Firstly Please excuse me if I’ve not gone about this correctly, I haven’t used a forum for years…
I have a retest booked in a couple of months time for class 2 due to failing on the reverse because of hitting the barrier due to the marker on the mud guard being out of place… what I’m after Is knowing of any other tips or hints to help me get over the fear of it happening to me again on test day…
Also does anyone know if and when the reverse is being taken out of the main test
Trucker2021:
Firstly Please excuse me if I’ve not gone about this correctly, I haven’t used a forum for years…I have a retest booked in a couple of months time for class 2 due to failing on the reverse because of hitting the barrier due to the marker on the mud guard being out of place… what I’m after Is knowing of any other tips or hints to help me get over the fear of it happening to me again on test day…
Also does anyone know if and when the reverse is being taken out of the main test
Reverse is scheduled to come off around Feb 22 (according to a few news releases). Try looking at YT vids from ‘National Driving Centre’, some really helpful hints and tips.
The purists will say you should be able to judge the barrier in relation to the back of your vehicle. However, in the world of training, that is rarely the case. Most folks will rely on some sort of a marker.
My advice will vary according to which type of test centre you are using eg at my old school which had it’s own test centre, lines naturally formed between sections of concrete could be very handy. But if you’re at a public centre, you wont get the opportunity to find such markers. So, firstly, make sure you’ve got the marker set at your practice site. It should then work perfectly at the test centre. Remember it’s better to stop short, get out and check, and then move back a bit more if you really need to. But you cant get out again to recheck.
An alternative, and you need to be very careful with this, is to keep goingaat snails pace until you JUST touch the barrier. If you a judged to have dislodged it in any way, it’s a serious (fail) fault. But touching it is fine.
In answer to the question about when the reverse is due to be separated from the driving test, I strongly suggest ignoring all press releases until an announcement has been made. The current rumour of late FEB seems to have come from RHA (but it might not have done). They know no more than anyone else. Personally, I would be amazed if it is into next year. As I’ve mentioned on the forum more than once, I will post accurate information as soon as it’s available.
Good luck, Pete 
The annoying thing about my first test is I was taught to use a market style peg which was on the rear mud guard and for my 2 days training I was able to get it spot on every time but come test day it had moved and wasn’t in the same position as the two days prior so as I’m sure you can work out is messed up my measurements I was using for them two days…
Since failing I’ve had a mate pass with the same school and he was told to watch the front cones at the front of the garage and stop when they are Inline with the mirrors on the doors…
Trucker2021:
The annoying thing about my first test is I was taught to use a market style peg which was on the rear mud guard and for my 2 days training I was able to get it spot on every time but come test day it had moved and wasn’t in the same position as the two days prior so as I’m sure you can work out is messed up my measurements I was using for them two days…Since failing I’ve had a mate pass with the same school and he was told to watch the front cones at the front of the garage and stop when they are Inline with the mirrors on the doors…
Those front cones can be moved about a metre even for the same vehicle so do not go by that
ROG:
Trucker2021:
The annoying thing about my first test is I was taught to use a market style peg which was on the rear mud guard and for my 2 days training I was able to get it spot on every time but come test day it had moved and wasn’t in the same position as the two days prior so as I’m sure you can work out is messed up my measurements I was using for them two days…Since failing I’ve had a mate pass with the same school and he was told to watch the front cones at the front of the garage and stop when they are Inline with the mirrors on the doors…
Those front cones can be moved about a metre even for the same vehicle so do not go by that
One thing that’s stuck in my head since that day I failed was the examiner said “you’ve even gone past the front cones but at the time i had no idea but thanks for the heads up anyways 
This is one of the things I am most worried about if/when I start driving Class 2 in the real world (I’m currently in contact with a few agencies about ad-hoc weekend work as I work full time not driving).
I passed with PSTT and managed to nail the reverse every time in practice and then on the test with a few simple steps - drive up to the left-hand cone and give myself as much room on the right as possible for the reverse. Reverse and steer left (I think it was 1.5 turns of the steering wheel), keeping an eye on my top right mirror to ensure I’m not getting too close to the right hand line - until I can see the middle cone in the right mirror so I know I can reverse clear of that, then it’s just like steering a car into a bay between the markers. Then the final part was reversing straight, to the area before the barrier and I did this by visually lining my mirror up with a marker to my right.
Of course, this isn’t possible when reversing up a loading bay in the real world, so I guess practice soon allows you to judge where the back end is. Still makes me a bit nervous thinking about it though, especially with the thought of driving different vehicles on agency - any tips much appreciated!
