How I got myself a truck & bus driving license in India

Do note, you can drive vehicles up to 7,500 kg GVW on your regular LMV license.

BHPian blackwasp recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

One of my long term wishes was to be able to drive a truck or a bus. This was likely to remain unfulfilled and I had made my peace with it. However, as any automobile enthusiast out there, that itch was always there to experience it.

This was partially satisfied when I got a chance to drive a Maruti Super Carry between Mumbai and Pune a couple of times back in 2021. Do note, you can drive vehicles upto 7,500 kg GVW on your regular LMV license.

Fast forward to mid 2023, BHPian Tejas@perioimpl (Doc) reached out to me about an opportunity to do an event for Apollo tyres for the truck segment tyres. This meant a chance to get a heavy vehicle license or a 'Transport' license. As some of you might know, I have been working under Doc for Offroad Junkie. This was an opportunity that I didn't want to miss. And here's a teaser image for that same event:

https://youtube.com/shorts/QiJSD1JpQ_w

Searching for a driving school:
Now unlike learning to drive a car, it wasn't possible to just borrow a truck / bus from a friend and learn it in a day or two to give the test. Licenses for heavy vehicles are compulsorily issued after undergoing training from a recognised driving school. I was also offered the option of getting a license without doing anything for a nice sum, but I didn't want to go that route.

Casually browsing the internet one day, I came across IDTR Pune. Here's a snippet from their website -

Quote:

The Institute of Driving Training and Research Society has been established by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under the 11th Five Year Plan as a road safety initiative. The institute is being managed jointly by Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) and Tata Motors Limited (TML). IDTRS Pune promotes stress free happy life by ensuring road safety with focus on training of drivers. Driver training develops the right attitude towards safe driving and thus plays a key role towards preserving precious national resources and bringing happiness in the lives of families of vehicle drivers/ owners by bringing down road accidents in the country. As we know, road accidents bring all unwelcome situations in the life like hospitalisation, operations, medical bills, loss of salary, disturbed family life, effect on studies of children etc.

They have a 30-session HMV driving training programme as per CMVR. Next day, I went and enquired for the same. The 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 proper full-size simulator to get students the hang of the truck. This helped me a lot to get used the massive size of trucks and buses as compared to our cars. Since there was no real engine and gearbox attached, the gear lever was very easy to operate (infact it could be moved with just a finger) and the clutch and brake levers lacked feedback. During this time, I applied for a learner's license by visiting the Pune RTO (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 was going to be my ride for the next couple of days:

This yellow school bus was also there. Both the buses were very different to drive - in terms of braking, changing gears etc. We drove the yellow bus mostly inside the campus.

Here's the cockpit of the yellow bus:

Now, this was what I was waiting for. After getting a hang of things on the bus, my trainer was confident on me driving the trailer. It also helped that the white bus was occupied during my slot, so I got to drive the trailer a lot:

The length of the trailer and its articulation needs to be taken into account every time when sitting on the driver's seat:

This is my view in the trailer. Massive 2-spoke steering wheel dominates:

On my first trip out with the trailer, the first task was to fuel up. Now, the bunk was just opposite of the campus and usually one would just take a U-turn at the Nashik Phata signal. But not in this trailer. We first took a left turn towards Chakan, took a U-turn, then a right turn at the aforementioned signal to reach the fuel bunk:

We also got a 1 day First aid lesson. This was not part of the curriculum, but another batch was undergoing the same and our instructors told us we could attend if we wanted:

I didn't take much photos during my training, but let me tell you, I gained a lot of respect for other truck drivers out on the road. I have now realised how difficult it is to drive a heavy vehicle. A truck or a bus has multiple blind spots and it's really challenging to drive in the city as bikers tend to stick very close to these heavy vehicles. Please give truck and bus drivers a greater leeway, especially at turns and signals.

My instructor, Mr. Aba Khilare is a gem of a person and was very keen to make me learn the proper way to drive these vehicles on the road. Once I was approved to take the trailer, he made me practise parking (parallel and perpendicular), hill starts, etc. multiple times till he was sure I was ready. Only then we went out on the public roads.

Few days before the training was about to get over, one of the obstacles - the S-bend was to be tackled in reverse. Now Aba sir told us this was tricky and difficult for many. The wheels of the truck had to always be inside the road. However, even I was surprised when I managed to grasp it in just 2 attempts. First I did this in the bus, and later on Aba sir gave me the go ahead to try it in the trailer as well. Unfortunately, there's no video of the trailer, but I managed to get one of me driving the bus in reverse. I suppose countless hours of Euro Truck Simulator helped here:
https://youtu.be/ZamjWLfzwN0

Towards the end of the course, I had a different instructor with me who asked me to drive on the streets to ensure that I was ready to complete the course. Once done, I was given a go ahead to give the final exam. As this training was 1-to-1, I must have taken about 2 months to complete all the classes. I was doing about 3-4 classes a week. One some days, we did 2 hours also. It was a great experience and I wholly recommend such an institute if someone wants to learn to drive.

This was the tipper I gave my final exam on. The RTO Inspector conducts exam at the IDTR campus itself and there are two lines - one for IDTR students and one for outside students. A pleasant experience. The Inspector sir took one look and two of us (IDTR candidates) and our instructor and said to go take one round each on the tipper. He said your trainer would not even present you before me if he wasn't confident of our skills:

After giving the practical test, we were presented with this certificate of completion. By evening I got SMS for license under printing confirming that I had passed. Here is my instructor Mr. Aba Khilare giving me the certificate:

Some key takeaways from my experience of learning to drive a heavy vehicle:

• Got to know how air brakes in a truck / bus work
• Turning radius and blind spots are massive in a larger vehicle
• You just can't stomp on the brakes to stop a loaded truck, you need to gear down, rely on engine brake + exhaust brake, especially when coming down a slope
• Brakes are the last thing you must hit to control the speed - being in the right gear is the key
• Except for a very few trucks and buses, most of them get hot, humid, stuffy and are a challenge to drive on an empty field, let alone our public roads
• Hooking and unhooking a trailer is not as easy as it seems
• It takes massive effort to change a tyre - Yes we were asked to change a tyre and it was a half-day experience for us students
• When parking a truck or a trailer, we were asked to get down and go back to see things - this helped a lot as just seeing in the mirror was not sufficient to get an idea of the distances

I will try to answer any specific queries anyone might have as I wanted to keep this post short and to the point.

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