I took my Class C at Plymouth test centre today, so I thought I’d post my training/test experience for anyone who’s about to start the process.
I have been driving a 7.5t vehicle for 13 years for my current employer. This experience definitely helped with regards to spacial awareness and forward planning. It was just adapting to the extra length and weight of the larger vehicle.
Although the training was 4 hours each day I often only did 3 hours. I found after this time my ability to concentrate diminished, mental fatigue set in and I started to make mistakes which then knocked my confidence.
The most important thing I learnt during the 4 days training was to slow the vehicle down approaching junctions and roundabouts. Ease off the accelerator nice and early. This gives you vital time to check mirrors, signal and steer in a calm manner. If you rush, it’s easy to panic. You’re then trying to do everything at once and it’s easy to make a mistake.
On test day I was nervous as hell! I did an hours driving on the way to the test centre. It went well but it did little to calm my nerves. Although I was worried about the reversing exercise it turned out to be not too difficult. Placement of the vehicle is everything. You want to be as close to the lefthand cone as possible. Once I managed this ok I felt my confidence increase and It was out onto the road for the hour test.
This is where everything my trainer had drummed into me was put into practice. Keep calm, slow it down, mirrors, mirrors, mirrors and mirrors again. After about 40 minutes of the test the examiner put down his clipboard. Oh no!! Is this good or bad? Have I already failed? Surely not!! There were a few tricky moments on the test but on the whole I thought I’d done ok.
Not until I heard those magic words though would I know for sure.
I’d passed with 0 minor faults. I was in shock and couldn’t believe it!
Now the real learning begins.
