The blog truly is ‘updated regularly’ – and has been, since 2008. However, I am not a major Facebook user, so rarely look at the supposed automatic posting of any article I publish on the blog on Facebook.
I recently realised the link had gotten broken at some point. Two years ago, it seems.
Anyway, I fixed that and hopefully any new posts will appear here in future. However, if it breaks again, I’ll just delete my Facebook account. In fact, I’m thinking about doing that anyway, because Facebook is fucking crap and won’t pull the images I use for my blog posts.
A lot of sources have glibly quoted this verbatim, but it doesn’t explain things in detail, and taking it at face value is confusing, to say the least.
I’m not going to repeat what is in that DVSA link. Others have done that to death. But the bottom line in seven of the ten reasons is using your bloody eyes and brain! Observations.
Even that isn’t the full story though. Yes, observations are vitally important, but only to someone who is driving using their brain. There’s no point ‘observing’ if you don’t ‘see’ what is there. And when I am on lessons, I am painfully aware of when people turn their heads to look in the mirrors or over their shoulders, and are not actually looking for anything.
DVSA gives the Number 1 reason as:
Not making effective observations at junctions
DVSA
But this is meaningless if the instructor cannot identify the deeper reason why the learner hasn’t done it.
Some years ago, one of mine failed going straight ahead on a roundabout. It was the Virgin roundabout in Nottingham. There are two lanes going in, two lanes coming out, so there must be two lanes on the roundabout (even if there are no markings). The pupil didn’t stay in lane as they negotiated it.
In the debrief, the examiner said this:
I asked you to go ahead on the roundabout. You approached in the left hand lane, straight-lined it – which is perfectly OK – but you didn’t check your mirrors to see if anyone was alongside you.
DVSA Examiner
I’ve always remembered it, and it illustrates the problem. The examiner was absolutely right, of course, on a technical level. But practically, it was of no use whatsoever to the pupil. At the time of the debrief, the pupil didn’t even know which roundabout the examiner was talking about (I’m not even sure if he realised he was still in Nottingham). When he came to that roundabout, he didn’t know there were two lanes. Oh, yes, we’d done it many times before, but at that particular moment his brain emptied and he was utterly clueless. That was the problem – not just poor observation/mirror checks.
Consequently, DVSA would just log this as ‘mirrors’ or ‘observations’ – hence their #1 reason for failing – but there is much, much more to it as far as the ADI is concerned. The issue to be dealt with is why the pupil didn’t check their mirrors. Not just that they didn’t.
It’s the same with all the ‘top ten reasons’. It’s not what people do wrong – but why they do it wrong.
I’m a Labour voter, and in my youth I was also an active member of the Labour Party. However, I have never agreed with strikes in general, and can only ever think of a couple over the years which I believed were completely justified.
One thing I am absolutely certain of, though, is that those in the Emergency Services and the Military should never, ever strike.
However, here we are in 2022. Nurses are striking, and ambulance drivers are striking.
I’m not going to go into the political arguments over who is right and who is wrong (it’s actually both sides, albeit for different reasons). But I would point out that considering the British NHS system was once the envy of the world, yesterday government warnings went out effectively advising people to avoid having accidents today! Because there were potentially no ambulances to pick you up if you had one, and no one to treat you if you went to A&E.
The trouble, though, is the time of year. Every Christmas week it is the same – the roads are full of zombie drivers who don’t have a clue, those who have been drinking or taking drugs, boy racers showing off, irate people trying to get somewhere, and if it is icy (as it has been recently), this amplifies any issues. Between them, they end up having (or usually causing) prangs of various degrees of severity. There have been numerous incidents in the last seven days around here, and even today on my first lesson I passed a car on the side of the road which had recently been disabled judging by the state of its front end (this was on a long, straight road).
Bearing all this in mind, I was being watchful as I drove to my lesson. It was busy, and the zombies were doing their usual thing around the retail parks, which resulted in ‘normal’ drivers trying to get past them. One particular style of zombie driving that sends me nuts at any time is delaying moving off, driving slowly, switching lanes without signalling (especially on roundabouts), and driving in the ‘fast’ lane even though they want to turn left (often trying to move over far too late). Take a look at this dashcam footage from my journey.
