He Has to be Joking!!

[Nigel H-J]

So the Transport Minister Grant Shapps is looking towards allowing car drivers to drive HGV's without having to take a test or hold the appropriate license so as to relieve the shortage of drivers in the haulage industry.

To my mind he has got to be stopped, driving a 38ton articulated truck is not like driving a bl**dy car!! I have taken 7 Ministry of Transport Driving Tests on various classes of vehicles passing all first time, when I took my HGV's they were an hour and a half on the road with around 20 minutes on the maneuvering area where you had to negotiate a number of cones such as reversing etc, then I had a fifteen minute question and answer not only on the highway code but also safety features regarding operation of an HGV. I did actually take a lorry driving test before the HGV Test came into force and that was only a 30 minute test with one reverse around a corner which allowed me to drive the equivalent of an HGV 3, then the new HGV Tests came into being but I did not qualify for what was then known as the Grandfather Rights otherwise known as Acquired Rights i.e. if you drove an artic or rigid continuously for over six months then you were exempt and allowed to continue driving without having to take the new test and I did not qualify.

To allow car drivers behind the wheel even if they are given X amount of time behind the wheel under instruction I consider that placing a car driver into the cab of a 38 Ton articulated vehicle is totally wrong. Equally, there is a medical to take and due to my disabilities as well as having 3 heart attacks there is no way that I would want to step into a cab now or even be allowed to.

Most HGV's have automatic gears but when I drove them I had crash gear boxes and in some cases no power steering at all, just muscle power but throughout my time driving up and down the length of Britain Scotland and Wales negotiating through small villages with a 40ft trailer is no mean feat. Even when on Grimsby Fish I had to reverse my 40ft trailer parallel onto a pontoon between 2 other trailers and had do this without assistance and did this first time every time with only six feet between the front and rear trailers to play with after making the maneuver!! A car driver would not be able to do that without scraping the sides of the trailers!!

If car drivers were to have a six week course then maybe, but they must have a medical then there is the question of hazardous goods such as petrol the carriage of acids etc. They must take a Hazchem course in the classroom with exams to be able to handle correctly hazardous materials as for instance various acids can interact if the trailer has not been prepared properly resulting in dangerous situations.

https://www.hazchem.ie/

I dread this ever happening.

Regards
Nigel.

[Airspeed]

I am always in awe of semi-trailer drivers who pull up near a supermarket, then do an uninterrupted reverse into narrow loading bays.
I'm with you, Nigel, training is essential, not short cuts allowed.

[simondix]

I am always suspicious of the Conservatives when they bring in something which on the face of it looks innocuous or good.. There is usually a hidden agenda. There is talk already, because of the cost of living rises and low to zero wage rises and cut in real time, of a lot of strike action. Perhaps if we have lots of unqualified lorry drivers the supply system can be kept running, in that eventuality.

[Nigel H-J]

During the dockers strike of 1972 and being in the RAF as a driver we were put on standby as there was a possibility that heavy goods would not be allowed inside. I had a HGV Class 2 at the time but was taken out by one of the sergeant examiners in an artic to be assessed as capable, we were told that we would not be using service vehicles but civilian ones, just go in and take one!!

So pleased that the government backed down!!

Regards
Nigel.

[GHD]

I learnt to drive when I was 15 (1953) in a Bedford flat bed. (Double-decltuch and all)

[FlyTexas]

Back when I was in my 20's I went to visit a childhood friend who then worked at a grain elevator in the U.S. state of Kansas. While there it was time to deliver some pig feed to a local farm and my friend asked me if I'd like to drive the truck. Sure, I said (I drove a small manual transmission pickup truck at the time)...no problem. I quickly learned that I was out of my environment when it came to driving a large truck.

Brian

[Nigel H-J]

I learnt to drive when I was 15 (1953) in a Bedford flat bed. (Double-decltuch and all)

More or less the way I was taught George. When I joined the RAF after initial training it was down to RAF St Athans. Although I already had my driver licence that was ignored as was everyone elses'.

We were started on the 3 ton Bedford RL first on the nursery then to the long and windy roads of South Wales. Always double de-clutching all the time even when we went to the Morris 1000 estate, (what a lovely car that was, seriously) !!. The test was based on the Advanced Driving Test so we never knew whether we would have a right reverse or left or both!! We also had to drive a certain distance from the side of the road and keep there!

Regards
Nigel.

[alemaobaiano]

That brought back some memories Nigel. I did both my car and HGV down at St Athans, some years apart. Some of the hill starts they used for the Bedford were wicked, and once out of there I never double declutched again.

We even got on the skid pan during the car course, which was great fun, and very instructive.

TTFN

[Nigel H-J]

We even got on the skid pan during the car course, which was great fun, and very instructive.

You lucky so-and-so, we never went on a skid pan. Would love to try one out though.

Regards
Nigel.