The DSA has sent out a reminder about overtaking on the hard shoulder on motorways:
Motorways
Overtaking
You MUST NOT use the hard shoulder for overtaking.
In areas where an Active Traffic Management (ATM) Scheme is in force, the hard shoulder may be used as a running lane. You will know when you can use this because a speed limit sign will be shown above all open lanes, including the hard shoulder. A red cross or blank sign above the hard shoulder means that you MUST NOT drive on the hard shoulder except in an emergency or breakdown. Emergency refuge areas have also been built into these areas for use in cases of emergency or breakdown.
The latest issue of Despatch has an interesting lead article about CPD – that’s continuing professional development, where ADIs are supposed to continue their professional training and development in their own time. CPD has been a buzzword among the unwashed masses for a few years now.
In a nutshell, the DSA has announced that it will NOT make CPD compulsory for the time being. There are a number of interesting threads of thought which lead off from this.
I’m in favour of CPD in general, but 99.9% of what “CPD” courses are (or have been) available out there are useless crap! CPD has been devalued by organisations handing out “CPD certificates” like confetti to people for just turning up to regular meetings, where the only item on the agenda is to have a moan about the DSA and discuss how it could be brought down.
I can assure you that that’s not CPD, anymore than Monopoly money is real money!
Anyway, one interesting thought which occurred to me is how much money some people will have wasted paying for this pointless “CPD” in the past. After all, now that it’s not going to be compulsory – no brownie points, no gold stars, no marks out of ten on the check test – all those meetings or lectures on how to do your tax return by people with no qualifications in the subject matter involved, even though you use an accountant, have effectively been made useless.
Another interesting point is how already the very same people who would have slammed the DSA if CPD had been made compulsory are now criticising them because it hasn’t been! These are the kind of people who would have been first in the queue for those “bring down the DSA” meetings in local pubs, and who are always prattling on about the same subject ad nauseam across various web forums.
I also wonder what some of the larger organisations and franchises will do now? Many have issued “CPD certificates” to their members for attending all sorts of meetings and events. A lot of ADIs have been stupid enough to let pupils down in order to attend these things, but it’s all been devalued – even if those certificates had any value to start with.
I always said that until the DSA issued a list of approved courses I wasn’t going to waste my time attending any that cost me money if there wasn’t a decent qualification at the end of it (and I don’t mean like a BTEC (or any similar vocational qualification), which are impossible to fail and aren’t worth the paper they’re written on).
I wonder if those meetings of the right-on brothers in pubs in Northern towns, bitching about the DSA and looking for ways to criticise it for everything, will still go ahead now?
The latest edition of Despatch (October 2012) is now available for download from the DSA. This month sees articles on voluntary (not compulsory) CPD, marketing advice, information about the new DSA logo, and some odds and ends.
Sad to see this on a newsflash this afternoon. Singing legend, Andy Williams, has died at the age of 84 after a battle with cancer.
I didn’t realise that he provided backing vocals for Bing Crosby’s Swingin’ on a Star – which dates from as far back as 1944! Blimey, that’s not long after my dad was born!
It’s funny that I know a lot of these old songs and artistes, which date from way before my birth. I remember listening to them on the radio when I was young. But when I talk to pupils on lessons, many these days don’t seem to know anything from before they were born.
With the heavy rain we had yesterday, it’s important to explain to pupils about how to handle standing water on the road. Every year the issue of “splashing pedestrians” crops up, and it is usually followed by a hundred different interpretations of whether it is illegal or not.
Let’s try and put it to bed once and for all by quoting an actual solicitor (link removed as it contains suspected malware) – that’s someone who deals with the law for a living – and not a driving instructor or piston head who thinks he is Superman.
More about driving without due care and attention/ careless driving
A person is considered to have been driving carelessly or without due care and attention if their driving falls below what would be expected of a reasonable, prudent and competent driver or driving without reasonable consideration for other road users.