[vplayer id=’38046′]
This was at the Colwick Roundabout. I was in the right-hand lane of two for turning right. Note the grey Mini in the left-hand lane. As he moved off from the lights, he pulled across into the right-hand lane with no signal, forcing the red car to swerve to avoid him. He then proceeded to drive at 30mph in a clearly marked 40mph zone. This prompted some traffic to pass him on the left (I remained behind). He negotiated the Virgin Roundabout, braked when he saw a car pull up at the first exit, and again proceeded to drive at 30mph in a 40mph zone. There was a long tailback by this time. He swerved in shock when a Tesla passed him in the bus lane (electric vehicles are allowed to use that bus lane, though the jury is still out on whether they’re allowed to do it at the speeds they usually do). He and his passenger seemed to gesticulate wildly at this.
I passed him at the Racecourse Roundabout, but here’s the kicker. When I looked in my mirror, I saw he had an L plate on the front. You will notice from the video that there wasn’t one on the back. It was a learner driver!
I don’t think he was on his test – there is no way the examiner would have gone out without L plates (it wasn’t windy, and the speed he was driving at would have been unlikely to have caused sufficient airflow to jettison the rear L plate). There is also little chance the examiner would have allowed him to continue at 30mph for so long given the queue behind. If he was on test, he would have just picked up a dangerous fault for switching lanes, and serious faults for staying in the right hand lane for no reason (he was going far too slow to overtake anyone, and was simply holding up traffic), and for driving at 30mph when 40mph was signed, and it was clear in front of him. He was certainly heading towards the test centre, and I think he was actually going to his test.
I suspect it was a ‘private runner’ – the examiners’ favourite. This is where someone is taught by a family member, who is often not a good driver anyway, and goes to test in their own car. The last few times I’ve been at Colwick, examiners who took private runners out have walked back less than ten minutes later (they’ve terminated as it is too dangerous). A few weeks ago, two examiners walked back, several minutes apart, and a few weeks before that the examiner abandoned the test before they’d even made it to Sainsburys less than a quarter of a mile away.
If one of mine looked to be moving lanes like this one did on a lesson, and in that volume of traffic, I’d take the wheel to keep them in the correct one and then pull over somewhere to discuss it. I would also make them go faster if they were driving that slowly and then discuss that somewhere, too. And I wouldn’t let them hold traffic up by being in the wrong lane. If they weren’t capable of addressing those things, then they shouldn’t be in that sort of situation yet.
When I’m explaining the controls on their first lesson (or sometimes, just their first lesson with me, because no one has covered it with them before), when covering the gas pedal, I say:
When we’re driving, things I’ll say are ‘more gas’ (press a little more), ‘less gas’ (ease off a little), ‘off the gas’ (take your foot off the pedal completely), and my favourite ‘gas, gas, gas, gas, gas…’ (when I want you to accelerate more quickly).
The frightening part, though, is that if this Mini guy was going to his test, there is every possibility the route he got was in the opposite direction and away from those roundabouts. And then he might just have got lucky.
And by tomorrow, he could be on those roundabouts by himself, still without a clue.
I’ve mentioned this in the smearing windscreens article, but winter is the time of year where it gets wet and cold (well, certainly wet), and along with the salt spreading a lot of crap gets thrown on to your glass and builds up into a nasty film that doesn’t easily wash off.
I’m always surprised that some people – including driving instructors – only put water in their wash bottles. And they try to justify it! But water on its own simply does not have sufficient wetting properties to attack oil, wax, and grease stuck on the glass. You know when it’s there, because you get that mosaic pattern left behind when you wipe in the wet.
You need a good detergent to clean off oily deposits, and a small amount of alcohol to assist with wetting. Alcohol also functions as an antifreeze when present in higher quantities, so whereas water will freeze at 0°C, a proper screen wash solution containing alcohol will freeze at a lower temperature depending on how you mix it – as low as -9°C.
