What do you learn when training for your truck licence?
So you have decided to get your truck licence but what are you going to learn?
This will vary from student to student but below is an outline of what you will learn:
Road Rules
For most people it may have been many years since they got their car licence. Over the course of the training we will monitor how well you obey the road rules as well as give you a refresher on some of the rules we have found our students are not so familiar with.
When are you allowed travel in a bus lane when driving a truck?
Answer – If you are turning left at an intersection 100m before the intersection.
Controls and their Operation
We will familiarise you with the controls of the vehicle you are driving. While they are similar to a car’s every, vehicles controls are different and it is expected you know how to operate all the controls from lights to demisting the windscreen. Also a couple of the controls in the trucks operate a little differently to a car.
Vehicle Size and Lane Positioning
Getting used to the size of the vehicle size is an important part of the training. You learn how to position the vehicle on the road to ensure to don’t hit other vehicles or cut a corner. Also as a truck is a lot wider than a car you may find you have concentrate more on keeping the truck within your lane.
The use of your mirrors is an important part of ensuring you maintain your vehicle in an appropriate position on the road.
Vehicle Control and smooth vehicle operation
Maintaining control of your vehicle is a critical to driving a truck safely and during the course of your training we will ensure you are operating the controls correctly and improving areas where you need a little more work.
If training with the road ranger gear box we will be training you fully on how to operate this type of gear box.
Areas we often work on with our students are as follows:
- Steering control such as two hands on the steering wheel
- Clutch Coasting
- Gear Selection
Safe Driving Techniques (Scanning and Planning)
Scanning the road ahead and planning your course of action is an important part of safe driving. You don’t want any surprises when driving a vehicle over 10 tonnes.
Allow for other road users everyone makes mistakes.
Types of information and hazards you should be looking for:
- Traffic ahead is slowing or maintaining speed.
- Safe following distance
- Safe stopping distance
- Scanning intersections
- Change in road conditions ie a corner or hill
- Green lights are going to go red soon.
- Ascending and Descending hills in a truck.
Specific Manoeuvres
You all remember the dreaded parallel park and three-point turn from your car licence test, don’t you?
While you don’t need to do either of these manoeuvres in a truck there are a couple you will need to do.
Hill Start
We will teach how to start off in a truck and make sure it does not roll back. You don’t want to crash into the car behind you.
Around the Corner Reverse
You will be required to reverse around a corner to the left while being no more than 1 meter off the kerb while only using your mirrors.
Driving Experience
We will give you a broad driving experience from the motorway to smaller residential streets, roundabouts to stop signs to ensure you are ready for any situation you find on your driving test.
Our Experience
300 to 400 people a year will obtain their licence through Burleigh Driver Training School and with years of experience our trainers understand what your assessor will be looking for when you undertake your driving test. Many students make the same mistakes when learning to drive a truck or undertaking a driving test so benefit from that experience and we can help to not make the same mistake.
