Well done to David, who passed first time today with just 3 driver faults. It was nice to have someone who really expressed how happy he was passing his test. And he’s been a pleasure to teach all the way.
I was looking at my recent run and all of my eight passes have been between 1 and 6 driver faults, with five being first timers. My pass rate for the year is at 70%, with only one of my thirteen test candidates still not having passed (she has had two attempts so far).
An email alert from the DSA urges candidates to attend tests as normal in spite of the pending strike action of 5 April.
Remember that a previous strike was called off, so anyone who cancelled their test did so needlessly. And the last strike passed totally unnoticed at my test centre – all examiners were working normally.
Not all examiners are stupid enough to be members of PCS. Of those that are, they’re not all THAT stupid that they get involved in strike action. Therefore, many tests will go ahead normally.
Well done Jacob, who passed today first time with just 4 driver faults. He was very happy because he is planning on emigrating and having a licence is vital to his future plans.
He was very nervous, though. I’ve never had anyone give me an early morning wake-up call just to have an argument about what documents he needed to take with him (particularly seeing as I’d told him all this over the last few weeks, and last night). And the pre-test drive is not a good time to start questioning things like road signs!
But he’s been a great pupil – that’s why we can laugh at things like this! And it keeps my pass rate for the year at 70%. In fact, only one pupil this year out of all those going to test has still to pass.
An email alert from the DSA says that from 2 April 2013, phone lines for booking tests will only be 
available between 8am and 12pm (instead of the current 8am until 4pm). This is in line with the falling numbers of people booking via telephone.
Booking online is by far the easiest way. You can book your theory test and practical test on the DSA’s site at GOV.UK.
There are still a bunch of radical ADIs who oppose this on the grounds that their “older” pupils might not have access to, or be familiar with, the internet. Quite frankly, those people are likely to have issues with any booking system.
We’ve come a long way since Victorian times. It’s a shame that some people still want to stay firmly embedded in the past, though. The majority of people can easily book via the internet. Those who can’t will be able to use their ADIs to book it for them. There isn’t a problem unless you look for one.
I forgot to post this, but candidates were advised to attend tests as usual today.
My pupil’s test went out, as did four others all at the same time. As has been said for all the other strikes, not all examiners are stupid enough to be members of the PCS union, and of those that are not all of them are stupid enough to get involved in strike action.
In fact, little has been said anywhere about today’s action. PCS needs to get it into its thick, fossilised skull that people don’t care about it.
Well done Nick, who passed today first time with just 4 driver faults. His test was originally a couple of weeks ago but was cancelled due to fog (a first for me, that one). And we were worried today because it kept chucking down with snow.
He’s already got a car waiting for him, and he can now sell that money pit of a scooter he’s been using, and which caused a few cancelled lessons the last time it failed its MOT and needed money spending on it.
The BBC local news has covered the first day of tests being conducted out of Nottingham Trent University. No big deal, except for a couple of things on the report worth mentioning
First of all, tests were clearly going out with snow and ice visible on the roads (the Trent car park in particular). I’m pretty certain that on any other day – without the cameras being there – they probably wouldn’t have. Tests were even cancelled for fog last week (and that’s a first for me).
The other interesting thing was the “driving instructor” they interviewed (I used inverted commas there because a proper driving instructor 
would possess business sense whilst simultaneously knowing what they were talking about)..
In response to the BBC’s statement that the numbers of young people taking tests is falling, this stupid idiot claimed that the reason for this was the cost of the theory and practical tests. In particular, by stating that the practical test “costs £65” (Rosemary Thew was also interviewed and pointed out that these prices have not changed for several years).
In actual fact, the practical test DOESN’T cost £65. It costs £62. An instructor should know that, but this one” couldn’t even get such an important detail right – and she did it right in front of the cameras!
Now that she’d identified overall cost as a “problem” to the mummies and daddies out there watching in middle-class, local TV-land, she provided inaccurate data to support her claims.
The simple fact is that the cost of the two tests is less than 10% of the total cost of learning to drive for a typical learner. Over 90% of the expense is on driving lessons. So, having gotten everyone’s attention, and so identifying that costs of learning to drive are “too high”, what does she now suggest? That we ADIs should all cut our lesson prices to reduce the expense of learning to drive?
This woman typifies what is wrong with this industry. Too many idiots are allowed into it who see it as a philanthropic mission instead of a job, and who try to develop mother-child relationships with clients. Get it into your thick skulls: if someone can’t afford driving lessons, then they simply don’t have driving lessons. That’s it. End of story.
Learning to drive IS expensive. Buying an hour of someone’s time for anything is also expensive. That expense isn’t a sign that the person selling the time is charging too much!
Ineffective instructors who don’t have to pay for their car, who do the job to use up some spare time (“now that the kids have left home”), and whose losses are subsidised by the main breadwinner of the house do not represent this industry at all. By opening their stupid mouths on TV they are damaging it further all the time.
The DSA has confirmed the locations and commencement of driving tests from two of Nottingham Trent University’s sites.
The service commences from 11 March 2013. Tests will be available from the Clifton Campus on Mondays and Wednesdays, and from Clarendon Street on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I must stress that I don’t have any issues, in principle, with doing tests from these sites. I’m not convinced by the government’s “bringing the test to the people” mantra, but that’s another story.
However, the practicalities of this service do worry me a little. In particular, will there be any half-witted ADIs “practising” in the bays when you get there; and how the hell will candidates get off the Clifton campus to do their tests (the A453 is allegedly second only to the M25 in terms of the volume of traffic that goes along it). Indeed, the traffic density on the A453 – it ranges from almost gridlock all the way up to total gridlock for 23 hours of the day (or worse if some prat breaks down or crashes on it) – means that even getting on to the site is a challenge-and-a-half.
And then there are the road works – A453 widening has just started and is scheduled to last TWO YEARS, and Nottingham’s huge white elephant (aka “Phase II of the Tram”) is still more than a year away from completion, resulting in road closures throughout the area (including the City Centre site also being used for tests). So I wonder how many people will be late for their tests as a result?
Instructions on how to arrive are given in the link.
An email alert from the DSA announces the launch of an improved Online Practical Test Booking System.
It’s designed to work on smartphones and tablets, as well as normal computers.
It doesn’t ask for a Theory Test certificate number unless it can’t find one. That will make things simpler, if nothing else.
An email alert from the DSA is obviously intended to show transparency, and a strong desire to stamp out corruption.
It happened in London in February, and was a joint operation between the DSA’s Fraud & Integrity Team and the Metropolitan Police. An examiner, ADI, and four test candidates were arrested. Consequently, 100 driving licences are being revoked.
The operation was shown on BBC News, which you can watch here. It isn’t available for embedding.