Ali Colquhoun looks nervous. The affable Scot’s normal day job is teaching HGV drivers and their transport managers to extract the best from heavily tech-laden machinery at Mercedes-Benz Trucks’ Customer Experience Centre near Barnsley. But today, he’s got me, and – all credit to him – I detect only the merest flinch when I admit that reversing a horse trailer into a paddock is the nearest I’ve come to driving an articulated vehicle.
But you can imagine that scenario being played out many times (at least, the government would hope so) over the coming months, as the barriers to obtaining an HGV 1 licence (code C+E), which allows you to drive a full-sized, 44-tonne articulated lorry, are relaxed. In short, before the end of this year, budding truckers will no longer have to first pass the HGV 2 (code C) test, which currently permits them to drive only a rigidbodied truck, since it will be merged with the HGV 1 test.
Unless you’ve been locked in a news-free bunker over the past few weeks, you’ll appreciate why. There’s a shortage of truckers and the race is now on to attract as many new drivers as possible into the profession to keep the wheels of industry turning because, put simply, pretty much everything we consume as a nation is at some point transported by these huge, multi-axled behemoths. Speeding up the process still further will be the relaxing of car and towing restrictions for those drivers who passed their test after 1997, freeing up vital training resource, which will be redeployed to increase the number of drivers being put through their truck tests.
This explains why I’m here today, looking at the bluff and towering cab of an 18-tonne Mercedes Actros rigid-bodied truck and wondering what I’ve let myself in for. The plan is for me to sample a small but important part of what a learner trucker would have to go through towards passing their HGV 1 test, and to see if I can avoid making a complete Horlicks of it.
Ironically, the HGV 2-class vehicle we’re about to climb into will no longer be part of the process and that, says Colquhoun, is concerning, because the skills needed to drive it are different, and not necessarily less demanding. But first, a real-world demo. Colquhoun drives me on public roads around the test centre so I can get a feel for the tech in a moderntruck. And frankly, it makes most modern cars look primitive. Its 300-horsepower 7.7-litre inline six sits between driver and passenger, mainly beneath the floor.
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very useful
Looks like it drifts well judging from the main picture!
And yes I agree that most HGV drivers are very skilled and adept which is just as well given the potential for serious accidents if they make mistakes.
I have the utmost respect for Lorry drivers, most are excellent drivers, and most Truck accidents are caused by bad Car Drivers.