The April issue of Despatch is now available (I didn’t get a notification this month). Click the logo to download a copy.
In this issue they look at having observers on test one year after it was introduced, the Highway Code celebrating its 80th, a skit on CPD, the opinions of someone who teaches the deaf, a summary of that story about an ADI who was imprisoned for her part in a bribery conspiracy (an examiner is awaiting sentence), and a few odds and ends.
I wrote recently about the Highway Code being 80 years old. The DSA has just put out an email alert:
Highway Code celebrates 80 years on the road
One of Britain’s best selling and most iconic publications – the Highway Code – is 80 years-old today.
The first edition was published on 14 April 1931 in a bid to cut down on the number of accidents taking place on Britain’s roads. Despite the fact there were just 2.3 million motor vehicles at the time, over 7,000 people were killed in road accidents that year.
The Highway Code quickly became the ‘must read’ publication for those using the road and is now recognised the world over. The Code is now used by millions of drivers, motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians every year and has even been featured in TV drama storylines.
Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said:
“The Highway Code is the official guide to using the roads safely and responsibly. The Code has helped to save thousands of lives over the last 80 years, which is cause for celebration.
“The Highway Code is not just for new drivers, it holds crucial information for everyone from experienced motorists and motorcyclists to horse riders and pedestrians.
“The publication offers the latest information on the rules of the roads and road safety advice, as well as promoting greater courtesy and understanding among all road users. Its long-standing success is one of the reasons why Britain’s roads are among the safest in the world”.
The Highway Code has moved with the times and is now available in a variety of formats, including online from the Directgov website, as a download and on CD ROM with a voice-over for people with reading difficulties.
I hope it isn’t just gypsies who have this happen to them – it should happen to anyone who is found to be involved in the same type of fraud.
This story in the Daily Mirror reports that almost 150 Irish travellers paid around £500 per test to have some one do it for them, netting the crooks doing the impersonating somewhere around £150,000.
Two women and a man have had to flee their homes as angry gypsies try to get their money back (obviously, these gypsies aren’t bright enough to realise their own fraudulent position in all this – there is no money to “get back” because the people paying it are as guilty of fraud as those taking it).
The three criminals will be sentenced later this year.
According to the DSA, around 5,000 fraudulent driving tests of this type take place.
An email alert from the DSA:
DSA to stop accepting Maestro cards from 14 April 2011
From 14 April 2011, DSA will no longer be accepting Maestro cards for test bookings and other payments.
If you’re registered with DSA as a business or trainer booker and your nominated payment card is a Maestro, you’ll need to change it to another card either:
- in writing to: DSA Business ID section, PO Box 280, Newcastle upon Tyne NE991FP
- by fax: 0300 200 1155
Theory test trainer bookers must log onto the online booking service and either delete or amend their nominated payment card details saved within the ‘Favourite form of payment’ field.
DSA accepts the following cards:
- MasterCard
- Visa
- Delta
- Visa Electron
I mentioned recently that staff opposed to office closures at the DSA were threatening to strike.
Socialist Worker Online (SWO) is in absolute ecstasy over the latest developments. Apparently, DSA management has offered to defer any compulsory redundancies until 2012, but the stirrers have concluded this is proof that they were right and has said if management doesn’t come back with further “improvements” then they will strike.
Just in passing, SWO says that “62 percent of workers voted for strikes”. A more accurate statement would be that 62% of union members voted for strikes. So even then, only slightly more than half want strike action – but I bet when you add all the non-union members the number prepared to strike is somewhat less than 50%.
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:
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.
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.
I’ve written recently about the logic-defying behaviour of this Mickey Mouse coalition we have, masquerading as a government, as it pertains to closing down tiny test centres (with huge overheads) in tiny villages and towns. One such being in Cumnock, Ayrshire.
Just take a look at this latest episode in the saga, as reported by the Carrick Gazette.
The most telling part is this:
Mike Penning said…“We will deliver driving tests in the community, where they should be, rather than a huge distance away, which was the previous Government’s policy.
“I have inherited that policy, but I will not continue with it.”
I said some months ago this was all because of the decision having been made under Labour – not because of any voter-centric philanthropy on Penning’s part.
So now the cuts will have to be made somewhere else in order to keep that two-up two-down terraced house in Cumnock operating as a driving test centre.
I wonder what will happen in Yeovil now that their test centre is moving? Fair enough, it’s only moving to somewhere else in Yeovil – but I’m sure some idiot driving instructor is already planning a campaign based on the extra ¾ mile (Yeovil is only about twice that distance end to end) some of them will probably have to travel.
This is a VERY old post – one of the oldest on the site. Somewhere along the way, sat navs were introduced and the subject matter here is no longer relevant.
I’m getting a lot of hits on this search term at the moment. As I’ve pointed out several times, test routes are no longer published by the DSA.
