Category - Driving Tests

DSA Strikes Averted?

23/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

Socialist Worker Online is obviously disappointed that there apparently won’t be any strikes over the DSA’s original plans to close its Cardiff offices. So it has to resort to extreme smugness:

DSA strike votes wins a retreat

A strike vote in the Driving Standards Agency has meant that management has backed off over a number of issues. Significantly, management has dropped its plans to close the department’s Cardiff office.

I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this one just yet. The kind of people involved in this want to strike over something, and the DSA is going to have to cut back somewhere if it is keeping the Cardiff offices open, so it’s only a matter of time before something makes the union members spit their dummy out again.

For one thing, there’s no mention of Newcastle – and that was also involved in the original story.

EDIT 20/6/2011: Don’t think it’s over, cos it ain’t.  The union is determined to get a strike if it kills it.

EDIT 27/6/2011: There will be celebrations on union committees across the UK tonight, as it looks like the possibility of the strikes being called off has been successfully repelled.

Coventry Sleuths

19/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, General

I saw this story in the Coventry Telegraph – they’ve done a “freedom of information” request to the DSA and discovered that someone who lives in Coventry has taken and failed their driving test 24 times before passing. I think the whole thing has been prompted by that woman who failed her test 90 times (reported in March this year).

All the tests were from, the same test centre – and one candidate there even passed in 26 tries, although they had taken tests in various locations.

The DSA will not name the person (quite right), so at the end of this article the Telegraph asks:

Do you know the city’s most persistent learner driver? If so call Telegraph reporter Sam Dimmer on…

I’m not sure I agree with that. To be honest, it’s not really anyone’s business except the person involved – though I’m sure a financial incentive might make them more amenable to being identified publicly.

A driving instructor interviewed for the article makes a valid point – albeit in an obscure manner, though I suspect that that might be to do with the editing rather than the point he made. I would also agree that someone who takes that long and that many tries might not be the best driver in the world.

A follow up story by the Telegraph reveals that the driver in question is a man “according to sources in the city”.

Now a host of people in the city believe they’ve identified the city’s most determined driver.

They say he’s in his twenties and lives in the Foleshill area, and since passing his test he’s been busy racking up miles on Coventry’s roads.

They’re bang out of order. It’s like winning the Lottery, asking for no publicity, then having some idiot newspaper reporter blow your cover. It could ruin your life (well, it could if you’d won the Lottery – but the point is the same).

Still, at least the junior hack has eased off – probably because his “sources” have provided a name and he’s been told he can’t spill the beans by his bosses:

Are you Coventry’s most persistent learner driver? If so call reporter Sam Dimmer on…

Test Pass: 18/4/2011

18/04/2011
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Tick!Well done to Stephen, who passed this morning with 6 driver faults.

He was nervous (and shaking), but that sandwich while we ran through the show-me-tell-me questions helped!

The examiner said he was nervous, but all right once he got going. Three of the faults were for signalling a little early – which was over-compensation for signalling late (which I picked up on during the pre-test drive).

Test Pass: 13/4/2011

13/04/2011
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Tick!Well done Vivek, who passed first time today with 9 driver faults.

It was mayhem at the test centre. We turned up the required 10 minutes early, and since the previous time slot’s tests were just going out the car park was quite full (instructor cars carefully spaced so that there was one empty space between all of them. Cowards). Then, at the end, there were at least two private runners who had decided that they didn’t need parking bays, and that it was OK to stop in the middle of the road outside the centre (no attempt at parking or pulling over).

Still, these are the things Vivek will have to deal with now he’s a full licence holder.

More on Test Centre Closures

12/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, World

I’ve written several times recently about test centre closures – both real and imagined – and the subsequent behaviour of ADIs in the areas covered by the centres in question.

This report in Herald Scotland pushes further the idea that tests could be conducted from a variety of locations – supermarkets, libraries, community centres, and so on.

