So I had my first lesson class 2 today and safe to say I hated it I found it way too hard even though I really want a job doing this. My instructor for today (and only today) kept shouting watch the curb, your too far left move over to the right. Went under a bridge and he’s shouting move over to the right. Put your foot down and speed up. Struggled with the roundabouts putting the hand break on and then trying to exit quickly when he said to go.
I was driving round Wales not my area but the HGV school had good reviews (Deeside Mold Wrexham area). Anyway I’ve never driven anything bigger than a car and I feel like quitting because of the experience. A class 2 break and accelerator are “more firm” if that makes sense than what say a car pedal is. It feels like I was thrown in the deep end, I don’t know if I should go back on Monday and just explain to whatever instructor I’m supposed have and ask if I could maybe spend an hour since it’s a 4 hour lesson getting used to the breaking and accelerating before going out.
Like he was a nice guy pointing out various things and telling me about his life, but making mistakes constantly has put me off. My practical test is booked for July 25th and if anything like to day is to go by I will fail it.
Has anyone been in this situation before or have any advice?
Did you expect to be the perfect driver on your FIRST lesson?
None of us were mate,.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and all that
If you are keen stick with it, it will come eventually…and ffs dont tell the instructor how to do his job or go about his training methods.
Good luck anyhoo.
road positioning will come with time the further you are over to the right the more you can see. As a rule of thumb i found if you could just see the white line in your offside mirror your not far off where you need to be. Certain arched bridges have “goal posts” that guide large vehicles through at the marked height you need to be with in them to make it through.
Was it an automatic handbrake (electronic) or a proper one? I dont see the point of messing around for an hour in the yard to get used to the throttle etc as you can do that out on the road.
When i did my class 2 the pedal felt a lot higher compared to my car and i kept putting my foot under it however i soon got used to it just a matter of concentrating and adding in some error correction time.
Your ability, or lack of, should have been identified on an assessment drive, usually at the point where you’re committing to the course, only after that can they know how far you can go during your first lesson.
I had a bad experience with my Class 2 trainer, who was similar it seems to what you’re experiencing. If you don’t go back you won’t be entitled to any refund, so take the weekend to chill and think carefully.
None of us are born with a vocational entitlement, it does take effort, and none us us can say if your trainer is at fault or if you weren’t paying attention to him, so it’s not right for any of us to comment about either of those things.
Personally I’d say speak to the trainer, let him know how you’re feeling; a good trainer should have some consideration for that.
Err ahem,
But to be fair I never took a test, except for a car and a moto, but I know what the OP means about the handbrake business. When the tests first came in I was exempt but an older mate wasn’t, because he had taken time away from driving. He was an expert artic driver but failed at least twice because he didn’t put the handbrake on while waiting at a junction.
I once took a test with Nottingham City Transport on a double decker. Thought I was a shoe in because of my impeccable drive and reversing on mirrors into a side street. Except for one thing, not being used to sitting in front of the steer axle I clipped one kerb with the back wheels when turning left being over confident I forgot to follow it in the mirror.
Stick at it and take it steady, only way to go. Best o’ luck.
Sounds like a classic first day of training to me. You sound surprised that the pedals feel different to a car? You say you’ve been thrown in at the deep end. That’s what it will feel like for the next 12 months at least, only you have voluntarily thrown yourself in.
So my advice, having been where you are relatively recently, would be to voluntarily embrace the learning curve - it will be tough and steep and as many a driver who has been driving for donkey’s years will still say, everyday is a school day out there on the road.
After passing the driving test comes the real learning: dealing with narrow lanes, heavy traffic, having to turn a 26t around in a residential estate because you have gone past your delivery point, finding your delivery points, getting spoken to like ■■■■ at your delivery points, learning to read road signs, strapping loads, operating tail lifts, pulling into a lay-by shamefaced when you realise you haven’t put your tail lift away, not forgetting your tacho card, managing your time with regards to breaks, being lied to by people who just want their stuff - “we’ve had artics down here begire” but they decline to tell you one got stuck, damaging the lorry and feeling like ■■■■. Don’t get me wrong there are good, sometimes amazing bits, but I’ll save those for another post. For now, if this really is what you want, knuckle down and push through the pain and at some point in the distant future, it will feel worth it.
my first instructor was a bit like that ,but then again i had been driving 7.5t for a while and probably had every bad habit there is . the problem was i dont take kindly to being treat like that and i quite simply spent the lesson wanting to punch him . i need to add that his methods must have worked in majority of cases as he had a very good pass rate . anyway the next guy was totally different .he gave me a route and let me drive ,and the end of it he would say (calmly) right lets do that again but this time ,when you get to x instead of doing whatever do it this way . i learnt more and quicker . carry on and stay calm it will come .
Back in the days of trucks with a clutch, one lad I worked with did his class 2 courtesy of the company, but with the defaut instructor of a nearby driving school. Who had a habit of teaching people not to cover the clutch (as most of us did initially) by kicking them in the foot. Words were had along the lines of “Pack it in or I’ll stick one on you”
After half a day of this the lad stopped the truck and gave the instructor the old, “Right, outside the f’in cab, now!”
“But I always teach like this…” said Kicky McKickface. They managed to come to an understanding before it actually became physical.
My Class 2 instructor was a real t-osser, a fat little weeble who claimed he had been an instuctor in the army (TA at best I thought). I had to tell him to wind his neck in, he was barking orders at me like Battery Sergeant Major Williams in It Ain’t Half Hot Mum as if I was one of his squaddies. Another one of the “I always do it like this” brigade.
On the morning of my test he said “I don’t reckon you’ll pass, you’re too nervous.”
I responded “No, I’m not nervous at all, I’m f’in angry, you’re constantly p155ing me off with your BS attitude”.
After the test, sitting in the cab with the examiner, he looked over at me with a resigned expression as if to say “I told you you’d fail.”
I took great pleasure in holding up the pass certificate while giving him the finger.
When I did my Class 1 with another company nearby I got to hear a number of tales of FUBARs this guy had had, including one where his candidate had a head on smash with another vehicle. Mind, I wasn’t knocked out by the quality of the Class 1 instuctors at this newer place.
