ADI - Diary Of An ADI

Original Highway Code (1931)

17/05/2011

An email alert from the DSA advises that you can buy an anniversary copy of the 1931 Highway Code (for a limited time). Here’s the link to it on the TSO Bookshop.

I’ve actually got the PDF version, but I’ve ordered a copy of it. It’s only £4.99.

I won’t reproduce the whole DSA message for something like this, but it’s interesting that this version came out “…the year the electric guitar was invented…” Quite appropriate with what I’m up to between lessons at the moment.

In 1931 there were only 2.4 million cars on the roads. Today it is more like 34 million!

I also like the fact that the 1931 edition deals in depth with horse-drawn vehicles, and how to rotate the whip above your head to let people know which way you were going.

When this topic first came up, I was surprised at the ridicule by many sources (including ADIs).

New ADI Knows It All

12/05/2011

DOAADI

ADI

I saw this story in the Mirror yesterday. At first, it was quite heart warming to read it… until I got to the end.

In a nutshell, this guy on Teeside was made redundant and so became a driving instructor at the otherwise virtually unemployable age of 60. Sounds great, so far, and you can forgive him his know-it-all attitude (something ADIs are quite good at, even if they know nothing at all).

However, at the end, he says this:

I charge as little as £10 a lesson for the first five and then blocks of 10 for £15 each, much cheaper than big schools.

In the area he works – Stockton – the going rate for lessons is £20-£22, and yet here you have this complete idiot giving them away for between £10-£15. He’s even got some free advertising worth thousands of pound to advertise the fact from the Mirror, so Heaven knows what impression that will give to those who read it

Becoming an ADI for Dummies The simple fact is that in spite of the gushing rhetoric and gooey rags-to-riches crap, people like this guy are effectively destroying the industry for everyone else, and they are not as good as they think they are. There are always prospective pupils who are only interested in money, and who want to pay as little as possible for driving lessons. The fact that they end up taking more lessons than they would with a good instructor – charging a little more – is something they can never know, because everyone only learns to drive once in their lives. Some DO realise, though. That’s when they move elsewhere complaining that they weren’t getting anywhere.

That’s because you cannot make any money at all if you are paying for a car and the fuel to run it on idiotic hourly rates like this. Unless someone owns the car outright (and this guy had to lease a car), it will cost at least £70 for that alone. How much you spend on fuel depends on how many hours you work, but you can easily reckon on somewhere between £100-£200 a week for 30+ hours of tuition.

So, he’s spending around £170 (let’s say) a week to run his car. At £12.50 an hour average, that means he has to work 14 hours just to cover costs. Then – and let’s assume he IS working 30 hours – his before-tax profit is going to be £200 a week!

Yes, his wages are £200 a week!!!

If anyone in the real world can live on that I’d like to meet them.

And when you fiddle with the numbers further, it works out at around £6.70 an hour based on tuition hours alone. Add travelling time, and you’re probably under £5 an hour. He must have been on really poor wages as a salt shifter!

For anyone interested, as of January 2009 McDonald’s was paying up to £5.75 an hour to new staff!.

As I said above, people like the guy in this story are really what’s wrong with the industry. Absolutely no business sense whatsoever. They are prats who see themselves as philanthropists – and the only reason pupils “like” them is that they think they’re getting a good deal.

Still, as long as decent instructors can charge £23 or more an hour and have a full diary then people like this berk are welcome to work for peanuts.

Better Enforcement and Better Education to Cut Road Deaths

11/05/2011

DOAADI

ADI, DSA

An email alert from the DSA:

Better enforcement and education to cut road deaths

Plans to improve road safety education while taking tough action against the small minority of dangerous drivers were set out by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond today.

Careless driving will be made a fixed penalty offence to allow the police more effectively to tackle reckless driving that puts other road users in danger, while disqualified drivers face having to take a new test before regaining their licence.

There will also be more educational courses that can be offered in place of a fixed penalty and points in appropriate cases as well as a new post-test qualification for novice drivers, under plans set out in the new Strategic Framework for Road Safety.

And as new analysis shows, 3,500 deaths and serious injuries could have been prevented in a year if the successes of better local authorities and police forces had been matched across the country. Local people will be given the information they need to have a real say in road safety priorities on their local roads.

Philip Hammond said:

“This report marks a sea change in how we tackle road safety in this country. We are determined to differentiate between wilfully reckless drivers and the law abiding majority who sometimes make honest mistakes, or who have allowed their skills to deteriorate.

“We will focus relentlessly on cracking down on the really reckless few who are responsible for a disproportionately large number of accidents and deaths on our roads. By allowing the police to focus resources on dealing with these drivers, we can make our roads even safer.