You can buy two types in the stores – concentrated, or ready-to-use. With the former, you dilute it yourself depending on the weather outside, and with the latter you have to buy the correct type (they do ‘summer’ and ‘winter’ mixes, with the summer one containing very little alcohol). In most cases, the ‘concentrated’ stuff can be used neat and will protect to between -6°C and -9°C depending on the brand. Some types claim as low as -20°C, but these are specialist ones and they likely contain other chemicals, since alcohol alone to provide that level of freeze protection would be quite dangerous because of its flammability.
The price of typical concentrated screen wash varies from about £5 per 5L in summer, to about £8 in winter (when you need it the most). The ready-to-use stuff is similarly priced, even though it is more dilute – so you are paying for water if you buy that. In a bad winter, with lots of rain and slush, I can easily get through 5L of washer fluid each week. I use less in summer, but over a year it can still mount up.
If you’re going to buy it, my advice is to stock up in summer when the prices are lower, and only get the concentrate so you’re not paying someone to dilute it for you. You often get BOGOF offers in summer.
However, it can be cheaper to make your own, and it is certainly more convenient. I got the idea when I had a freeze up one time (I was late switching to my winter mix in the first of the two cold winters we had about ten years ago), and solved the immediate problem by nipping into a hardware store and buying a bottle of methylated spirits. Adding that to my wash bottle depressed the freezing point and I was running again within 30 minutes. So then I thought why not make my own?
Washer fluid essentially needs to do two things:
clean
not freeze when it gets cold
It’s basically just a mixture of alcohol and water with a bit of detergent. And some smelly stuff and dye if you are going the whole hog with it.
For a normal screen wash, the recipe below is what I now use. In a 5L bottle, I place the following:
10g Alcohol Ethoxylate
50g Butyl Glycol
Ethanol
Fragrance
Colouring
Water to make up to 5L
To make things a whole lot easier, I make a bulk batch of the special ingredients, which I can dilute quickly in 5L containers as and when I need it to protect to whatever temperature I want. The bulk concentrate consists of the following:
133g Alcohol Ethoxylate
668g Butyl Glycol
200g Perfume (this depends on what you are using)
You end up with about 1kg of concentrated liquid. To make a batch of screenwash, get an empty 5L container, a measure out 75g of your bulk concentrate and do any of the following (if you leave out the perfume, then you need just 60g of the bulk concentrate):
Make up to 5L with water (this is screenwash with no antifreeze properties)
Add 250mls Ethanol and make up to 5L with water (good down to -2°C)
Add 500mls Ethanol and make up to 5L with water (good down to -4°C)
Add 750mls Ethanol and make up to 5L with water (good down to -6°C)
Add 1,000mls Ethanol and make up to 5L with water (good down to -9°C)
If you’re using colouring, a few drops of food colouring is enough. It’s such a small amount you don’t need to worry about it affecting dilution. You can either add it to the concentrate (as I do) or just put a few drops in each 5L you make up. Mine is green, since I use an apple scent.
Don’t use more than 1,000mls of Ethanol in any 5L mix, as the liquid becomes potentially flammable. I adjust the amount depending on how cold it is, but I switch to at least 500mls around November each year.
Surprisingly, the water you use is quite important. Tap water is likely to leave water marks on the glass when it dries because of the dissolved salts in it. For many years, I used boiled rainwater, but these days I use the condensate from a home dehumidifier.
I buy Alcohol Ethoxylate (CAS No. 160901-19-9) and Butyl Glycol (CAS No: 111-76-2) from Mistral Industrial Chemicals.
Ethanol is the most expensive ingredient. I currently buy mine from Liquipak. To keep the overall cost down, I buy 20L at a time.
I latched on to Alcohol Ethoxylate and Butyl Glycol from reading the Safety Data Sheets from various manufacturers of commercial solutions, and worked out a recipe from there.
A brief aside…
Some years ago I was having major problems cleaning my windscreen on new lease vehicles when I received them. There was something on them that gave the mosaic effect in the wet, but absolutely nothing would get it off.
Eventually, I found that Sugar Soap would. Sugar Soap is used by builders and decorators for degreasing walls and paintwork before painting, and I found it did remove the stubborn film from my windscreens.
