After being here a week, I completed all the employer/company insurance questions and tests (took nearly 2 days!), converting my licence to a class 5 car licence (I also asked for my full Class 6 motorcycle licence and i got it…Yay! ), new Canadian bank account, SIN tax number and other stuff i have forgotten about.
On Monday I took and passed the trainee Truck Drivers 35 question test to gain the Learners Drivers Licence to drive trucks, then got my restricted Airbrake 15 endorsement… and i was ready to (or is that ‘good to go’?.. I am Canadian )
My three day airbrake course begins this Friday… after this, they are guessing on about about 15 to 20 hours of driving which includes pretrip training to get me up to speed… then my driving test the following Friday…
it’s all pretty strict here for driving licences, training and courses… everything must be completed in full and certified or the licencing office just tell you to bugger off. (The licencing office employees remembered my first name when i walked in the door to book my Airbrakes Test!.. )
By far the hardest thing for me to master was the Eaton 18 speed ‘crash gearbox’… the last time i used one was about 26 years ago in a Ford Transcontinental where, when i was first ‘teaching myself’ to use a crash box, i managed 85mph on the A1 down Boroughbridge bank out of control in neutral … so i knew what to expect
In Canada it has taken me about 4 or 5 hours to convert my brain from ‘syncromesh’ (bang the clutch down, clutch every gear) to ‘non syncromesh’ shifting (blip the clutch or don’t use the clutch) … up shifting is pretty easy… my downshifting began with high pitched screaming whirrs and that was just from the driver trainer’s mouth … you should have heard the noise the box was making … and splitting the gears… what a nightmare!..
No one told me this ‘Rocky Mountain’ place was all hills… which makes even harder to downshift and upshift… anyway I’ve just about sussed the gears out now… another 10 years and i will have mastered low range, 10 years for high range… and only another 10 more years for the splitter
lol… we have all been there!
my big probs were elbow on windowsill & hand on gearlever 26yrs o bad habits hehe.
Learned to drive on constant mesh leylands ,atki,maggies and 20yrs later after syncro /auto boxs relearning on freightshaker must have been nuts.
jimmy.
I had last driven a foden with a fuller and was surprised how quick it come back. Lhd wasn’t a big as problem as I feared well apart from after doing the reverse I helped the examiner pick up his cones as I was last test that day and then trying to get in the passenger side with him.
I still go for the right door at times now.
I did my test here in an autoshift, so no messing with gearsticks for me
The first time I had a gearstick in my germans over here was on the road test for my current job, I’d driven plenty of constant mesh boxes without any problems before,Transcons, Sed Aks, ERFs, Ivecos, Dafs etc, so wasn’t anticipating any problems, big mistake… I played both the British and Canadian national anthems before I got through the first set of lights in town Then it clicked and all came back to me
The CAT engines are the easiest to shift, they’re not as revvy as a Detroit or ■■■■■■■■ but downshifting a split and stick shift can catch you out still, a split only is easy, just a blip or lift of the throttle depending on whether it’s an up or downshift, but going from low split in one gear to high split in the next one down messes up the split as you’re bring the rpms up…unless you use the clutch and do a proper double declutch, then it all goes through as it should, apart from pulling away, that’s the only time I ever use the clutch
contractdriver:
After being here a week, I completed all the employer/company insurance questions and tests (took nearly 2 days!), converting my licence to a class 5 car licence (I also asked for my full Class 6 motorcycle licence and i got it…Yay! ), new Canadian bank account, SIN tax number and other stuff i have forgotten about.
Something i had forgotten to tell you about… the ‘Pee’ test
Simple really, turn at the ‘Pee Testing Clinic’, pee 60ml into a plastic cup… go home
So i go there with 2 other blokes from the company, i’m bursting when we got there… i go and have my accompanied pee only to find i have an ‘airlock’ and couldn’t get to to required 60ml level .
I was told i had to re-do it… the other two had to wait until i pee’d before they could go (the crazy drug testing company policy!) … but they were bursting and had to go, so they they had to ‘build up’ their Pee again… i was only allowed drink half cup of water every 20 minutes… then loads more blokes turned up… all bursting for a pee… but they couldn’t go until I had gone… and they are all ‘writhing’ around clutching their ‘gentlemen’s area’…
A few arguments ensued about peeing and i had to verbally defend myself (I don’t think they understood my geordie accent and fowl langauge … and probably just as well! ) … one and a half hours later … i managed to fill about 3 cups, the toilet lid (it was closed and sealed) the sink and the floor… my first act of aggression in Canada and it was all about peeing!
lol…its no just me then (need it done for Lafarge powder hauling& flyash out o estevan).
mind you will/can be called in to pee test any time .
pain in the but. Did you not do a breathelyser at same time?.
jimmy
contractdriver:
My three day airbrake course begins this Friday… after this, they are guessing on about about 15 to 20 hours of driving which includes pretrip training to get me up to speed…
then my driving test the following Friday…
Just the sort of info, I was looking for…
Good luck contract, keep us informed… of how you find the pre-trip and what the test is like.
I paid $200 for Airbrake Course on Friday 6pm to 9pm, Sat 9am to 5pm and Sunday 9am to 5pm it was actually quite interesting and ‘hands on’ nearly the whole way though, they were really drumming it in about everything to do with brakes because here in the ‘Rockies’ there quite are a few hills compared to say Alberta… which is very flat.
ICBC Training Course 16hrs
ICBC Brake Pretrip Course 4hrs
Took my 25 question test today at 8.30am ($15 fee!) at the ICBC and passed with 100%… … and I’ve now got Airbrakes 15 Endorsement on my Licence ($17.50 fee!)
Now doing my full pretrip training 1 hour + 2 hours driving per day… and learning how to drive to pass my test!.. heads battered!.. but will keep plodding on… driving test on Friday.
It’s difficult trying to cram everything in within a short amount of time…
keep it going. tskes a while for it all to sink in I was on the road on about 10 days and $1600 lighter lol with the rockies just take your time and treat with repsect you be fine
I can’t believe you have to pay for an air brake course
I went to DMV, got a free CDL rule book which included questions and answers, studied it, took the written course which included air brake stuff, passed that then took my driving test and passed.
Pat Hasler:
I can’t believe you have to pay for an air brake course
I went to DMV, got a free CDL rule book which included questions and answers, studied it, took the written course which included air brake stuff, passed that then took my driving test and passed.
It’s mandatory here Pat… I got the ‘free’ CDL book for BC, went in to do the test and the ‘Blondie lookalike’ told me to ‘fade away’ and come back after i had got my 16 hrs training ticket and 4 hrs airbrakes adjustment ticket… so i have just done it on the weekend and pre-booked my DMV test with ‘Blondie’ on the Monday morning at 8.30am…
I got every question right 100% on my ICBC test at the DMV and ‘passed’ …yay!
BUT NOW IS THE DREADED PRE-TRIP TRAINING WHICH HERE IN BC THEY ARE ‘SHET-HOT’ ON…
So I 'built myself a ‘pre-trip’ rig in the house! (salt n pepper shakers are my secondary and primary air tanks, it’s fully loaded and the sleeper is massive ) It’s working for me… i’m beginning to remember the ‘order’ of things… it’s just the crawling around underneath which is a pain… literally!!
), new Canadian bank account, SIN tax number and other stuff i have forgotten about.
)
)
… so i knew what to expect
… you should have heard the noise the box was making 
what a nightmare!..