The article says:

The test centres are self-funding, with costs paid by learners sitting their tests. But is thought the savings would help pay for the £71 million cost of building 66 multi-purpose test centres across Britain.

I’m not sure if that is quite correct. MPTCs were not built to be LESS efficient than what was there previously. They were built to be MORE efficient. It stands to reason that ONE MPTC on an industrial estate is going to cost less to run than TWO or THREE community-based test centres shoe-horned above shops and into converted terraced houses in run-down estates. The explanation given above is another Mickey Mouse coalition way of trying to blame things on Labour.

And let’s not forget something no one else appears to be mentioning. The publicity may be centred upon the ramblings of certain self-styled community champions (“we MUST keep a testing facility in our village… won’t someone PLEEEASE think of the children”), but 90% of the public detest learner drivers and would like nothing better than for the test centre next door to bugger off somewhere else.

Driving 15 miles to the nearest test centre is not the problem people like Mike Weir and Sandra Osborne suggest. Some people have to do that anyway (I had one last week who lived 17 miles from the test centre, and several more greater than 10 miles away), and I’d like to see where it is written that no one should ever have to end up travelling further than they do now just because their local centre moves somewhere else.

Commonsense is being swallowed up and masked by amateurish political schemings.

I wonder if those supermarkets, libraries, and community centres will “allow” tests to be conducted for free?

And one more thing: test centres being further away would be less of a problem if local councils did their bloody roadworks more efficiently instead of digging big holes, putting up barriers and lights, and then doing naff all for two months. The biggest worry when travelling is not the distance, but the time.

Test Pass: 8/4/2011

08/04/2011
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Tick!Well done Katie, who passed this morning first time with 5 driver faults.

A good driver and very confident person, who suddenly started shaking like a leaf before the test! But I told you that although I make you do things perfectly on the lessons, the examiners aren’t looking for absolute perfection, and they expect people to be nervous and will make allowances for it. Most will try to put you at ease – as you found out.

Test Pass: 6/4/2011

06/04/2011
DOAADI
Driving Tests

Tick!Well done to Nick, who passed first time today with just 1 driver fault (you plonker – I nearly had another clean sheet!) And you did it in 22 hours from scratch, which just goes to show what quality private practice in between lessons can do.

You had me worried, though. You were the last one back out of the five who went out – I thought you’d got lost!

Yeovil Test Centre

05/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

I mentioned in passing that Yeovil Test Centre was moving. I was speculating on what might happen amongst instructors down that way.

According to The West Country, the DSA has confirmed a new test centre location (though it can’t reveal where just yet).The whole thing seems to be a molehill that’s been deliberately turned into a mountain.

The DSA did not appear to be proposing to cease operations in Yeovil at any time, and yet that is how the local MP is describing it. He talks of the “considerable” distance to the nearest alternative (about 20 miles, though he leads with one that is 28 miles away).

It really bugs me when someone makes an assumption, has that assumption dismissed by facts, and then goes on and on and on about the assumption as if it ever had any validity – when all it was was a misguided opinion.

EDIT 22/6/2011: And here’s the final outcome.

Let me just summarise this whole affair for those out their with lead between their ears, and who have trouble thinking straight:

  • the DSA said all along it was keeping the practical testing facility in Yeovil
  • the DSA said it had found alternative premises
  • the DSA has confirmed – absolutely and finally – that it has found alternative premises

This seems to be a bit complicated for some people, who were rattling on about losing the practical test facility in spite of a crystal clear statement to the contrary.

They’ll have to moan about something else now.

Easiest Driving Test Manoeuvre?

04/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests

This is an old, old, OLD article from 2011! The test no longer involves turn in the road and reversing around a corner.

That’s the search term someone used to find the blog!

Since the introduction of the Independent Driving section on the test late last year, candidates only have to do one of the basic manoeuvres now instead of the two that used to be required. The basic manoeuvres are [edit: were – this is an old, old article]:

  • turn in the road
  • reverse around a corner
  • reverse park

The reverse around a corner can be either to the left or the right – and in spite of the nonsense you hear from some quarters, the right reverse IS a possibility because it IS on the syllabus. It can also involve normal or very sharp corners depending on the area the test centre operates in.