Then, a few years ago, I was snooping around the forecourt while my car was being valeted at a hand car wash. I was intrigued by all the things they sprayed on the car which got it sparkling clean, so I wanted to find out what they were using. This was when I discovered Traffic Film Remover (TFR).
I tried using Sugar Soap in my screen wash, but it left a heavy residue when it dried. For several years I used TFR, which was much better (and very effective), but it still left streaks when it dried which I wasn’t happy with. This is why I came up with this latest recipe.
However, if your windscreen picks up a lot of wax from car washes, and other residues from the road, screen wash alone won’t completely remove it. In fact, you can completely degrease your windscreen in the visible areas, but it you leave even a trace of wax on the wiper blades or – worse – in the space where they sit when they aren’t wiping (it gets pushed down there and acts as an ink well), it gets spread pretty quickly back on to the main area of the glass.
An occasional deep clean using Sugar Soap or TFR is still a good idea, therefore. You can get Sugar Soap on Amazon, or at the local Screwfix depots and such like. You can get TFR from many places.
Alcohol Ethoxylate and Butyl Glycol are the same agents used in commercial screen washes. They are relatively non-foaming, and are designed to attack the kind of stuff you get thrown up on to your glass while you are driving. Don’t try using Fairy Liquid or other household detergents – you’ll have bubbles blowing down the street, and it doesn’t work for this purpose anyway at the concentrations it is intended to be used at.
Personally, I make my screen wash fluid in batches as I need it (I make three or four batches at a time and just keep them in the car, making more as required). In summer, I use the minimum amount of Ethanol, and in Winter I just up it depending on how cold it is outside based on those freezing points I mentioned earlier.
As for the fragrance, I found a concentrated Apple scent specifically for car detailing applications like this. It is manufactured by Koch Chemie in Germany, and is called Duftstoff Apfel. If anyone wants to know where to buy it, drop me a line using the Contact Form. And the colouring I use is just three drops of food dye.
How can I prepare for cold temperatures?
Use common sense. If it’s warm, you don’t need a low-temperature screen wash mix, since the higher alcohol content is just a waste of money. But you do still need decent cleaning power for the bugs and tree sap you’re going to get. However, if it gets very cold, you don’t want a freeze-up, so be ready to alter your mix accordingly.
For the recipe I have given here, assuming you have made it to protect down to -6°C to -7°C (750mls Ethanol), you can dilute it 1:1 or 1:2 with water and it will still clean your windscreen. As I say, I make mine as I need it, so I always have the full detergent effect.
Can I make it with more alcohol in it?
Yes, but be careful. Ethanol is flammable, even in water mixtures. On its own, Ethanol has a flash point of 14°C (that means that at that temperature and above, a combustible vapour exists above it that can easily be ignited). A 10% solution in water has a flash point of 49°C, which is much safer. A 20% solution has a flash point of 36°C, which is still safe unless you store it in a very hot place. A 30% solution has a flash point of 29°C, and this is quite likely to be encountered in hot weather. My advice is not to exceed about 20-25% of ethanol.
Do not carry a strong Winter mix in your car in Summer. And definitely do not carry significant quantities of neat Ethanol at any time.
Can I use isopropanol instead?
Also known a Propan-2-ol, 2-Propanol, and Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA).
Short answer, yes – but only if the it’s a few degrees below zero. IPA has a lower flash point than ethanol, and any solution above 20% is potentially risky. IPA also has a very distinctive smell.
Can I use Methanol?
I’m just going to say no. It’s poisonous even in small quantities (it can make you go blind), and could be dangerous if inhaled regularly, so for that reason you should not use it.
Can I use methylated spirits?
Usually, this contains methanol as the denaturant – though sometimes other chemicals are used. It also has a strong smell. Apart from the time I used it in an emergency, I would advise against it. However, if you can find ‘denatured ethanol’ or ‘denatured ethyl alcohol’, and can be sure it doesn’t have methanol in it, that would be fine. It’s usually (not always) the blue stuff that contains methanol.
Can I just use water?
Water on its own is no good. If the temperature falls, it will freeze. Even if it doesn’t freeze in your main washer bottle, it will in the pipes and at the nozzles, and freezing water is quite capable of splitting pipes or closed containers. Attempting to use your screen washer pump if there is no liquid water inside could burn out the motor.
