I intended to write a daily blog/diary of my training, but I became preoccupied I’m afraid. I hope what I write is helpful to fellow newbies. There are lots of diaries on here which have plenty of depth, which I have found really insightful and I thank their authors. I am going to do this a little differently and simply highlight how my week has gone but before that I want to offer the following endorsement towards my instructors.
My training school was PB Driver Training in Bristol. I cannot recommend these fine people enough. Their philosophy is not to simply prepare you for test, but to go beyond that and prepare you for real life work and introduce you to some of the trials and tribulations that go with that. I experienced training from all 3 of their full time trainers; Mike, Mark & Dave. They are all excellent fellows and professional experts. I felt always at ease with their individual approaches towards training. A continuous flow of critical praise can be expected from these 3 chaps. They will tell you when you are wrong and will tell you clearly what you must do to make the correction. They are also immensely fun! I must also thank Heidi who managed to get my CPC Mod 4 brought forward 3 weeks.
Day 1
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CPC Mod 4 in the morning. 2 hours or so of classroom training, which added to my previous homework, enabled a 100% pass. Nice and easy! There is quite honestly nothing to worry about. My fellow test candidate had done no prior homework and also obtained a 100% pass and he was non-native!
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Afternoon began class 1 training. Dave took the helm of the noble Daf XF95 480 for the first few miles to demonstrate not only its immense pulling power but to offer some concise advice about the differences between this artic and the rigid I drove some weeks previous for class 2, namely; length, height, braking performance, trailer swing and road positioning.
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I took over duties after 15 minutes. To get me used to the DAF Dave took me to a reasonably quite industrial estate in Avonmouth. I drove up and down a road containing 3 roundabouts. Must say this was a great way to safely get used to the truck and observe how the trailer reacts to various inputs. Use all of the road if you need to.
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Later we headed back to the training centre, but via Bristol. A little eye watering at first but I began to get the hang of it. But my observation was generally poor and Dave was forever reminding me to check the mirrors and plan ahead more, I progressively improved as I became more used to the truck and my surroundings.
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To say I got the hand of this vehicle quickly would be inaccurate to say the least. Some will say going from rigid to artic is no big deal, some say the opposite. For me the opposite is true. It took a long time to really appreciate the length above all else.
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I had a great day and really enjoyed it.
Day 2
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Started off really well. Yes there will be a but! My observation was greatly improved and I was beginning to look further ahead and plan accordingly. However I was still being told to stop reacting to situations and be more proactive and read the road, therefore being able to plan appropriately. As Dave kept mentioning. “I can see that the information from the road is getting to your eyes but you are not processing that information” I tried very hard to make this correction.
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Then I had a complete meltdown! Hill start. To be fair the syncro on this DAF has been abused, and now by me too. I just could not get her going, and that is not a euphemism. We were juddering severely and finally on the 3rd attempt and the second green light we got going. If Dave has fillings I think he would have been making an appointment at the dentist later that day!
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This really knocked my confidence big time. Dave did his best to put me right, but I just couldn’t understand why I was able to get the rigid up that hill no problem and then to have the problem in the artic.
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My problem with the clutch stems from having quite large feet. I tend to use my leg rather pivoting on my ankle to depress and release the clutch. This obviously intensifies any bounce that begins. So I had to change the way I use the clutch after 10 years of doing it wrong! The muscle across the top of my foot was aching badly by the end of the day.
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We did the reverse. I found this pretty straight forward. Although each time I did it I went on a different line. Not every reverse was the same. Some needed a shunt others did not. All in all Dave was pretty satisfied with this and he began collecting his teeth! The other benefit of the reverse was that I was able to really work out where the bite point on the clutch was.
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So, confidence knocked severely by the hill, but I was happy that reverse went ok.
Day 3
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I had a hopeless night’s sleep, added to which I had an inner ear problem which made me feel weird. No pain just weird feeling.
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We did the couple/uncouple exercise. I was having great difficulty in remembering the process. I consider myself as someone who used to be stupid, so this was really annoying me! Dave told me that Mike will get me to do it again tomorrow, but to watch some videos.
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I was still hung up about that hill start. It was clear to Dave that I was going to have ‘blonde’ day and I certainly did.
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Observation went badly downhill. Had I been on test I would have failed 5 or 6 times I think he said; meeting oncoming traffic x2, bad reverse, immerging without due care, forgetting the clip on the coupling exercise.
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I was feeling pretty crap. But Dave kept being supportive. He knew my general drive was reasonable but I had to stop the silly mistakes.
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So, end of day and the only good thing was that I had mastered the clutch. Everything else was shocking. I was disheartened to say the least. Test day tomorrow.
Day 4
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I made certain I had a good nights sleep. I had been to the doctor and he told me everything was fine. The inner ear is complex and can sometimes send incorrect messages to the brain. So I took painkillers to stop those silly nerves!
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Dave was in the classroom today lecturing CPC, boy did he look happy about that! I told him that he has to work sometimes. Mike took me out today.
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Like magic everything came together. Mojo had returned. Driving DAF almost became natural. I was having a really good time. Although right before the test centre I jumped a red light by mistake. Mike said “don’t do that”.
Test
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Reverse exercise. Went well, used one shunt. I am still not confident about where exactly the rear end is, so to make sure I didn’t back out of the yellow marked area I took a shunt. I used the whole area to get her in a nice straight line and backed into the bay, no problem. But 1 minor.
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Off we jolly well went. Examiner Dave was a very nice chap, and we had a good chat about this and that. He took me for CPC Mod 4 earlier in the week.
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I was praying we wouldn’t get to the “hill-of-doom”. He got me to pull over for a hill start, my heart filled with joy. We would not go to the “hill-of-doom”. No problem with the hill start. Good.
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Continuing ahead, left right etc etc. We stopped in queuing traffic, then postie in front of us put on hazards and jumped out. OK I thought we’ll be here for a while, foot off clutch. Still in gear, stalled. Examiner Dave rolled his eyes. Minor.
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Onward. This was getting familiar. Oh no!!! The “hill-of-doom”. Couldn’t believe it. Of course, to pass the test I should be able to deal with it. Thank God there was no problem, just a little judder. No trip to the dentist today.
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Carrying on. Approaching the test centre I kept an eye on the lights. However using all my brain power meant not putting on the indicator in good time. Minor.
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Couple/uncouple. Examiner Dave marked me down for not reacting to the fact the trailer had sunk so when I went back the trailer shifted up the ramps in front of the fifth wheel. He said maybe he was a bit picky about this, but he hates to see this happen. So. Minor. He also wasn’t convinced I took 2 tugs forward, so said “are you ready?” I responded that I had done the 2 tugs, but he hadn’t really noticed. I offered to do it again, and really did give the trailer a good tug! Examiner Dave was happy with that.
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Passed Class 1 C+E, 4 minors. Splendid stuff.
Thanks so much to all the team at PB Driver Training.
Also thanks to all the helpful and insightful people who have contributed to this forum. I have found very helpful.
I hope that I can contribute to help other newbies settle into this career path.
James 
