IMPORTANT NOTE All courses are certified, permitting the student to place the endorsement on their license after taking the obligatory test and paying for a new license at the Insurance Company of British Columbia driver’s services in your location. Air brake courses are scheduled once a month and are available on-demand.
The air brake endorsement is necessary if you are planning to upgrade your driver's license to class 1, 2 or 3 and therefore it is a prerequisite for any driver training with this school.
While the school offers class 1, 2 & 3 drivers training, arrangements can be made for a class 4. Class 1 instruction is provided using a tandem axle tractor and a 45ft trailer with a load giving a 70% GVRW or 70% of the maximum permissible load as required by ICBC. The ICBC examiner conducts road tests Monday through Friday. The instruction covers the pretrip inspection and indicates to the student what to check and why and what to look for in case something that may fail later. The training continues with driving the tractor unit first in order to learn to shift the gears (double clutching) after which the trailer will be coupled to the tractor. The safe coupling and uncoupling of the trailer is taught and is a mandatory part of the road test. Over the period of the next few days you will drive in the city, make right hand and left hand turns, anticipate traffic lights and generally learn to drive the vehicle in the city. While at times you will be on the test route, you will not be taught the test route as this is contrary to the law (section 27 MVA). You will practice backing straight and round a corner and learn how to be a defensive driver that will allow you to drive with more confidence in the city environment. Mountain runs are not part of the training before your test but are available once you have obtained your class 1 license. The time expected for this course is 20 hours. Class 2 driving instruction uses a 49-passenger bus with air brakes that is usually required by school boards. The training consists of a full pretrip inspection and driving in a busy and not so busy part of the city. The usual time required for this program is 10 hours. The time taken for this course is usually 12 hours. The mountain run will include either Blue Berry Polson or the Anakist Hill. The run provides real world practice driving a loaded rig under full control of the vehicle, through BC's vast and rugged terrain. Drivers will be instructed on maintaining a logbook for duration of the mountain run. The mountain run varies from 10 hours to 3 days in duration depending on the route taken. The one day run will take you to the Anarchist Hill to Osoyoos and the other runs will take you to Castlegar and as far as Cranbrook and includes the blueberry Polson and the Kootenay Pass. You will get a good idea of driving a loaded rig down a long steep hill under full control of the vehicle. You will run your own logbook because you will have your own full license when you make the trip. Transportation of Dangerous Goods This course provides the participants the basic knowledge for the certificate. It is not a WHIMIS course and only relates to those items that drivers are required to know: · Regarding paper work · Reporting of dangerous occurrences · Various classifications of dangerous goods. This certificate is only good if it is signed by your employer and expires in three years. Evaluations and Appraisals Evaluations cover pretrip in-service inspections include air brakes and vehicle safety as well as driver skill. This is a valued service for providing information for pre employment, corporate employee improvements and annual insurance evaluations. Letters of Reference Students that qualify can get a letter of reference relating to the time they attended the training course provided by our school. |