Water alone doesn’t clean many things off the glass – it won’t touch oil, grease, or squashed insects, and it will struggle with tree sap.
Every wiper and washer fitted in accordance with this regulation shall at all times while a vehicle is being used on a road be maintained in efficient working order and be properly adjusted.
Arguably, you are not complying with this if you just use water. If it freezes (or the bottle is empty) and you drive, you’re definitely not complying with it. It is shocking that some ADIs are apparently doing this.
Can you dilute ready to use screenwash?
Of course you can – certainly in Summer. It’s not a magic potion – just a mixture of water, alcohol, and detergent. I wouldn’t dilute the ready-to-use stuff more than about 50:50 with water, though, because the detergent probably wouldn’t do its job properly.
I got an alert tonight from my CCTV camera that motion had been detected. The snapshot showed what can often be pollen, mist, rain, or a cloud of bugs.
An hour later, I went to put some stuff in the trash (aka the Wheelie Bin) and there was a smattering of snow on top. Only a very light dusting, but it does mean the floodgates are potentially open if it remains cold. When I checked, it snowed for about 10 minutes, starting just before 11pm. And it wasn’t forecast.
The morons are already sneering at it, of course. But with last night being the coldest of the year so far, there were a lot of minor accidents this morning – and many were related to the temperature and slippery roads.
The problem is that with people being crap drivers in the first place, when it gets cold suddenly, they either just drive like they did yesterday, or behave completely irrationally by overreacting to it.
I used it as a learning topic on my lessons today. And this is in Nottingham, you understand. It might have snowed more in other places, and not at all elsewhere. Snow is like that. But the one thing it has in common with everywhere is that it makes driving riskier.
The action is scheduled for December 2022 and January 2023. As DVSA points out:
Not all DVSA staff are PCS members and, even if they are, they might choose not to go on strike. So, we will not know which staff are participating in strike action until it takes place.
This applies to Pass Plus sheets, remember. The current sheets have the old address on them, although the ADI sending them in is responsible for the necessary envelope and stamp.
This article was first published in 2014, but it has become popular recently. It was due another update.
I touched on this topic back in May, 2010, following a run on searches based on the questions “what test time is easiest?” and “why do they do tests at odd times?” The topic appears to be quite popular again, so I thought I’d update it.
There isn’t an “easiest” time to do your test. All times have their pros and cons, and if you can handle all traffic conditions competently, then you stand a good chance of passing your test whatever time you do it. Learn to drive properly and it doesn’t matter when you do your test.
But let’s take a light-hearted look at the supposed pros (+) and cons (-) of different test times, bearing in mind that one person’s pro is another’s con.
Early Morning Tests
The rush hour is at its peak from before 8.00am (-). The morning school run also occupies this period (- – -). As a result, average traffic speeds are low (+), and routes into the city or town centre will be almost at a standstill (++). However, examiners are not going to drive straight into a traffic jam, and they will most likely head off in the opposite direction away from the city and into the estates (-). Wherever you go, you’re almost certainly going to be in slow-moving traffic (+), so you’ll have more time to think and react when dealing with other road users who are idiots (- -).
Mid-morning Tests
From about 9.30am everyone who was going to work is there now (+). But many of the mummies who earlier divested themselves of their older kids on the school run will now be off to do their shopping with their toddlers (- – -). Pedestrians will come out and populate the shopping areas (-), as will some older drivers (- -). There will be more lorries and vans, particularly couriers and Amazon drivers (- – -). The average speed of traffic will increase just because it can (-), and having your test go through the city centre is a definite possibility.
Lunchtime Tests
Lunchtime starts to ramp up from 12.00pm. It marks the start of a two-hour period during which all the mummies-with-toddlers and white van men head for the nearest McDonalds (- – -). Traffic volumes increase (-) and average speeds come down again (+). The number of pedestrians also increases (-).
Afternoon Tests
Lunchtime finishes around 2.00pm (+), but the afternoon school run and evening rush hour gradually build up as the day progresses (-). It is always a gamble predicting how heavy traffic will be. Late afternoon, once they’ve picked up their kids from school, the mummies will head for McDonalds again to buy dinner (- – -), as will all the local school kids (–).