The reverse parking exercise can involve either the parallel park or the bay park.

So that gives 7 distinct possibilities, though it has to be admitted that the right corner reverse is unlikely.

The Emergency Stop exercise isn’t classed as a manoeuvre, and one in three tests will have that as well as the randomly chosen basic manoeuvre.

Russian Roulette

So which one is easiest? The answer is: none of them.

I’ve had pupils who simply cannot get comfortable with the turn in the road, whereas others pray that that’s the one they get on their tests. I’ve got one at the moment who hates the bay parking exercise. Some of them see the parallel park as the most difficult because it involves more stages, and others struggle with reversing around a corner – and yet others just sail through them.

If I was going to identify the hardest one to master then I’d go for the corner reverse, because it involves constant control rather than extremes – i.e. you have to control the car’s position relative to the kerb, whereas the other manoeuvres are usually based on full-lock and straight steering. But just because something is technically the most difficult doesn’t mean that every learner who tries it automatically can’t do it.

That’s because everyone is different. What one person finds easy another will find hard, and vice versa.

I always explain to my pupils that the test lasts for 30-40 minutes. The manoeuvre will take a maximum of 3-4 minutes, so the rest of the time will be spent driving. However, the manoeuvre is “sudden death” inasmuch as you will fail if you can’t do it – and you don’t know which one it will be. But you’ll also fail if you can’t drive properly. Therefore, it’s important to develop all of these skills to an acceptable level and not play Russian Roulette by neglecting any.

Not Another One!

03/04/2011
DOAADI
ADI, Driving Tests, DSA, World

The disease seems to be spreading. I mentioned a day or two ago about instructors up in Dumbarton ready to chain themselves to railings because they’ve convinced themselves that the test centre is going to close and they’ll all be forced to drive 10 miles – 10 whole miles –  to another one.

This is in spite of the DSA saying:

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

Then, of course, there was the one up in Cumnock – but it looks like the Mickey Mouse coalition government is anxious to try and win some seats back from the Scottish Nationalists and has given its personal assurance that the tiny, converted terraced house will be reinstated.

This latter story has driven a small group of instructors from Trowbridge, Wiltshire to start moaning about a test centre that was closed down in 2008 – that’s 3 years ago, for anyone who is interested. Since then, they have had to trek the many thousands of miles – well, 13 miles to be precise – to Chippenham.

The coalition has opened up a real can of worms by their stupid intereference in Scotland.

Having offices all over the place is a monumental waste of money to any business, and doubly so during a recession. Fair enough, if a business is offering a service then it needs to have offices in convenient places, but having dozens of the things within a 20 mile radius of a given city or town – which is what the DSA had built up in the past – is a joke.

It’s going to be even more of a joke now the precedent has been set by this coalition – to interfere with simple logic just to win votes.

I wonder if any of the clowns involved in these campaigns realise how much it costs to run a test centre – or how it will be paid for if tiny centres are kept open? Just watch what happens if the DSA has to increase test fees to cover it.

UPDATE 5/4/2011: I have received an email from the coordinator of the Trowbridge situation:

I just wanted to respond to your blog comments:

“This latter story has driven a small group of instructors from Trowbridge, Wiltshire to start moaning about a test centre that was closed down in 2008 – that’s 3 years ago, for anyone who is interested. Since then, they have had to trek the many thousands of miles – well, 13 miles to be precise – to Chippenham.”

I thought I’d let you know what’s actually happened.

We have been fighting to firstly save and now reopen Trowbridge DTC since 25th March 2008 (not just since the news on Scottish DTCs). Whilst the AA Route Planner may show 13 miles from the site of the previous DTC to the DTC in Chippenham to be 13 miles people in Frome (popn 24,500) are having to travel 25 miles and, considering it’s a rural area, up to an hour each way to take their tests.

