Category - Driving Tests

Cancelling Your Test At Short Notice

20/03/2014
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

This is some good news for anyone with a driving test booked. From 1 April 2014 you will not lose your test fee if you have to cancel at short notice due to:

  • a medically certified illness
  • a bereavement
  • school exams

You will still need to apply a little common sense and expect to have to provide proof of whatever your cancellation reason is, but this is definitely a change for the better.

I suppose it was only to be expected that the vultures would find something wrong with this. The very same people who have, for years, been been whining about their little darlings losing test fees appear now to have issues with this show of humanity from the DSA (or DVSA as it will officially be known in a few weeks time).

Driving instructors should concentrate on their own jobs – not the DVSA’s. Who gives a shit why the DVSA is allowing school exams to be a reason for not losing your fee if you cancel. As I said above, you’re probably going to have to provide some proof and if it is clear that you knew about the exam 6 months ago then you might end up losing your fee after all.

The change is for the benefit of genuine people with genuine excuses who would previously have lost their test fee. Lying weasels will probably still be in for a bit of a shock if they try it on.

Test Pass: 13/3/2014

13/03/2014
DOAADI
Driving Tests

TickWell done to Hayley, who passed today with six driver faults. Another of my rocky core is now through!

She’s been a real pleasure to teach – apart from the times when I felt like crap as a result of the tears after her previous two attempts – and so the pass was especially satisfying. Some of my other pupils could take a lesson or two from her on how to be genuinely happy that you passed.

Test Pass: 8/3/2014

08/03/2014
DOAADI
Driving Tests

TickWell done Tom, who passed today with seven driver faults. He should have passed a few weeks ago, but that itchy foot and a stubborn refusal to look at the green straight-ahead arrow instead of the red light on the other stack resulted in a fail.

That’s one of my rocky core now out of the way.

Beeston Test Centre Has High Pass Rate

28/02/2014
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DSA, News

This story certainly goes against the grain of comments I’ve made in the past. While the old Chalfont Drive test centre was operating, I made a point of the fact that the pass rates both there and at Colwick were about the same – with Colwick being very slightly higher (about 0.2% higher when I commented in 2011).

That has all changed. The Nottingham Evening Post reports that Colwick currently has a pass rate around 46.4%, whereas Beeston’s is a whopping 55.1%. Clifton has a much lower rate of 36.3%.

It makes it difficult for me to continue to argue that if someone is ready for their test then it doesn’t matter where they take it. Having said that, I do more than 90% of my tests at Colwick and my overall pass rate last year was well over 60%. I’ve only ever had two tests at Clifton, with one pass and one (recent) fail – the fail was for a very specific and correct reason. All my tests except one this year have been at Colwick, and my overall pass rate at the moment is 50%.

I still maintain that if someone is ready for their test then it doesn’t matter where they take it. However, there is now no way of avoiding the argument that someone who is less test-ready than someone else would stand a better chance of passing at Beeston, and a greater chance of failing at Clifton. Bugger.

In the article, a local instructor suggests that the extensive tram works in that area means that test candidates spend more time stopped or driving slowly, and this gives them more time to think and plan ahead. I’d agree with that. Mind you, whenever I travel over that side, the variable road layouts (they change from one day to the next without warning) have always struck me as a major risk factor. But in my experience of Beeston tests (I had a run of them last year), examiners avoid the Nottingham side somewhat and direct tests away from the road works. Comments by a typical learner are worrying:

The higher pass rate does make me more hopeful on what will be my first time.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens when the tram works finally end and tests can be conducted on more routes on the Beeston side.

Test Pass: 25/2/2014

27/02/2014
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Well done to Kevin, who passed first time today with just 2 driver faults. Having recently got married, this was important to him. In Tickfact, as I had also learned from him, it marks a significant turnaround in his life since he left school.

He’s been another one who has been a pleasure to teach (even though he was a Manchester Utd supporter, though their season has made it easier to gain the upper hand in any football arguments of late). The last two passes have been what makes this job really worthwhile.

Test Pass: 19/2/2014

19/02/2014
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Well done Ray, who passed today with just 2 driver faults. We’d been on Red Alert to the possibility that we may have to forfeit the Ticktest as his wife was due to give birth that day and he’d have to be at the hospital. As it turned out, he DID go to the hospital – at 2.20am that morning to see his wife give birth to a baby girl – and then had his test mid-morning. Talk about everything coming together at once!

He’s a really nice guy and a very good driver. And now he’s set for all those football practices (he already has a son) and ballet lessons over the next 18 years.

Incompetence And Your Driving Licence

16/02/2014
DOAADI
ADI, Bad Drivers, Driving Tests, News, World

This story from Australia is interesting. It refers to a woman, Michelle Leanne Thiele, who – twice in seven years – caused the death of other drivers by failing to give way at the same junction.

Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel found Thiele was an incompetent driver who probably failed to look before she drove into the intersection.

She had five other serious traffic offences to her name. Her licence was revoked in 2010 and she has been denied even the opportunity to obtain a learner licence since then. She has appealed, and in its response the Motor Vehicle Act Review Committee said:

While the committee is of the view that you may be technically competent to operate a motor vehicle and you may pass a practical driving test if required to do so, it was not satisfied that you addressed and overcame your tendency for complacency and inattention to road rules.

The committee was not satisfied that issuing you with a learner’s permit subject to conditions requiring further technical driver training would necessarily address those attitudinal issues. The committee is not persuaded by the materials for consideration that the risk of you causing injury or death by accident to a member of the community was low.

Wow! Why can’t we have officials like that over here?