The “Driving Offences Charging Standard” produced by the Crown Prosecution Service provides examples of the types of driving that may be considered to be careless. These include:
driving through a red light,
pulling out of a side road into the path of another vehicle,
driving too close to the rear of another vehicle, or
overtaking on the inside.
Examples of driving without reasonable consideration for other road users include:
flashing headlamps to force other drivers to move over,
remaining in the overtaking lane when it is unnecessary,
failing to dip headlights so other drivers are dazzled, or
splashing pedestrians by driving through a puddle of water.
The maximum penalty for careless driving is a fine of £2,500 and between 3 & 9 penalty points.
So, splashing pedestrians CAN be treated as driving without due care and attention, and it CAN lead to prosecution.
Now, obviously any such instance would have to be proven, but any normal person would simply conclude that they shouldn’t do it, and should avoid doing it even by sheer accident (after all, if you run someone over, saying it was an accident and that you’re sorry doesn’t alter the fact you did it and you’re going to be in trouble because of it). Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who are prepared to try and fight it in court (at least, in their vivid imaginations) in such a way that they seem to believe they ought to be allowed to do it!
On a more realistic note, however, splashing pedestrians is just wrong (yes, it has a slapstick humour aspect, but then so does drug abuse and murder if you look at a lot of Hollywood movies over the years – but those are still crimes) So don’t do it, and take care when driving through water where you might splash someone.
Anyone who has followed the blog for a while will know what I think about amateur weather forecasters. Last year, their long-range winter “forecast” was about as accurate as betting on black at a roulette table and it coming up red. It was billed as “the worst winter on record” – and they were absolutely and totally incorrect.
Imagine my surprise when I noticed someone find the blog on the search term “exacta weather charging for long range forecast”. It grabbed my interest, and a quick check revealed that it’s absolutely true! They are charging £11 for a three-page long-range report on the forthcoming winter.
It’s good to see these not-for-profit groups – especially ones who simply make wild guesses – staying true to their cause.
I find it hard to believe that anyone could be so stupid as to pay £11 for a stab in the dark. Mind you, people DO go to fortune tellers, so stupidity is clearly just as common as bad weather forecasts.
For anyone who is interested, the forecast for this winter is as follows:
It will be generally colder than the summer, and there will be periods of rain. Some places will see snow, and this could be quite heavy (or it might not be). My records, which go back over 50 years, suggest that winter will be followed by summer again.
Well done Will, who passed today first time with just a single driver fault (it would have been a clean sheet if he hadn’t assumed that when the examiner asked him to pull over, she wanted him to reverse around a corner).
He’s a good driver, with plenty of previous experience – just learn from your past mistakes and don’t go down that route again!
It rounds off the perfect week for him, as he also got a job after being unemployed. It just goes to show that if you don’t give up you can achieve anything.
Well, it looks like PCS has got all its comrades back off holiday now, and has rearranged the strike that was originally scheduled for 13 September. It is now due to take place on 21 September 2012.
The DSA has sent out an alert.
Candidates are urged to attend as normal, since not all examiners are members of the union – and of those stupid enough to be so, not all of them are that stupid that they participate in strike action.
Questions used to find the blog:
I’ve got a test that day. Why can’t the DSA just tell me whether they’re working or not?
Look, the whole point of strikes is to cause problems in order to try and get your own childish way. The DSA is NOT calling the strike – PCS (the fossil union) is. Any blame for disruption lies entirely with the union.
The DSA does not know which examiners will be out on strike. The alerts they send out explain that clearly, and it is shocking that driving instructors are still incapable of understanding this simple fact even after so many strikes in the last couple of years alone. If the DSA automatically cancelled ALL tests for that day, the disruption would be thousands of times worse. All they can do is ask you to turn up.
If you don’t like it, take it up with PCS and the government. It isn’t the DSA’s fault in any way.
a few years now.
Anyone who has followed the blog for a while will know what I think about 
Well done Will, who passed today first time with just a single driver fault (it would have been a clean sheet if he hadn’t assumed that when the examiner asked him to pull over, she wanted him to reverse around a corner).
