Driver Training

GThe driver training started at eight am at FDV AKA Fleet Depot Vehicles and didn’t stop until close on five pm – packed sessions including the lunch!  The Transport FA team were great , made the day go really well .There were around 150 of us on the course , all looking very fetching in our high visibility jackets.

As was to be anticipated the training was very similar to the driver training course at London 2012. It even included the better driver matrix, which I still use to this day.

The biggest difference between Glasgow 2102 and London 2012 was that we were let out on our own in unaccompanied groups of three to follow a pre-determined route round Glasgow stopping at Games Venues in a given order. 

I was with Craig and Colin, they’ll be full time drivers while I, as CGA assistant will use a car as and when. The route we were given to follow is shown below, we shared the driving between the venues, each getting practice to drive the Ford and use of the radio to report position.

I had the same issue I had at London 2012; the Ford was manual and I’ve only driven automatics for the past n years. In the end it was fine,  driving the Ford was an easier experience for me than the BMW.

We had a ground hog afternoon as we past several places many times.  We covered 35miles  in 2.5 hours managing to visit 8 of the 11 venues in that time. The inbuilt SatNav was OK, we found most venues quite easily thou some were challenging to stop near as they were still being completed so entrances were restricted or barred.

Two places brought a smile to my face: a car park nicknamed The Beirut Car Park for obvious reasons (can't recall what venue this was next to) and Ibrox as my best friend's a Celtic fanatic couldn’t resist sending him a picture!

All the cars are fitted with vehicle location systems, tracking their positions real time by Control. The tracking is very real, as chatting to others after the driving I found out that some of those with local knowledge, using their own routes to the venues, were advised over the radio they were not on the approved route as described by the SatNav and should return to the approved route!

During the Games the GRN AKA Games Route Network - will be in place which’ll be the route to follow between venues supported by the SatNav. Don’t think you’ll miss the GRN as it will have these attractive pink signs:

All in all a busy, fun day, great to meet other Clyde-Siders and there was a real buzz about the day  - bring on the Games!