly and = Accident. And maby ill or Poorboy.
Have all a nice Weekend
Sven ( Ex Army Policemen 1984)
i done 12 years and came out with a car licence, paid for my own hgv licence as a civilian and still manage to ā ā ā ā up now and thenā¦none of us are perfect
oddzpop:
āā¦ one of our rigid drivers. Sent his license off to change his address and came back with C+E on it. Never touched an artic or wagon and drag in his lifeā¦ā
That surely equates to ābeer-for-lifeā
You need never be thirsty again, ever 