Winter Tests
If it’s cold and icy (or snow) there’s an increased risk of tests being cancelled at short notice (- -). This is especially true if you book early tests due to fog and frost or frozen snow (- – -). Very early tests will go out at near sunrise in mid-winter, and the sun will be low in the sky (-). The same is true for late afternoon tests, where the sun will be low on the other side of the horizon. The risk of poor weather is higher overall (-), and snow is slippery (-)
Summer Tests
If it’s very hot, early morning tests go out during the coolest periods (+). From about 10am onwards it can get uncomfortable (-). You may need to use the aircon, which can be a problem if you wear contact lenses (-), your car doesn’t have it (- -), or your instructor won’t have it on (- – -). Open windows increase the risk of insects getting inside (-). Summer rain can be torrential and involve thunderstorms (-). Fallen blossom in spring/early summer is slippery when it gets wet (-).
Autumn Tests
Watch out for the local University Open Days and Inductions if the test centre is nearby. There will be increased numbers of mummies and daddies pootling around who don’t know the area (- -), A few weeks before that, the overseas students are inducted, and they haven’t a clue how British roads work at that stage (-). Consider that British students still don’t have a clue after even three years, so the bar is quite low to start with (- -). Fallen leaves are slippery when they’re wet and ground up on the road (-).
Local Events
If you have large sports or concert venues, then traffic can be very unpredictable if there’s a show on (- -). Pedestrians attending these also unpredictable (- – -). When Forest are at home, it’s like driving through the baboon enclosure at Longleat (- – -). International cricket matches at Trent Bridge also attract similar people, especially when the game stops for lunch. Both venues are on test routes in Nottingham.
Every time has its good and bad points, but every good point is countered by a bad one (and vice versa). Just think positively and forget the ‘what ifs’.
Speaking personally, I detest getting up early and will light-heartedly swear at anyone who books a 7.50am or 8.10am test, because it means I have to get up at 5.30am (I normally get up between 8am-10am these days by choice). But it’s their test, not mine, and if 8.10am is what they book, it isn’t a major issue.
If you can drive, the time of your test does not make any difference to your prospects of passing. Don’t let your nerves – or anyone else – convince you otherwise. And don’t think that it is wrong to be somewhat nervous. It isn’t. It’s completely natural.
Why are tests at odd times?
Somewhere in the past, DVSA conducted a time and motion study and concluded that an examiner could fit x tests in a shift if they had y minutes between each one to do all their paperwork, and z minutes for lunch, etc. Add x, y, and z together and you get 8.10, 8.20, 9.38, 2.32, and all manner of weird times.
Over the last year, I have been providing familiarisation driving sessions to Ukrainian refugees to help them get settled in the UK and help them get jobs. One of them has recently come back to me because he wants to get a full UK licence.
I have just learned a lot. There is a post on the blog concerning non-UK drivers and the various options for exchanging licences. In that, I listed the various countries with which there is a reciprocal arrangement, meaning full licences from those countries can be exchanged for UK ones without any test being required. Ukraine was not on that list (as of 2019).
When I did my sessions with this guy (who is from Mariupol, which for all practical purposes no longer exists) in early summer, I told him that we’d sort something out and he should contact me if he needed me later in the year. He did a few weeks ago, and I advised him he needed to apply for a UK Provisional Licence, then book a Theory Test, and we’d get driving lessons on the go to get him a licence as quickly as possible.
That was true in 2019, but not now, and I was wrong.
If you passed your driving test before 28 December 2021
You can only exchange your driving licence for a UK licence that allows you to drive automatic vehicles.
If you passed your driving test on or after 28 December 2021
If your current licence allows you to drive manual vehicles, you can exchange it for a UK licence that allows you to drive manual vehicles.
GOV.UK
Now, this is a problem for the guy in question. Right now, he has bought a manual car and is driving it on his Ukrainian licence for the 12 months he is allowed. He wants to drive manual, but he passed his test in Ukraine before December 2021 and can therefore only exchange his licence for an Automatic one. According to DVLA, this is because the Ukrainian authorities cannot provide proof of entitlement for manual prior to December 2021, so that’s why this restriction is in place. We just have to work with it, because it is what it is.
