This article was originally written in 2010. It was due an update.
Some time ago, a magazine printed an article which implied that driving examiners had been failing people for crossing their hands when steering. It seems that this came about because the then latest update to DT1 (16/03/2010) – a DSA (DVSA) internal guidance document – had added the following:
To ensure uniformity, when conducting car or vocational tests and ADI qualifying examinations, only assess the candidate’s ability to control the vehicle and do not consider it as a fault if, for example, they do not hold the steering wheel at ten to two or quarter to three or if they cross their hands when turning the steering wheel. The assessment should be based on whether the steering is smooth, safe and under control.
It is worth considering what the previous version (dated 28/04/2009) said on the same subject. I’d paste it, but I can’t – because nowhere in that document does it say anything about the method of steering!
I think what had become clear to DVSA is that a few examiners had been failing people for crossing their hands, not holding the wheel at ten to two, and so on, and there had been complaints made. DT1 now clarifies the issue. The paragraph quoted above pretty much states that this is what had been happening, so now there is uniformity.
I think the magazine should have clarified the situation, but in actual fact it gave the usual group of ADIs more anti-DVSA material. However, ‘crossing hands’ is something many ADIs just don’t understand, and I suspect this applies to the magazine editors too.
When someone who has never driven before starts to steer, almost invariably they keep a firm grip on the wheel when turning. Their hands might start at ten to two or a quarter to three (using the clock face to describe hand position), but by the time they have turned the wheel half a revolution or so one way or the other their arms are crossed, and they can’t go any further. Most turns at junctions require at least ¾ of a revolution of the steering wheel, so the pupil ends up going wide and panicking. Crossing hands in this way – with a fixed grip on the wheel – is obviously not ‘under control’, and it is why it is important to get them into a good steering routine right from the start.
That good routine usually begins with the ‘pull-push’ method – or as I often word it when prompting someone ‘shuffle those hands!’
‘Hand over hand’ steering is not the same thing as ‘crossing hands’, and it never has been. It is perfectly safe and correct for pupils to reach over past one hand when turning if they are in control. It is a natural extension of ‘pull-push’ in order to get faster movement. No one has ever said that hands must remain on either side of the steering wheel.
It’s a tricky and delicate issue. Many examiners were once ADIs, and it is obvious that misunderstandings will be carried over. That’s what DVSA addressed with the changes to DT1.
I mention this simply because I was reading a forum where someone made the comment:
I’ve noticed the xmnrs are a bit more relaxed with steering these days and the crossing of hands seems to be allowed providing car control has not been affected.
As I have explained, ‘crossing hands’ was never actually an issue. It was made into one by ADIs like this, and it is typical of how the magazine article was interpreted by a lot of instructors – even though nothing had actually changed. Any previous problems with test fails due to ‘crossing hands’ or not holding the wheel at ten to two was down to individual examiners not knowing what they were doing. It wasn’t a change in DVSA policy.
I must stress that all the examiners I know are perfectly capable. I respect them, and I have no issues with them at all. And if they record a problem with steering, then I am pretty certain there was something genuinely wrong and they weren’t just misinterpreting their own guidelines.
Why shouldn’t I turn the wheel when the car isn’t moving?
Moving the wheel when the car is stationary is called ‘dry steering’. The examiners do not mark you on it, so it doesn’t matter if you do it or not during your test.
Doing it unnecessarily is bad practice for various reasons:
- it can damage your tyres
- it can damage your steering mechanism
- it can rip up the road if the surface is hot
However, doing it occasionally isn’t going to cause any serious harm.
Normally, your tyres are rolling as you turn the steering wheel and when you dry steer, they are scrunched over whatever they’re sitting on top of instead. You can feel the extra resistance.
Dry steering needlessly is something to avoid, but there is absolutely no way your car is going to spontaneously fall apart if you use it when you need to. It is perfectly OK to use it when you are doing the manoeuvres on your test. And if you’re ever boxed in when you’re parked somewhere, you’re simply going to have to do it.
Do you teach dry steering?
These days – for manoeuvres – yes. And I have no shame over it.
When I first qualified, I had many of the same pigeon-holed ideas that other newly qualified ADIs have. I purposely taught people not to dry steer, and back then I would have defended that.
Even so, teaching people to do the manoeuvres, with fine clutch control, continuous slow vehicle movement, and getting one turn or full lock on was sometimes problematic and led to variations in the finishing positions. But that came to a head one time with one particular pupil – Ida.
She simply could not get the reverse bay park right, because she couldn’t coordinate her hands and feet. We’d been trying it for weeks, and I had an idea which initially I intended just for her – dry steering. It worked, and she could now do it (notwithstanding her other problem of knowing which way to steer).
Over the next few months, I drifted into using it for everyone, and I have never looked back. But only for manoeuvres – I don’t like them practicing steering when we are stationary (I deal with that by taking control of the pedals in an empty car park and getting them just to focus on steering as I move the car slowly).
Is dry steering a driving fault?
No.
Can dry steering damage my car?
If you were doing it all day, potentially, yes. But in real life driving you are going to have to do it whether you like it or not sometimes.