Class 2 License Not Required

Back in the day, when I was a member of the Royal New Zealand Engineers 6FdQqn (6 Field Squadron), I sat and passed my Class 2 Driver’s License. Although a civilian license, I only ever used it as a soldier.

No medical was required back then. I remember being told by my sergeant that ‘next week’ I’d be sitting my test. I had no idea what that test was so grabbed a copy of the mock Q&A for the MOT HT test – as it was known then – Ministry of Transport Heavy Truck – and studied.

I learnt the answers by rote. Like times tables. Like French and German verb conjugations.

I knew the Road Code, so just had to learn (remember!) the specialist type questions relating to all things heavy truck. Like axels. Gross Weights. Tare Weights. Chassis types.

All of that might just as well have been Latin verb conjugations! Not having studied Latin, it was a language I didn’t understand – just like the HT language I was attempting to learn.

I think I got all 35 out of 35 questions correct. Phew!

Bedford RL

The trucks the army had at the time were Bedford RLs. The Mercedes UNIMOG was just entering the fleet. But I was a mere sapper so didn’t get to drive any of those.

The Bedford RL was the New Zealand military’s main medium truck from 1958 to 1989. Built under licence in New Zealand, it served the New Zealand Military in New Zealand and South East Asia. 

It looks old today. It still looked old back when I was driving it. Production started in the mid-1950s through to the mid 1960s.

The NZ Army followed in the footsteps of the British Army with its vehicles. The Bedford RL was based on the Bedford SCL, a civilian 7-ton truck. The military version had all wheel drive and bigger wheels to increase ground clearance. Originally conservatively rated at 3 tons, all RL GS (general service) trucks in British Military service were, at a late stage in their service lives, re-rated at 4 tons without any mechanical modifications; the weight referring to its rated cross country payload weight. The last RL rolled off the production line in the early 1970s, a total of 74,000 being produced.

Double De Clutching Required

At the time I got my HT license, I was the proud owner of a 1961 Mini. I was familiar with double clutching down through the gears. With the RL, double clutching was required both up and down.

What’s double de clutching…?

Double de clutching (or double clutching) is a bit of a driving dance – you step on the clutch (left foot) and the accelerator (right foot) – not at the same time but very neatly in synchronisation – you do this whilst listening to the beat of the engine (revs).

It’s required when there’s no synchromesh in the gearbox and you enable the smooth gear change in the most manual of ways.

You know when you’ve stepped on your car’s toes because she screams and hollars. The gears get meshed and it makes your teeth hurt just listening to her pain.

I was ever-so-grateful dad taught me how to double de clutch so I didn’t need to be taught by a macho soldier who ate screws for breakfast.

I could barely reach the pedals of the RL. My driving test was on a Saturday morning, through busy shopping traffic in downtown Lower Hutt.

The RL felt huge on the roads and I was terrified I’d wipe out a civilian sedan along the way. The sense of being thrown in the deep end and drowning was very strong.

The traffic cop – back then Ministry of Transport Traffic Police were separate from the constabulary force – made me do a hill start (brave man!).

In the army, reversing in a truck is always a two-soldier job: one to drive, the other to guide. And if the driver hits something, it’s always the guide’s fault.

However, because this was a civilian driving test – even though there was just the traffic cop and me – he got me to reverse into a carpark in the police station (eeek!).

Class 2 License Medical Tests

Medical tests were introduced in NZ in 1999 for Class 2 license holders. Every time my license comes up for renewal I’ve ummed and aaahhed about keeping that license. But I have. Because I can.

The first one I sat, the doctor told me she wished that all truck drivers were as fit and healthy as I was. She said it was a bit of a worry that she was able to pass drivers coming in for their tests because the test wasn’t stringent enough to stop her passing them as fit and healthy.

When I think of the medical that Alan has to sit each year to maintain his job, the medical for the Class 2 is pretty lightweight.

Ford Transit – 7.49m

Here I am – sitting in a large carpark in semirural south-west Auckland – while Alan’s checking something out at the back – psyching myself up to drive a wide-bodied, rather loooong! vehicle for the first time in centuries.

Ironically, something I don’t even need my Class 2 license for.

Length	7.5m
Height	3m
Width	2.3m
Weight	3,500kg (Class 1 material)
Engine	2.3l diesel
Chassis	Ford Transit

And you know what…? It was a dream to drive! Being a Holden woman for >13 years, I wasn’t sure I’d say that, but it was!

I also think that Muscle Memory is a thing.

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Here’s to dads who teach double de clutching…

Here’s to feeling the fear in one hand and getting on with it in the other…

Here’s to Muscle Memory being a Thing.

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Here’s to SmilingOnTheInside!