John Skinner was a truck driver for over 30 years before moving into driver training. Image: Gold Coast Truck
Driving School
With over 30 years of experience as a truck driver, John Skinner has been helping new drivers get a start behind the wheel and experienced drivers upgrade to higher licence classes.
John got the trucking bug from his father, who worked as a truck driver for his entire working life, driving B-doubles until he passed away at the age of 72. Once John was old enough to follow suit, he got his truck licence too and spent decades travelling the country, doing everything from local to interstate work.
“I became a show kid at about 16, so I left home and got into trucks. I started out driving trucks on a car licence, then got my truck licence at 21 and MC at 28,” he said. And now his son and daughter are following a similar path too. While his son has an open HC licence and works as an apprentice diesel mechanic, his daughter has a HR licence and currently works in the mines, operating large machinery.
Although John loved life on the road, eventually health issues forced him to give it up. That’s when he decided to become a driver trainer, using his extensive experience to train others – the right way.
“I got my licences and certificates and became a driver trainer and assessor over four years ago,” revealed John.
After around three years working for another truck driving school, John made the decision to go out on his own and open Gold Coast Truck Driving School in January 2023.
Lee recently secured his HR licence after training with John. Image: Gold Coast Truck Driving SchoolSince then, he’s helped countless drivers start new careers or build on their existing careers in trucking. John trains his students for their Heavy Rigid (HR), Heavy Combination (HC), and Multi Combination (MC) licences.
He’s now training up to 10 people a week, across various licence classes.
Lee is among the students to have recently secured his HR licence after training with John. He said the training he received was: “Thorough, meticulous and most importantly experienced. This is the sort training that the industry needs.”
John’s decades of real-world experience as a truck driver means he can impart that knowledge onto his students.
As he explained, “When I came into the training industry, I guess I was sort of pushed in that direction. Over the years, while doing interstate, if I ever saw someone struggling, I’d always jump in and give them a hand.
“People would often comment that I was good at training other people, so when I had to give up the long distance driving, becoming a driver trainer was the perfect fit.
“Once I started in the training industry, I realised that there are a lot of trainers out there without the real-world experience. Because I’ve been around trucks for so long, training others comes really naturally to me.”
John says a lot of his students come to him through word of mouth. “With about 80-85 per cent of the students I have coming through, they are getting to a point where they’re confident and ready for their licence test in just eight hours of training in the Roadranger.
“I do care about the students and like to see them pass. If they were to fail, I take it personally and feel like I’ve failed too.
“In my four years as a trainer, I’ve learnt that there are different techniques and approaches to teach different people.
“Some people are more nervous than others, so the bottom line is don’t stress them out! That’s the last thing you want to do. Have a joke with them and make them feel comfortable – and work with their weaknesses to help them succeed.
“I do have techniques I use that help me to train people more quickly.”
Recently, John also started taking video footage to help show students what they were doing wrong and how they can fix it. “I began sharing some of the videos about learning to drive a Roadranger on Facebook. Most of the videos average about 15,000 views, but some of my earlier videos have now surpassed 350,000 views,” said John.
“I actually started these videos to help with people’s training and now they’ve really taken off.”
To learn more about Gold Coast Truck Driving School, visit goldcoasttruckdrivingschool.com.au or call 0400 930 521.
Image: Gold Coast Truck Driving School[signup]
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