I am licensed to …

I passed my Final Competency Assessment (FCA) today and my driver’s licence was upgraded from Class “C” (Car) to “MR” (Medium Rigid). This means I am now licensed to drive a bus.

My trainer was also my assessor. He is licensed by the RTA to do this. Normally, an RTA ‘auditor’ is present (ie, on the bus) during the assessment but this time no one showed up at the appointed time so my trainer did the assessment with out the auditor. I think my trainer preferred it this way.

The test consisted of a drive of about 30 minutes, during which I am required to demonstrate the following:
FCA 1
FCA 2
FCA 3
FCA 4

The assessor decides the route to be taken and navigates for me by telling me when to turn. It is a requirement that the test be done on a set of roads I had not used during my training. It was a relatively simple course. It is up to the assessor to design the route to test the required skills.

After the test we went to the RTA office in Lidcombe where I got my new licence. My licence is restricted to buses (and trucks) with automatic transmissions as this is what I did my training and assessment on.

BTW, “Medium Rigid” does not mean the “rigidity” is “medium”. “Medium” refers to the weight of the vehicle which can have only 2 axles (more than 2, it becomes “heavy”). “Rigid” means not articulated and not a semi trailer.