Hello Everyone,
I’ve been an online lurker for many months and finally signed up to the forum a short while ago.
I have been a mechanical engineer (commercial aviation) for 21 years and then last 9 years I was self-employed fiddling about with websites. Long story short, the website stuff was culled by Google and April 2019 found me essentially unemployed for the first time since I left school in 198* a long time ago. Bugger…so I dug deep into my savings (and my 2020 wedding fund…ouch) and paid for ADR, CPC and Class 2 training and set about learning some new (hopefully very useful) employment skills.
So as this post title hints at…I passed my Class 2 test yesterday after 2.5 days intensive (gosh did it feel intensive!) training.
Sadly (I’m absolutely thrilled to bits) I didn’t get a clean sheet, but 4 minors I can happily take any day.
I’m 48 and passed my motorbike test in 1988 and my car test in 1990. About the only advantage to being too close to 50 is that I have C1 grandfather rights with regards to CPC options. I took the periodic 35 hour option as I did an ADR (inc tanks) course before my test. So it saved me a bit of money with the training company combining ADR (3 days CPC) and 2 stand alone CPC days.
I passed my theory test no problem 99/100 for the questions and 87/100 for the tricky clicky bit. My previous driving experience has been motorbikes and cars, with a few months van driving and a bit of C1 in armoured vans (G4S cash delivery). So the step up to Class 2 was a steep learning curve (plus a few steep bloody kerbs…)
I trained with Trans-Plant Mastertrain in Exeter and through a bit of instructor sickness and vehicle availability ended up doing 1 to 1 training Monday to Wednesday with test 3pm on the Weds. I was allocated a hire vehicle to train in, a year old Mercedes Benz 1824 Actros sleeper/tail lift automatic. Loaded with several IBCs which gave a little bit of sea-sickness ha ha when my steering wasn’t as gentle as it should be.
Day 1 as you can imagine was a big leap from MSM in the car to MSM and tail swing in the Merc! I think in total I bumped up about 9 kerbs in 2 days but by test day on the Wednesday I was learning to steal space where I could and keep the speed way down low on approach.
To anyone reading this post and thinking about Class 2 I would absolutely recommend the newbie tips and personal blogs linked from Rog’s posts. I spent hours and hours watching videos and studying for my theory and reversing and just generally reading about other people’s successes and mistakes!
And the best bit…literally as I was typing this post the phone rang and a well known company wanted to discuss my (newly updated) CV and ADR driving ambitions!
I don’t really have much of a blog to write regarding the training, literally 2.5 days went in a flash. Only thing I will say is mirrors, mirrors, mirrors and more mirrors and keep the speed down real low and plan to stop but keep a slow roll going.
It’s an absolute pig being in an 18 tonne auto when you have to pull away from a busy roundabout and the ECU is playing juggle the binary and think of a gear. FFS just give me forward and all the BHP!!!
Oh and one more tip…Exeter is a bloody nightmare for tight roundabouts, even the DVSA LGV test centre has a narrow exit with 6 foot high pillars where you have to drive dead straight towards the opposite kerb before you can even think about tail swing. Bloody sadists who located that test centre.
Oh and don’t get me started on the elderly lady driver in Topsham who in a 20 mph narrow high street decided to pull out and overtake the oncoming hearse, at a zebra crossing, at a junction with an 18 tonne truck on the opposite side of the road approaching the same crossing…thankfully that was a training day.
Christ car drivers are absolutely brainless at times (not all I hasten to add, have some very switched on drivers helping me along my route)…welcome to trucking I hear you all smirk…hmmmm 
Thanks to everyone for their tips on this website, really useful. Cheers for reading and enjoy the sunshine wherever you end up this weekend.
Malcolm (South Devon)
