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PDA backs course for novice truck drivers
Page 15
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A CONFIDENCE-BUILDING course for newly qualified truck drivers is to be repeated after attracting nearly 30 trainees.
The day-long event was run at Bretts Transport in Cambridgeshire; it was organised by the Professional Drivers Association.
Pat Nicholson, a driver with Bretts and founder-member of the PDA. explains: -There is a huge difference between walking out of an HGV test with a pass certificate in your hand and starting your first job.
"This makes drivers better equipped and more professional to go out and get their first job and feel confident about doing it." She reports that the course covered topics including reversing and roping and sheeting. Trainees were also given the chance to try out a range of gearboxes including Volvo and Scania 12-speeders and a semi-automatic Iveco box.
Nicholson says the course, which will be repeated later this year, is open to anyone who pays the PDA's £15-a-year membership fee.
Bretts MD Simon Brett says the course is useful for aspiring drivers as well as those who are newly qualified: "It certainly helps people to make their minds up either way. Ours is a typical general haulage yard and what you see is what you get."