“Our vision is to ensure Britain remains a world leader on road safety. We will only do this is if we bring people with us. This means cracking down on the most dangerous drivers without waging war on the law abiding majority.

The new Strategic Framework for Road Safety sets out the government’s plans to:

Make careless driving a fixed penalty offence to allow the police more effectively to tackle the wilfully reckless driving that puts other road users in danger. Guidance will ensure that that the circumstances in which a fixed penalty notice is appropriate are clearly defined.

Require offenders to pass a test before they regain their licence after a serious disqualification.

Make greater use of powers to seize vehicles to keep the most dangerous drivers off the roads.

Increase the level of fixed penalty notices for traffic offences from £60 to between £80 and £100 and penalty points. Levels have fallen behind those for other fixed penalty offences, which risks trivialising the offences.

Improve enforcement against drink and drug driving, as announced in the response to the North Report in March. Increase the use of police-approved educational courses that can be offered in place of fixed penalty notices to encourage safer driving behaviour.

Launch a new post-test qualification for new drivers, including an assessment process to give insurers confidence that it will create safer drivers who can expect to pay lower insurance costs. This will replace the current Pass Plus scheme.

Continue to improve the driving and motorcycling training processes, including introducing film clips into theory test.

Create a new website to allow local people to easily compare the road safety performance of their local area against similar areas, as well as a new portal to help road safety professionals share information. The framework published today also includes maps which show the recent road safety records and improvements of local authorities.

Launch an annual road safety day.

The framework also sets out the roles and responsibilities of local authorities, road safety professionals and other stakeholders in improving road safety and the increased freedom that is being given to local authorities in assessing and acting on their own priorities.

The government’s long term vision is to ensure that Britain remains a world leader on road safety and the department will monitor its performance against indicators in a new road safety outcomes framework.

This is that earlier story about “on the spot fines” straight from the horse’s mouth. As I said, it isn’t just about fines – it is about much more than that.

This next comment might upset a few people, but frankly the broader issue of road deaths doesn’t bother me. Not road deaths among the little prats who end up killing themselves, anyway – it’s good for society that they’ve been removed from the gene pool. What does concern me, though, is the ones who put MY life in danger and get away with it. That’s why I welcome anything that takes their pratmobile – or their licence to drive one – away.

It’s just a shame we won’t show the guts necessary to take those privileges away for life – like the Chinese have done. Punishment is also a form of education.

Interestingly, I have already had one hit on the search term – and I want to highlight it:

I drive for my living in UK will careless driving charges affect me?

If anyone was offended by my comment above, this is the proof that I am right to have little sympathy for anyone who flaunts what they already know to be the law. It doesn’t matter which country they are from, who they are, or how old they are. If they drive cars they are adults, and we need to stop all the mollycoddling – that’s how it got like this in the first place.

‘On The Spot’ Fines for Bad Drivers

11/05/2011

DOAADI

ADI

This has been on the news this morning, and is covered in many places. This is from the BBC.

The reports say that police will be given powers to issue on the spot fines instead of the usual reporting/court summons method. A fine of at least £80 and 3 points on their licences will also be given.

As usual, there are people condemning it. Some say it is too simplistic. And the forums are showing the usual crop of “experts” rattling on. My favourite so far is:

Here we go again…

Anything which makes driving like a prat less attractive is a good idea, no matter who thought of it.

Under the plans – which involve far more than just on the spot fines - anyone disqualified would have to take further training. Drug-driving will be cracked down on (I regularly smell exotic tobacco fumes coming out of cars in front of me), and there would be more vehicle seizures.

It strikes me that some driving instructors oppose anything which affects their pupils – whether their pupils are at fault or not.

Some Things in Life are Certain

08/05/2011

DOAADI

ADI, World

As you go through life, there are some things which are so certain that you can set your watch by them. For example, if you fall out of the 2nd floor window of your house, you get hurt. If you put your hand in a Flymo while it’s plugged in, you can forget learning to play the piano. And if you have too many driving instructors, they’ll all start moaning that there isn’t enough work to go around and the overall quality of instruction will go down.

Someone should explain that to the Irish, as this story makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, so certain is the outcome in a year or two’s time.

A driving school is cynically capitalising on the new Irish driving test by offering “scholarships” to unemployed people. In other words, it is trying to increase its own business by adding more ADIs to the pool. It claims it is to “take people off the dole queue”.

