How did I get myself a truck and bus license in India?

Remember that you can drive vehicles up to 7,500 kg GVW with your normal LMV licence.

BHP black bumblebee He recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

One of my long-term wishes was to be able to drive a truck or a bus. This would probably remain unfulfilled and I had made my peace with that. But, like any car enthusiast, that itch was always there to experience it.

This was partially satisfied when I got the chance to drive the Maruti Super Carry a few times between Mumbai and Pune in 2021. Remember that you can drive vehicles up to 7,500 kg GVW with your normal LMV licence.

Let’s fast forward to mid-2023, BHPian Tejas@perioimpl (Doc) reached out to me about the opportunity to do an event for Apollo tires for truck segment tires. This meant the chance to get a HGV licence, or a ‘Transport’ licence. As some of you know, I work under Doc for Offroad Junkie. This was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss. Here’s a teaser image for the same event:

https://youtube.com/shorts/QiJSD1JpQ_w

I am looking for driving school:
It was no longer possible to learn to drive, unlike learning to drive, to borrow a truck/bus from a friend and take the test in a day or two. Heavy vehicle licenses are issued compulsorily after receiving training from a recognized driving school. I was also offered the option of getting a license without doing anything for a nice sum of money, but I didn’t want to go that route.

I came across it while surfing the internet one day. IDTR Pune. Here’s a snippet from their website –

Quotation:

The Driving School Training and Research Institute Society was established by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways as a road safety initiative under the 11th Five-Year Plan. The institute is jointly managed by the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) and Tata Motors Limited (TML). IDTRS Pune promotes a stress-free and happy life by ensuring road safety by focusing on the education of drivers. Driver education develops the right attitude towards safe driving and thus plays an important role in saving valuable national resources and bringing happiness to the lives of families of vehicle drivers/owners through reduction of road accidents in the country. As we know, traffic accidents bring about all the undesirable situations in life such as hospitalization, surgeries, medical bills, loss of salary, disruption of family life, and negative effects on children’s studies.

According to CMVR, there is a 30-session HMV driving training program. The next day I went and asked the same question. Fees are 15000+GST. Here are the details of the program:

Driving School experience:

The first day started with this simulator. IDTR Pune has a full-size simulator to help students get a grip on the truck. This helped me a lot in getting used to trucks and buses, which are huge compared to our cars. Since there was no real engine and gearbox installed, the gear lever was very easy to use (in fact, it could only be moved with a finger), and the clutch and brake levers had no feedback. During this time, I applied for student license by visiting Pune RTO (I applied online and went for physical verification):

After about 2-3 days of simulator experience, it was time to move on to the real thing. This Tata bus would be my ride for the next few days:

This yellow school bus was there too. The driving of both buses was very different; braking, shifting etc. in terms of. We used the yellow bus mostly on campus.

Here is the cockpit of the yellow bus:

This is what I was waiting for. After learning some things on the bus, my coach trusted me to drive the caravan. It also helped that the white bus was full during my slot, so I didn’t have to use the trailer a lot:

The length and articulation of the trailer must be taken into account every time you sit in the driver’s seat:

This is my take on the trailer. The massive 2-spoke steering wheel dominates:

The first thing I did on my first trip with the trailer was to refuel. The bunkhouse was right opposite the campus and there was usually a U-turn from the Nashik Phata signal. But not in this trailer. To reach the fuel depot, we first turned left towards Chakan, made a U-turn, then turned right at the signal mentioned above:

We also have a 1-day First Aid course. This wasn’t part of the curriculum, but another group was experiencing the same thing and our instructors told us we could join if we wanted:

I didn’t take many photos during my training, but let me tell you, I gained a lot of respect for other truck drivers on the road. Now I understand how difficult it is to drive a heavy vehicle. A truck or bus has multiple blind spots and driving in the city is really difficult as cyclists tend to stay very close to these heavy vehicles. Please give truck and bus drivers more space, especially at turns and signals.

My instructor, Mr. Aba Khilare, is an excellent person and was very keen to ensure that I learned the correct way to drive these vehicles on the road. Once I was approved to pick up the trailer, I was told about parking (parallel and perpendicular), starting on a hill, etc. until I was sure I was ready. He did the exercises. Only then did we hit public roads.

A few days before the end of the training, one of the obstacles, the S-bend, had to be overcome in reverse. Aba sir told us that this is complicated and difficult for many people. The truck’s wheels had to be inside the road at all times. However, even I was surprised when I managed to grasp it in just 2 tries. I first did this on the bus, then Aba sir gave me permission to try it in the trailer as well. Unfortunately there is no video of the trailer, but I managed to get one of them to drive the bus in reverse. I guess hours of Euro Truck Simulator helped here:
https://youtu.be/ZamjWLfzwN0

Towards the end of the course, I had a different instructor with me and asked me to drive around the streets to make sure I was ready to complete the course. After finishing, I was given permission to take the final exam. Since this training is 1 on 1, it must have taken me about 2 months to complete all the lessons. I was doing 3-4 lessons a week. Some days we did it for 2 hours. It was a great experience and if someone wants to learn driving I would definitely recommend such an institute.

This was the tipper with which I took my final exam. The RTO Inspector conducts the exam at the IDTR campus and there are two lines, one for IDTR students and the other for external students. A pleasant experience. Inspector sir took one look and told us both (IDTR candidates) and our instructor to take a tour of the dumper. He said your coach wouldn’t even put you in front of me if he didn’t trust our abilities:

After the practical exam, we were presented with this certificate of completion. Towards evening I received an SMS confirming that I had passed for the license that was being printed. Here is my instructor Mr. Aba Khilare giving me the certificate:

Some key takeaways from my experience learning to drive heavy vehicles:

• Need to know how air brakes on trucks/buses work
• Turning radius and blind spots are very large in a larger vehicle
• You can’t apply the brakes to stop a loaded truck, especially when going downhill you have to downshift, rely on engine brake + exhaust brake
• The last thing you need to hit to control speed is the brakes; Being in the right gear is key
• Except for a very small number of trucks and buses, most of them are hot, humid, stuffy and difficult to drive on empty land, let alone on public roads.
• Attaching and removing a trailer isn’t as easy as it seems
• Changing a tire requires a lot of effort – Yes we were asked to change the tire and it was a half day experience for us students
• When parking a truck or trailer, we were asked to get out, turn around and look around; This was very helpful because just looking in the mirror was not enough to get an idea of ​​distances.

Since I want to keep this article short and concise, I will try to answer specific questions that anyone may have.

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