When I first qualified as an instructor I had it in my head that knowing the routes would somehow be beneficial to my lessons (new instructors tend to be anally retentive like that, collecting useless acronyms and making mountains out of molehills), so I downloaded them all. But when I started teaching I quickly realised it was absolutely pointless.
To start with, trying to do lessons on the routes was almost impossible because of all the other instructors arseing about on them, not to mention those learners out on their tests during the day. It occurred to me that I wouldn’t be very happy if my pupils on their tests had to dodge other learners whose instructors were too stupid and arrogant to either realise or care that they were getting in the way. So I decided I wouldn’t do it to them (although that hasn’t stopped other driving schools repeatedly getting in the way of my pupils – both on lessons and on test).
Another thing was that it didn’t really matter if you drove down road A, turned left on to road B, then took road C second left on the test – you could do the same thing with roads X, Y, and Z on the other side of town during lessons in order to teach the principles. If the instructor did his or her job properly then the pupil would be able to apply what they’d learnt to any road they went down, whether it was on the test route or not. They’ve got to do it when they pass, haven’t they?
And yet another problem was that to teach people new things you often wanted quiet areas with not much traffic, and test routes are definitely neither quiet or free from traffic (they’re clogged with other learners, for a start). The first foray on to a roundabout definitely did not need the Nottingham Knight Ruddington-to-Wilford-Hill route which was almost mandatory on tests conducted from the now-closed West Bridgford Test Centre.
As time went by, I picked up things from my pupils and registered certain “problem” areas like No Entry roads, STOP junctions, or very steep hills that they’d done on their tests. I’d make sure I covered these – or any similar ones – on my lessons.
Until recently I’d not sat in on any tests. Even now – after many hundreds of tests – I’ve only been out on two, and those were with the same pupil who has certain issues that made me worried in case the test was abandoned. My presence is generally of no benefit to the pupil, although I make it clear to all of them I will go with them if they really want me there.
I’m not going to give specific details of the routes taken on those tests I went on (because they wouldn’t be accurate). If any instructor is so desperate to know – even after my advice above about it being an utter waste of time – all they have to do is accompany (or ask) their pupils like I did and find out. And if a pupil is desperate to know, they just need to ask their instructor.
All I will say is that they can show the pupil a line map (like the one above), with the instruction “we are here. I want you to go to the end of this road and turn left, then take the second turn right. At the end of that road, turn right.” They can also say “turn right, third exit, at the rounadbout and follow the signs to Nottingham and Colwick” or “follow the signs to Stapleford.” However, knowing this is useless unless the pupil is capable of negotiating the junctions and other obstacles in between.
What are the test routes in Nottingham?
As I have said elsewhere, these are NOT published anymore. If you search around on the web, you’ll find that some driving instructors have been stupid enough to try and identify the routes and publish them themselves (presumably because it’s considered “cool” to oppose the DSA in these things). It’s your lookout if you trust these idiots or their routes.
It’s also worth noting that examiners can deviate from “official” routes as it suits them (or if the test candidate takes a wrong turn, which they often do).
The DSA stopped publishing routes quite a while ago. Too many instructors were just teaching pupils to drive on those routes (presumably, the same poor-quality ones who are trying to publish their own routes even now), and if the pupils passed their tests they were often just incapable of driving safely anywhere else.
You DO NOT need tests routes. You need to learn how to drive, then the route doesn’t matter.
When I first qualified as an ADI I think I made a couple of attempts to follow precise test routes based on what other instructors had said – but gave up, because it was more trouble than it was worth. I have never taught anyone on published routes. I naturally cover the same general areas as the test, but I also drive tens of miles from the test centre to train people properly. I make sure that any special features can be driven competently by pupils (extremely steep hills, city centre, fords, etc.). Then, anything that comes up on test is just another road.
I can promise you that someone’s chances of passing the test when they can drive properly are MUCH higher than when they can only handle fixed routes.
Bad drivers – not roads – fail tests.
Cumnock (in Scotland) is a village about 16 miles away from Ayr.
Cumnock has a population of about 13,000, whereas Ayr’s is over 46,000.
The DSA, as part of it’s streamlining efforts, decided to close the Cumnock test centre and move operations to the one in Ayr.
As you can see from the picture, the Cumnock test centre consists of a terraced two-up-two-down with a sign stuck on it. What you probably don’t see is the limited parking, and the overheads associated with the property (rent, heating, staffing, etc.).
The Cumnock Chronicle – circulation: not much – says:
A petition spearheaded by Karen Russell from Cairn Road, Cumnock amassed more than 2,000 signatures. But the Driving Standards Agency went ahead with their plans and shut the practical test centre on Friday, January 28.
So far, so good. Commonsense prevailed. However:
Transport Minister Mike Penning blasted the DSA’s decision to move to Ayr as a “Soviet style system” and made assurances that learners will be able to sit their practical driving test in Cumnock.
What a monumentally stupid decision. They’re trying to cut back on spending, trying to remove quangos, and then they do something like this.