Well, in order to significantly reduce the dole queue it would have to create a lot of ADIs. If it only does a handful, then the effect on the dole queue is negligible. Then, of course, there is the age old issue of whether just anyone can be a good ADI (and Ireland has only just got around to trying to sort its seriously flawed driver training system as it is). In other words, if someone is “unemployed”, are they necessarily automatically “employable” in a job like this?

DSA Warning: Test Booking Rip Off Sites

06/05/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, DSA, DVSA

Old story from 2011. DSA is now DVSA, but the warning is still valid. Go to gov.uk and book your test there.

An email from the DSA:

Unofficial driving test booking websites: advice for customers

~~Directgov~~ is the only official driving test booking website.

Other websites offer driving test booking services, but might charge extra administrative fees on top of the Driving Standards Agency’s (DSA) fee. Those websites are not run by or connected to DSA or ~~Directgov~~.

DSA recommends that all learner drivers book their driving test through the official booking service on ~~Directgov~~ by visiting ~~direct.gov.uk/drivingtest~~

If you have used an unofficial website

DSA gets complaints from customers who have used unofficial booking websites. In most cases these websites are doing nothing illegal. This means that DSA’s powers to respond may be limited.

If you have used an unofficial booking website, you might have seven working days to cancel your order and get all your money back. However, this will depend on the terms and conditions of the website you used.

You can find more information about your consumer rights on ~~Directgov~~. You can also use template letters to complain to businesses. Each letter includes details of the law that you want the trader to follow.

Internet, mail order and telephone shopping

Making a complaint – what to do first

Create a complaint letter from a template

What DSA is doing about unofficial booking websites

DSA takes consumer protection very seriously. So, DSA is:

a) protecting its trademarks to make sure they are not:

used to advertise unofficial booking sites in search engine results

used as part of website addresses for unofficial booking websites

b) asking the Advertising Standards Authority to make sure unofficial booking websites are following the rules in the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing

c) asking local Trading Standards to investigate those unofficial booking websites that appear to be misleading consumers

What DSA is doing to promote the official booking service

DSA makes improvements based on learner drivers’ feedback to promote the official booking service. For example DSA:

made sure that the official ~~Directgov~~ website pages appear at the top of search engine results where possible

created videos showing how to use the practical test booking service – videos are being developed for the theory test booking service too

reminded learner drivers on Twitter and Facebook about using the official booking service on ~~Directgov~~

What approved driving instructors (ADIs) can do

DSA is encouraging ADIs to remind their trainees to use the official booking service by visiting ~~direct.gov.uk/drivingtest~~.

If ADIs run their own websites they can also link to the official booking service. The best links to put on your website are:

~~direct.gov.uk/booktheorytest~~ – Book an official DSA driving theory test

~~direct.gov.uk/bookpracticaltest~~ – Book an official DSA practical driving test

There is also a Facebook page about it.

I’ve had the proper links on here for some time on my Information Page, along with a lot of other useful stuff.

I was talking to a pupil the other day – one who had taken their theory test before coming to me – and he reckoned he’d paid £70 for his test! It costs £31 through DSA – and I charge £6.50 for a copy of Driving Test Success (DVD ROM), which is the ONLY thing you need in order to revise for the test. if you pay any more than that you’ve been had.

Angel of Death: Update

03/05/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Funny, General

Further to the story about birch pollen “ripping” paint off cars – and you wouldn’t believe how many hits on that exact search phrase I’ve had – mine is still firmly attached to the car and I haven’t felt ill or anything (I am the first born son).

It looks like the Angel of Death gave the UK a miss after all, so I can only assume it was all media paranoia again.

Taxi Drivers Banned for Illegal Parking

30/04/2011

DOAADI

ADI, General

This is a very old story and all links in it are now dead and so removed. And DSA is now DVSA, of course.

When I saw the headline, my first thought was “about time”. But as soon as I started reading the story in This is South Devon I realised that it wasn’t all it seemed.

When you drive (or teach people to drive) for a living, other motorists behaving stupidly, dangerously, and arrogantly is a major annoyance. One of the worst groups has to be taxi drivers, and it really makes you wonder how the hell many of them get through their taxi test.

The DSA’s website says:

The test is more demanding than the practical test taken by learner drivers, and has elements that relate specifically to driving a taxi or PHV.

So how is it that so many taxi drivers don’t seem to have a clue how to drive safely or with other road users in mind? If they’ve been tested, it can only be deliberate the way they behave.

You can be driving behind a taxi and it will stop – literally stop dead – to pick up a fare. It won’t care if it is blocking the road completely or who is behind it – it will still stop without any warning. You may come across one that has blocked a narrow residential road as you turn round a blind bend (blind bends and other danger areas mean nothing to taxis).

