Before I left for the day, I was issued with a rota– Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning at the Theory Test Centre and Thursday Friday and Saturday morning at the Practical Test Centre. There may be evening or cover work for sickness and holidays if I wanted it.
A week in my new job passed extremely quickly, as I was shown how various internal computer systems worked. I met all of the examiners – though for a couple of them it was more of a re-acquaintance than first meeting, obviously with the amount of drivers to be whom they met, they weren’t realistically going to remember me. I was actually quite grateful for this as I had made some pretty diabolical and particularly embarrassing errors on a couple of driving tests in the past, before finally passing in my own car in June four years ago. It was nice to see that the examiners did not have cloven hooves or numbers on their heads, and that in fact a lot of the time they were sincerely affected by a pupil’s failure, and felt so bad that they had not been able to pass them, but simply encourage them to practise and put in for another test. Other times, they put their lives in the hands of students who had been ‘taught’ by well meaning relatives, and returned to the Test Centre -in their own words – ‘with a few more grey hairs than they left with.’
One lady examiner – the only female examiner- was a former instructor of mine and had examined my driving on no less than two occasions. She had , in her previous position, worked for a national Driving School, was slightly bristly and abrupt in her manner towards me, and I was instantly reminded of Helen Bright. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. You really don’t know what people go through in their private lives, and I wasn’t about to ask what her problem was!
It was decided as part of my induction training that I be talked through a test,so if I was asked about the test itself I would have the knowledge and therefore be able to offer an improved customer service to a novice driver. This, Jeannette told me, was all part of a Government initiative. Well, from being involved in the children’s school, I knew just how often they were thrown into an already hectic schedule and the level of appreciation with which they were received.
So this training had to be factored in somewhere and the discussion on which examiner had the time available had already begun the following Thursday when I turned up at the Test Centre. I had just seen a student turn up and reverse park into a space, and as I was early – traffic lights had actually been on my side that morning – I hung around in my car. A few minutes later I saw a big smile cross the face of this lady who had looked slightly more nervous than most. So I went into work on a positive note, only to enter the office mid-debate about my ongoing training, in particular the test route aspect.
The board was filled as usual with who was examining which student and when, and the waiting-room was also filling up as more novice drivers arrived to be put through their paces. The camaraderie between the staff seemed to be wearing a little thin in places and the mood appeared to be permeating through the bullet-proof glass, though voices were kept low. Instructors and their pupils sat on the now familiar ’staffroom’ chairs, checking watches, turning mobiles to vibrate – or off completely. The discussion continued. Finally it was decided that I should actually go out with an examiner on a route and be talked through what was expected of the pupil. Then came the fun part of deciding who had the time slot available. And when that time slot was going to be.
The morning carried on – and the initial success of the lady I had seen looked like it had been a one-off, as the coffee machine usage was increased – along with the stress levels of examiners, as they told of several near-accidents involving traffic cones and workmen. Both of which were currently plentiful in the city. The pressure on these examiners was high as each student had to fulfil a certain criteria in order to pass. Not only had they to complete the route, but negotiate road works and temporary speed limits also, in the same amount of time they normally had per test.
Tags: coffee machine, government, novice, speed limits, traffic cones
