I can agree with you there. We are fond of being upset with them, but at least where I live, I can tell you they are some of the best drivers on the road. And they do let you in, they smile, they wave. I concur: The guy in the Fortuner is not letting you in, but the guy in the Quantum is.
Sometimes I know he’s making space for me… but I’m unsure if the traffic approaching from the other side know what the two of us are doing… so I will hold back just a little, and once I know oncoming traffic is aware of what is happening, I’ll kick it down a ratio and floor the loud pedal.
I really enjoy this forum, because you can never tell how a thread is going to end up.
They get derailed in the most informative and entertaining ways.
Man the 2 of you would have done a turn around at my house where I grew up.
Our house was at the end of a pan handle street and with not many of those in Upington all the new drivers would have to come and do a 3 point turn at our house. Some times the canal and date trees was just missed and other times not so much
Here is what I learned. Code 14 (10) is great for pulling a caravan or a trailer behind your car.
Get a Code 10, easier than a Code 8, but you can drive a 10 and an 8 … may not be able to park parallel with an 8.
But if you want to drive trucks with freight, Code 10 or 14, you need a PrDP.
The G for Goods.
With a P for Passengers like i.e. Busses, taxis’ Ubers etc.
And a D for Dangerous Goods, like chemicals, gas or fuel etc.
The G and P, every 2 years with full medical and a new License. ±R1200 or so.
With a D, every year a new license, costs to do the refresher course for Dangerous Goods.
So yeah, truckers and their PrDP’s are way more “qualified” than “4 wheelers” every 5 years with an eye test.
EDIT: You want to charge people for being passengers in your Uber, need a PrDP with P.
Want to charge people to share a lift, them paying you for that, check with your insurer. You MAY need a PrDP P followed by an increase in insurance premium on your private car insurance.
Let’s put it this way, I went for my license many times. First, code 8,
Then code 2 (bike) as I wanted to ride.
Then code 14, needed to drive a truck for a while.
Got the PDP or PrDP as it’s now called the first time when I needed to drive the truck. Then I moved provinces and was too much of a bother to renew and didn’t have a truck to drive anymore.
I wonder how many of the Uber drivers actually have this. It’s one of “those” laws that often not enforced.
Same as me, code 8, then Code A, 50cc (a mistake, should have gone for >50), then the SAW Code 14.
They all have to have insurance, very expensive and not everyone does that type of insurance, for Uber and other Taxis.
The ones who do, are very strict at paying out claims. All the T’s must be crossed, the I’s dotted, so yes, they check for like valid PrDP of the driver.
Obviously, there are scammers who look like Uber/Taxis, but that is another problem. The legit people are strictly controlled, as is with truck drivers and PrDP’s.
Some insurers won’t insure trucks if the driver’s PrDP is less than say i.e. 2 years, and if they do sell the cover, it will be with massive excesses. Read a while ago about the huge effort by the insurers to upgrade truck drivers’ skills and experience.
You only need EB for that (in modern parlance, which also corresponds with code BE in the 1968 Geneva convention on international driving permits).
I converted a Namibian license to a South African one, which meant they had to give me the equivalent of what I had: EB. That means I can tow a big trailer and a caravan, as long as the combined mass is under 3.5 tons (at which point I would need the old “code 10”).
@TheTerribleTriplet I ask you this because you seem up on the regs.
If I had my own say 4 ton truck, and I personally drove it, carrying non-dangerous goods for myself, would I need the “G”, or would only my Code 10 licence suffice forever?
EC (Code 14) license without a PrDP is like having a code EB on steroids.
Also interesting, read an article a while back where driving schools were doing many Code 10’s, the reason being it is easier than a Code 8. Problem is, the people with their Code 10 license, did not really do so well driving Code 08 due to like i.e. no parallel parking requirement.
Let me answer it like this. Although I have a Code 14 that never expires, I cannot legally drive even an empty truck on the roads without a current PrDP.
It is about proving you are medically fit, the PrDP.
Every 2 years I renew my PrDP because it forces me to do that full medical, the current fiasco with driver’s license renewals in SA, my PrDP has expired, for now.
Man, I know it is not very manly to admit this, but I sometimes need two tries to get it in. I learned with a VW Golf mk1. I knew exactly where the corners were. Then I had a Jetta MK2, which was similar, and then I got a corolla and the corners were never quite in the same place ever again after that. At some point cars grew Asperic mirrors, and then reverse cameras, and I am now 5 cars further than that first one. So yes. Despite the best efforts of the licensing people, I suspect there are many like me who are a bit rubbish with this
hahahahaha!! the stuff I can tell you guys. Few years ago when I was still working for a private company. So we were busy with 9-SAI side giving driver training to the troops that was taking the “MEM” “klaared uit”.
So the project up and running where we train the guys to get there code 14 license and after that advance driving training and training on superlink trailers loaded with concrete blocks, just over 50T combination. International Eagle 9800I with a cummins ISX 600 motor and 13 speed eaton fuller transmission, so when they exit the army they can go drive for company’s and don’t waste there retirement fund.
So I got a bunch of troops with me. we busy driving around Stellenbosch side driving up and down on the hills so that they guys can get use to the descending and climbing and what gears to select and what to before we take them over the mountain to do hex river pass and that places.
So we busy driving on Polkadraai heading Kuilsrivier way from Stellenbosch. So this one guy slips gear on top of hill with descending, and this 50 tons start to run away. Me sitting and checking this story playing out while this guy straggling to get it in gear. And so this truck starts running and everyone was screaming and crapping them self sitting with us in the truck and this student driver was giving up because we was going into a flat spin.
But wat I spotted that they didn’t spot was, wat go’s down must go up again and and we approaching a hill/climb again because we were in the dip of the hills. So eventually this truck runs out of steam/speed because we going up the other side of the hill and eventually stop. when the vehicle stop the guy jumped out standing at the side of the road and didn’t want to get back in.
And this is why I always say, plan plan plan ahead and look through the window and not at the window. When you operate with this vehicle, you need to think ahead and plan.
You can actually descent with with 1835 Powerliner with out touching the exh brake or the airbrakes. You just need to learn you truck and get the correct gear and not in over drive on the ZF box. Then it will run all the way on the engine compression on the descent.
Few years ago Mercedes flew me over to there factory to go test drive there brand new ACTROS 3550. Was the state of the art new gearbox setup with prediction down shift setup and if you run it autocruise it will disengage the torq convertor so that it an run free to save fuel.
But what nice was, it runs a exh brake with turbo brake and retarder. so you have 3 brake options to pick and can use 2 of them. SO say you set it to descent at 20km/h, it will keep it there all the way. I had a few runs with the setup loaded with 30 tons of water loaded in a tanker to see what it can do.