Whereas the DSA state that the recession has caused around a 7% reduction in the number of tests, DSA information provided in response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request has shown that the number of people from the Trowbridge, Frome and Westbury area taking tests have dropped by 33%. Many good instructors are now having to work part time as a result and the majority have lost between 15-20% of their work (some have lost up to 40% and these aren’t bad instructors).

There has recently been a leaked DSA document released by the PCS Union stating that the DSA are looking to reduce the number of DTCs to 200 by 2015 (that’s by about half) and there has been much talk, but limited action to date, on putting suitable measures in place; surely this should have been done before they started to close DTCs, especially in major towns (Trowbridge is the County Town of Wiltshire)?

We have recenty submitted an FoI request and a request via our MP (who met with 5 other MPs with Mike Penning MP on 2nd November 2010 to discuss this issue) for details of planned and scheduled DTC closures between now and 2015. Whereas, previously, this information has been provided without any problem, the DSA are now trying to get out of and at the very least delay in providing it.

I’m assuming that you’re based in Nottingham and that you, currently,have two DTCs in your area, including an MPTC, and waiting lists of 4-6 weeks. I don’t know, since I have yet to receive the information from the DSA, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the non-MPTC isn’t closed and that, like us and other similarly affected areas have experienced, the waiting list at the MPTC for car tests doubles to 8-10 weeks as a result (we used to enjoy 3-6 week waiting lists but currently the best we enjoy is 7-8 weeks and sometimes as much as 11-12 weeks).

We may not be a large group, probably 30-50 instructors in total with an action group of about 7, but we’ve been trying for over three years to get some change and it would seem that we and others are just starting to see some results. Maybe even our and others efforts will ensure that if and when one of your local DTCs closes the waiting list won’t go above 6-7 weeks.

If you’d asked us in February 2008 whether Trowbridge DTC would close, we’d have laughed and said no chance. As an increasing number of instructors are finding to their surprise, DTC closures can happen to them.

According to the latest leaked DSA information, on a simple average, about one in two driving instructors will be hit by DTC closures and a number of those will go out of business unless suitable replacement measures are put in place.

In many areas, especially rural ones, it can take quite a while to travel 13 miles let alone 25.

And a further comment:

Based on DSA data provided in response to an FoI request, which I’ve previously referred to, there will be no additional cost to the DSA or the Government as a result of reopening Trowbridge DTC. As the direct result of reopening Trowbridge DTC, it is anticipated that the DSA will receive additional revenue of on average an additional £25,000 per annum over and above the £29,531 per annum cost to the DSA of running Trowbridge DTC (this includes travel and subsistence for examiners). I’m not saying that this will be the case in every area but I’m sure it will be in several and probably in the case of the other 5 areas that are working with us on this issue.

It’s only fair to present both opinions on the matter. That said, I am wondering how anyone could put a price on revenue to be generated by reopening a closed test centre – it implies that there are 400-500 people per annum who would not take their tests unless Trowbridge reopened, and such data are simply not available, and certainly not in a reliable form. I could just as easily say that if people want to learn to drive then they’ll do what is necessary – and that includes travelling typically 10 miles further (some obviously more, but they had to travel quite a way even when Trowbridge was operating and have now been doing the alternative for 3 years) to the now-nearest centre.

I am certain the DSA did its sums before deciding to close Trowbridge, and its data were probably far more fact-based. It’s easy to put a spin on any argument by making the necessary assumptions.

The irony is that the DSA – being a huge bureaucracy – would probably like nothing more than to open test centres in every city, town, and village (which is more or less what it was doing until a few years ago). It has been criticised in the past for the test fees it charges in order to finance this bureaucracy. You’ve had know-it-alls on forums learn a new word – Quango – just so they could keep saying it every time they mentioned the DSA.

And yet now the DSA is trying to streamline it still can’t win.