Friday, February 15, 2008

My License

This week has been a tough week and one of the main reasons I got through it was because on Wednesday and Thursday I had a driving lesson from 2pm till 5pm. The lessons are to get my HR truck license which is a heavy rigid license. It allows me to drive a tandem truck which is a truck with one set of steering wheels on the front and two sets of driving wheels on the back. I can drive anything up to 22.5 tonne so its a biggish truck. I plan on getting my HC license which is a heavy combination license. That will allow me to tow a trailer behind the truck and allow me to carry 45 tonne which is our what our truck and tipper trailer holds. I cant sit for that license for another year so my HR will have to do for now.

After two lessons I'm doing pretty well and I will get my license in the minimum six lessons. The only downside is that the lessons are $285 each so its going to cost me $1710 plus all the government charges and the fee for the actual license with my pretty picture on it so its not cheap. I need it through because on days where my dad doesn't work I can still carry on with any work where as now I have to do things that don't involve the truck.

The first lesson was really good but I struggled with the manual gearbox a bit. The gearbox is a Road Ranger style gearbox and it is completely different to anything I had driven before and when you are under instruction they want you to double clutch all of the time! That was a challenge to start off with but after a while and some missed gears I got the hang of it and I was off. I haven't had any accidents or anyone even honk at me but I did nearly crash into a lady who suddenly stopped at a pedestrian crossing. The lights were green and there were no pedestrians but she still slammed on her brakes. Luckily I was watching and after locking up the trucks brakes and honking at her for a long time we both drove off. I guess I have a lot to look forward too on the roads. Byes

2 comments:

Elaine said...

how are the lessons going?

Phil said...

I have three more until I get my full license so I cant wait.