It’s a serious point. There are drivers out there who really shouldn’t be on the road, yet in the UK we absolutely never do anything about it other than maybe ban them for a short time. Oh, there are people at the end of their driving careers who – through reasons of deteriorating mental health just can’t handle a car anymore – who occasionally lose their licences, but even they would be allowed back on the roads if they passed their tests again. There is no competence-based assessment of someone’s suitability to be on the road in the first place – just the basic driving test.

In Australia, Thiele is quite rightly denied even that opportunity, and the reason given is basically incompetence when it comes to the practical part of driving. She is appealing further and the hearing is due next month.

Mind you, back in this hemisphere there have been recent rumblings in the EU about some sort of pre-licence assessment. Unfortunately, these have been of a psychometric nature – and anyone who has ever worked in industry will be fully aware of the pitfalls of psychometric testing – which is right up the alley of the current crop of coaching advisors and lifestyle coaches.

Nonsense About Advanced Driving Qualifications

12/02/2014
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, News, Training

This is an old article, and I have edited it to my more recent style. I have not changed it, though.

IAM (the Institute of Advanced Motorists) is at it again. In poll it has commissioned, it reveals that “only 60% of drivers concentrate when they are behind the wheel”. The IAM chief executive comments:

Signs of not concentrating such as missed turnings or uncancelled (sic) indicator lights are commonplace. Simply not concentrating is a key cause of crashes yet it is not borne out in statistics because drivers rarely admit to it in police reports or on insurance forms.

What he’s saying is that out of a poll of 1,500 people – who are at liberty to lie as much as they want and will if it makes them look good – is more accurate than factual data. And the facts do not tally with the inane poll.

Everyone loses concentration occasionally, and if 60% of drivers claim they don’t then they are either liars, or they didn’t understand the question. IAM is muddying the waters with nonsense like this.

Then, another story refers to two brothers who have recently got IAM certificates. The article quotes their mother:

Knowing my two boys are that much safer on today’s dangerous roads is a huge reassurance. Lots of young people pass the DOT’s (sic) standard test by the skin of their teeth and go around thinking they’re fantastic drivers, so the fact James and Ben have the IAM certificate makes me feel 100 per cent better.

An IAM certificate does not make you a good driver. And it is suicidal to go around thinking that you are a good driver, especially if you lack experience.

It’s great that these two lads have a positive attitude about driving. But it is precisely that – their positive attitude – which their lack of experience could end up exploiting. An IAM certificate for these two lads is as worthless as the “DOT” one the mother deriding. Experience is the key, with caution while you are gaining it. Experience does not fall down like manna from heaven just by taking an IAM test. It is acquired over many years. This is indirectly confirmed by IAM:

[IAM] Group secretary Denara Holmes says it’s unusual for people younger than this to take the IAM test.

Yes, because it is pointless for them. It’s just a badge they can wear. Without experience, advanced assessments are a waste of time.

Advanced driving courses and certificates are not a panacea by a long mile. It becomes irritating that those who take them almost invariably end up decrying the normal driving test and, by implication, people like me who work bloody hard to teach people to drive.

In spite of what “Ben” (one of the boys involved) says, driving lessons do not “just teach you to pass the test”. They put you in a position to go out and safely gain experience, and that has always been the purpose of the driving test. It’s the first step on a lifelong learning curve – and you are not at the end of that curve merely because you did an IAM test!

Taking an IAM test and getting the official customised Zimmer frame as a reward may well be part of that learning curve for many, but the normal driving test is right at the front of it. You can’t do the IAM test before it and doing it just after is absolutely pointless – except to gain some sort of badge. Indeed, a lot of information is missing from this story, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to discover that a Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme was involved somewhere.

Test Pass: 11/2/2014

11/02/2014
DOAADI
Driving Tests

TickWell done Harry, who passed today with just two driver faults. It was especially good considering that the heavens opened half way through his test, and he had to complete it in very poor conditions. I was annoyed to see that he also nearly had to contend with one of the local idiots who pass themselves off as ADIs driving into the test centre to “practice” bay parking shortly before the other candidates started arriving back.

As I’ve said before, there are at least eight car parks I use for this manoeuvre on lessons, never getting in anyone’s way – and finding somewhere else if another instructor is already there. It’s a shame for this business that these morons manage to keep hold of their green badges, as they repeatedly attempt to screw up other peoples tests and ignore the test centre manager’s frequent polite requests to piss off somewhere else.

Back to the subject, though, it was also nice to have someone who was genuinely pleased with his pass certificate as we drove back home.

Learner Goes Berserk After Failing Test

10/02/2014
DOAADI
ADI, Bad Drivers, Driving Tests, DSA, News

This came through at the weekend, but the story is now being covered in more detail in the media. It tells how Martin Olujosun, 22, went berserk after he failed his test in Gillingham.

Olujosun initially claimed to have acted in self defence (or “defense” if you’re a Daily Mail hack with a poor command of English). He attacked examiner, Darral Gregory, who sustained a splintered bone in his shoulder. Olujosun threatened to find out where Gregory lived and kill him.

Initially, after learning that he’d failed, Olujosun tried to punch his examiner in the face. A scuffle ensued, which resulted in Gregory sustaining the damaged shoulder. The initial story at the weekend also mentioned that Olujosun attempted to play the race card. His defence had clearly been reading The Big Book Of Stupid Language when offering mitigation:

He regrets it. If you held a gun to his head he can’t tell you why, he just lost it, he’d just lost his mother.

Well, obviously that makes it all right, then. Incredibly, Olujosun was not jailed, but received an 18-month suspended sentence – once again proving that UK Law is a complete ass.