They will stop during the rush hour on yellow lines, on zig-zags at crossings, in restricted stopping zones, or anywhere else that is convenient to them (an individual) irrespective of the mayhem it causes to thousands of people trying to negotiate the rush hour while they block off part of the road – and then pull away as soon as they’re ready to go, forcing everyone to stop.

They pull off without warning and will happily block half of the road while they emerge into free-flowing traffic which has no reason to stop for them other than to avoid a collision. They sit two abreast (blocking off half the road) talking to each other outside their HQ (anyone who doesn’t believe me should go past Southside Cars in Clifton – daytime or night, it won’t make any difference to the taxis). Hazard lights are a taxi’s standard method of communicating that it is illegally parked half on the pavement, straddling double yellow lines.

Taxis will drive at a speed to suit them – very slowly when between jobs, usually in the right-hand lanes; very fast when on a job. When driving on a job, overtaking on the inside, lane changing, and cutting up is mandatory. If a call comes through while they’re sauntering along or pulling away at traffic lights very slowly, then a U-turn can be carried out in any location and in any volume of traffic using any method that occurs to the driver at that particular moment in time.

The manoeuvre will come as a big surprise to everyone else, because taxis don’t use signals (except occasionally for hazard lights when they are within 500m of where their sat nav has told them they should be and they’re looking for a house number). The idea of driving a few metres in order to do a turn in the road or a corner reverse safely – or going around the block – is not something which a taxi driver is capable of considering. It has to be an immediate and often illegal or dangerous turn right there and then (a favoured manoeuvre outside Southside Cars when a call comes through is the U-turn in the road on zig-zags, usually misjudged (so becoming a turn in the road), and often involving going around a pedestrian island the wrong way depending on where they were parked).

Bearing all this in mind, I was thinking that someone in Devon had got wise to all this and started to do something about it.

It turned out to be three drivers parking a bit outside the overflowing taxi rank, or in a bus bay. In other words, bureaucratic codswallop.

Don’t Use Your Mobile When Driving!

29/04/2011

DOAADI

ADI, World

No, really?

One more statement of the bleeding obvious to round off the month – though there is still a day to go yet – from The Journal in Ireland.

Apparently, in this hot news the RSA warns that using your mobile when driving results in an increased risk of collision. Well, knock me down with a feather!

The article also says that driver distraction is “thought” to play a role in 20-30% of all road collisions and using your mobile can increase the risk by four times. I hate it when numerical data are linked by words like “thought” – because they become the kind of data you can’t process with a computer. However, the unintentional implication from this is that sometimes it is OK to use the phone because it doesn’t always play a role.

If you’re going to come out with such statements of the obvious, at least state the most obvious thing of all and be done with it: doing anything other than concentrating on driving is dangerous.

And introduce suitable penalties for doing it. Forget silly videos and “awareness” courses. Bring back darkened rooms and lengths of rubber hose.

Dumbarton Non-issue

28/04/2011

DOAADI

ADI, DSA

The Lennox Herald seems to think some sort of about-turn has been made, or some victory achieved over the “closure” of the Dumbarton test centre.

Let’s just touch base with reality for a moment. This story started when Dumbarton instructors staged a protest over something that existed only in their imaginations. The DSA said quite clearly:

DSA plans to continue to provide driving tests in Dumbarton. There are no plans to transfer testing provision to Anniesland or elsewhere.

Testing in Dumbarton has been operating three days a week on a trial basis, but this will be reviewed and can be increased if there is sufficient demand for more days.

Candidates can still book tests slots in Dumbarton for the days when testing is taking place.

It only went this far because the lease ran out on the previous site, and it was looking for another. This new article says the same thing:

The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) had only been operating three days a week since moving to a temporary base in the town’s Burgh Hall.

But it gets a little more curious if you read into what a local councillor says:

The DSA will still be based in the Burgh Hall while actively seeking permanent premises, but we’ve given a commitment that they can have the hall for five days instead of three for the same fee.

So it appears that part of the problem was that the local council was either not offering the premises for five days, or it was trying to charge too high a fee for that length of time. Whatever the case, a large part of the problem seems to not have been the DSA’s fault.

They’re still going on as if the test centre could move away in Dumbarton, though. They still can’t understand what the DSA said:

DSA plans to continue to provide driving tests in Dumbarton . There are no plans to transfer testing provision to Anniesland or elsewhere.

However, it will surely pass into ADI folklore that the DSA tried to close down the Dumbarton test centre, force people to travel hundreds of miles, but was pushed into an embarrassing climbdown because a small group of instructors held a “protest convoy”.

Category - ADI