Friday 31 December 2010

A step closer.

On Wednesday I attended the Driving Standards agency office in Peterborough to take my HGV Theory test and Hazard Perception test. You are allowed an hour on each test but I managed them both in under 1 hour with a pass result of 94% & 77% respectively. Needless to say I was over the moon with those results.

Next phase is a driver assessment with Apex Driving school in Peterborough. No doubt they will want to extract some money from my wallet for lessons but as a retired professional driver of 30+ years experience and close to a million miles travelled I don’t give much for their chances. All I need is a suitable vehicle to undergo the driving test.

Following the narrowboat blogs since the thaw started a couple of days ago, it is interesting to note that they are all reporting that it will still be a good week or more before there is likely to be any movement on the water. There is also the down side that another cold snap could hit before the thaw is complete and everybody could be back to square one again. You guys on the Cut have our deepest sympathies for what you are having to endure at present.

It throws my mind back to the big freeze of 1963 (I think I got that right) which was the death knell of commercial freight on the Cut when the barges were iced in for about 6 weeks. In the mean time road transport had taken over contracts never to be returned to the Cut. With traffic congestion on the roads I think it might be a good time to reconsider and get freight back on the waterways. It might also help BW’s cause.

2 comments:

Brian and Diana on NB Harnser said...

You only want to get those lorries out of the way of your motorhome to give you clear roads, why should they get in the way of my boating and be on the canals.
Good luck with the test, but if you have remembered how to drive as well as you did the theory then you don't really need luck at all.

Derek and Dot said...

Share and share alike guys. Thanks for the good wishes. Have a great year cruising the cut.