Goff118:
This is one of the things I am most worried about if/when I start driving Class 2 in the real world (I’m currently in contact with a few agencies about ad-hoc weekend work as I work full time not driving).I passed with PSTT and managed to nail the reverse every time in practice and then on the test with a few simple steps - drive up to the left-hand cone and give myself as much room on the right as possible for the reverse. Reverse and steer left (I think it was 1.5 turns of the steering wheel), keeping an eye on my top right mirror to ensure I’m not getting too close to the right hand line - until I can see the middle cone in the right mirror so I know I can reverse clear of that, then it’s just like steering a car into a bay between the markers. Then the final part was reversing straight, to the area before the barrier and I did this by visually lining my mirror up with a marker to my right.
Of course, this isn’t possible when reversing up a loading bay in the real world, so I guess practice soon allows you to judge where the back end is. Still makes me a bit nervous thinking about it though, especially with the thought of driving different vehicles on agency - any tips much appreciated!
So do you mean you done the same as my mate by stopping when your driver side mirror was in line with the cone and stick at the front of the “garage” on the manoeuvre
Trucker2021:
Goff118:
This is one of the things I am most worried about if/when I start driving Class 2 in the real world (I’m currently in contact with a few agencies about ad-hoc weekend work as I work full time not driving).I passed with PSTT and managed to nail the reverse every time in practice and then on the test with a few simple steps - drive up to the left-hand cone and give myself as much room on the right as possible for the reverse. Reverse and steer left (I think it was 1.5 turns of the steering wheel), keeping an eye on my top right mirror to ensure I’m not getting too close to the right hand line - until I can see the middle cone in the right mirror so I know I can reverse clear of that, then it’s just like steering a car into a bay between the markers. Then the final part was reversing straight, to the area before the barrier and I did this by visually lining my mirror up with a marker to my right.
Of course, this isn’t possible when reversing up a loading bay in the real world, so I guess practice soon allows you to judge where the back end is. Still makes me a bit nervous thinking about it though, especially with the thought of driving different vehicles on agency - any tips much appreciated!
So do you mean you done the same as my mate by stopping when your driver side mirror was in line with the cone and stick at the front of the “garage” on the manoeuvre
Yep, that was pretty much it. In practicing, I just remembered where I needed to be in relation to the cone marker and lined it up with that every time.
Those front cones can be moved about a metre even for the same vehicle so do not go by that
Technically correct. But I cant recall the last time it happened.
But lining up with the mirrors and the front cones obviously carries a risk.
Far better to have a reference point that cant move.
Pete
GOAL
Get out and look
I’m sure that’s allowed on the test? Get close-ish and stop, have a look and then work out how far you are off.
Apologies if that’s not the case
ROG:
Those front cones can be moved about a metre even for the same vehicle so do not go by that
The moving off the C cones stopped when the new smaller reversing area was introduced, if someone is moving them then it needs to be challenged.
Excuse me if I mis-understood anything, but I thought you had to pull the front of the vehicle between the A cones? If your vehicle has a front mirror (?) can’t you use that to see where they are in relation to the bumper?
I’d be a “purist” as far as Pete is concerned but that seems the best way to me?
I wouldn’t expect the cones were able to be moved? 3 feet is not insignificant. I thought their positioning was strictly controlled?
TruckerGuy:
Excuse me if I mis-understood anything, but I thought you had to pull the front of the vehicle between the A cones? If your vehicle has a front mirror (?) can’t you use that to see where they are in relation to the bumper?I’d be a “purist” as far as Pete is concerned
I wouldn’t expect the cones were able to be moved? 3 feet is not insignificant. I thought their positioning was strictly controlled?
I think you are referring to the start cones - this thread is referring to the front garage/final park cones
I checked with the instructor at PSTT that the cones would be in the same place when I did my test the next morning, but they were also placed on painted lines on the ground, so that was a double-check.
Pete S:
An alternative, and you need to be very careful with this, is to keep goingaat snails pace until you JUST touch the barrier. If you a judged to have dislodged it in any way, it’s a serious (fail) fault. But touching it is fine.
Odd isn’t it. On your test, if you hit it you fail, but in the real world, you have to hit the bump stops on bays to make sure the gap is small for tipping.
Ken.
Odd isn’t it. On your test, if you hit it you fail, but in the real world, you have to hit the bump stops on bays to make sure the gap is small for tipping.
I thought I’d made it clear that touching the barrier is fine. But smacking into it isn’t. And this is the same in the real world.
Pete S
Maybe they should make the barrier out of breeze blocks and cement, touch them and you’re ok, but knock them over and you’re in trouble [emoji28]
I’ve argued for years that it should be a block/brick construction to mimic a loading dock. And I would fail anyone hitting it with any force and anyone who was not pretty well square with the dock.
Pete S
Thank your all for your input some of it made me chuckle, let’s just hope in roughly 6 weeks time I get it done better than in august… hoping my nerves will be better also, imo it’s tough when you really want something… maybe trying to break the ice with examiner will go in my favour