Tick Tock. Time marches on- Driver Training - and I learn the truckie knot.
Ten years ago I took myself off to driving school and got my Heavy Rigid driving permit. I have used it for two jobs, once was driving a flatbed delivery truck, and for two years I drove a passenger bus locally, meaning three bucket items got ticked off.
After recently becoming unemployed again, I applied for a Truck Driving role and I was contacted by the advertising organisaton to come in for an interview (it was a chat really). Needless to say, I did not hesitate getting in to see them. Among the roles available, several of them required me to upgrade my licensing or driving permits, and this organisation had a training arm, and I was/am eligible for government sponsored training, so I signed up immediately.
Last Monday was day one of my driving training. I spent most of the day learning about Driver Fatigue and the penalties for breaking the rules. It is very expensive...breaking the rules that is.
The next 3 days involved learning more topics, such as safe handling of goods, occupational safety and health issues, filling out Driver Work Diaries, which Australia Transport industry is very big on these days, and various cargo loading methods and information. There was homework as well.
By the fifth day, the class came back in for some practical work, such as completing check lists on the truck before starting to drive it, and how to use the different methods to secure down a load. At long last, I was able to "learn how to make a truckies knot", something I have waited 10 long years to master. I have had the principals down in all that time, but , joy of joy, my instructor was left-handed like me, so it wasn't a right-handed person trying to show me. Any non left-handed people would have no idea how hard it has been to learn any manual activity when you are left-handed and the rest of the world isn't. There was a small smile on my face as I watched a perfectly able right-handed person try to copy the actions on the left-handed instructor. Brilliant!!
With the 5 day course completed, I will return to training in a week's time to complete half of the formal testing process (oral, written and some practical) before booking in a 2 day session driving in a real semi-trailer truck, where I will be trained on the fine arts of coupling a trailer to a truck, and reversing into a tight space, with an official test at the end of that process if it is felt that I could pass the test. This may well take the next 4 weeks to complete, but once it is done, I will have ticked off another item in the bucket list, which is to "get my Heavy Combination driving license", bringing me one step closer to the bucket list item of "driving a truck and trailer across all or at least a large part of Australia".
As for the job hunt, I am having a chat with a concrete company this afternoon about driving a concrete mixer, or agitator truck "agi" as the industry knows them...wish me luck, as this is also an item on the list. I've always thought that they looked like elephants.
After recently becoming unemployed again, I applied for a Truck Driving role and I was contacted by the advertising organisaton to come in for an interview (it was a chat really). Needless to say, I did not hesitate getting in to see them. Among the roles available, several of them required me to upgrade my licensing or driving permits, and this organisation had a training arm, and I was/am eligible for government sponsored training, so I signed up immediately.
Last Monday was day one of my driving training. I spent most of the day learning about Driver Fatigue and the penalties for breaking the rules. It is very expensive...breaking the rules that is.
The next 3 days involved learning more topics, such as safe handling of goods, occupational safety and health issues, filling out Driver Work Diaries, which Australia Transport industry is very big on these days, and various cargo loading methods and information. There was homework as well.
By the fifth day, the class came back in for some practical work, such as completing check lists on the truck before starting to drive it, and how to use the different methods to secure down a load. At long last, I was able to "learn how to make a truckies knot", something I have waited 10 long years to master. I have had the principals down in all that time, but , joy of joy, my instructor was left-handed like me, so it wasn't a right-handed person trying to show me. Any non left-handed people would have no idea how hard it has been to learn any manual activity when you are left-handed and the rest of the world isn't. There was a small smile on my face as I watched a perfectly able right-handed person try to copy the actions on the left-handed instructor. Brilliant!!
With the 5 day course completed, I will return to training in a week's time to complete half of the formal testing process (oral, written and some practical) before booking in a 2 day session driving in a real semi-trailer truck, where I will be trained on the fine arts of coupling a trailer to a truck, and reversing into a tight space, with an official test at the end of that process if it is felt that I could pass the test. This may well take the next 4 weeks to complete, but once it is done, I will have ticked off another item in the bucket list, which is to "get my Heavy Combination driving license", bringing me one step closer to the bucket list item of "driving a truck and trailer across all or at least a large part of Australia".
As for the job hunt, I am having a chat with a concrete company this afternoon about driving a concrete mixer, or agitator truck "agi" as the industry knows them...wish me luck, as this is also an item on the list. I've always thought that they looked like elephants.
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