Anyone wanting to exchange their non-UK licence needs to complete Form D1. This applies to any Ukrainian refugees who hold a full Ukrainian licence.
I’m not sure how this is going to proceed at the moment. If he was prepared to drive an Automatic, he wouldn’t have to do anything at all, but if he insists on Manual then he’s going to have to pass a Manual driving test.
But whatever. I will help him.
Edit 29/12/2022 – Some Clarification
The Ukrainian authorities cannot provide information concerning whether candidates passed in a manual or automatic vehicle prior to 28 December 2021. If you passed your test in Ukraine after that date, then your licence details from the Ukrainian agencies will indicate whether it was manual or automatic entitlement. If you passed before that date, the agencies cannot provide that detail, and so automatic is assumed.
So, if you have a manual licence from Ukraine awarded after 28 December 2021 , you can exchange it for manual UK licence and simply carry on driving in manual or automatic in the UK, as you prefer. You might want to get some refresher training, but you are legally allowed to drive in the UK.
If you have an automatic licence from Ukraine, then you can exchange it for an automatic UK licence and carry on driving automatic vehicles. You will not be legally allowed to drive a manual car unless you are accompanied by a qualified manual driver (exactly the same as for any automatic licence holder in the UK). An automatic licence serves as a Provisional Licence for manual cars, and you are effectively a learner if you drive a manual vehicle. You will have to pass the Practical Driving Test in a manual vehicle to gain this entitlement, but you will not need to pass the Theory Test.
If you passed your test in Ukraine before 28 December 2021, then your licence is assumed to be for automatic vehicles only and can only be exchanged for an automatic UK licence.
This is obviously unfortunate for many older Ukrainian refugees, who will almost certainly have passed their tests many years ago.
If you did not pass a test in Ukraine and do not hold a full Ukrainian driving licence, then you will need to apply for a UK Provisional Licence, pass the Theory Test, then pass the Practical Driving Test. This is exactly the same for anyone wanting to learn to drive.
I’ve written about this before as part of the article on how to use the handbrake/parking brake properly, but I’m seeing a lot of visits on specific search terms related to STOP junctions.
A typical STOP junction looks something like the image above. This one is in West Bridgford, Nottingham, and it consists of a solid STOP line, the word ‘STOP’ painted on the road, and the octagonal STOP sign.
STOP junctions are placed where there is a risk of accident as a result of poor visibility, road speeds, road layouts, and so on. So how should you deal with them?
The Highway Code (HC) says:
Rule 171
You MUST stop behind the line at a junction with a ‘Stop’ sign and a solid white line across the road. Wait for a safe gap in the traffic before you move off.
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD schedule 9 parts 7 and 8
Any rule in the HC which uses the word ‘MUST’ also includes a reference to the specific Laws that it comes from.
The RTA (Road Traffic Act) part simply refers to general compliance with road signs. If you then read into TSRGD (Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions), you have this initial directive:
And this leads on to the following specific detail:
Stop sign
Subject to paragraph 2, the requirements conveyed to vehicular traffic on roads by a stop sign are that:
every vehicle must stop before crossing the transverse line provided for at item 1 of the sign table in Part 6 of this Schedule, or if that line is not clearly visible, before entering the major road in respect of which the stop sign has been provided; and
no vehicle must cross the transverse line, or if that line is not clearly visible, enter the major road in respect of which the stop sign has been provided, so as to be likely to endanger any person, or to cause the driver of another vehicle to change its speed or course in order to avoid an accident.
The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2016
It couldn’t be clearer. Every vehicle must stop before crossing the line when there is a STOP sign. If a vehicle doesn’t, then it is in breach of this specific Law.
If you break this Law, then you are liable for a fixed penalty notice (FPN), which amounts to 3 points on your licence and a fine (which is a minimum of £100, I believe). However, this is the minimum penalty – if the Police deem it serious enough, it could go to Court and a fine of up to £1,000 is possible, and the number of points given would be at the discretion of the Court.
In summary, all the higher primates should be able to conclude from this that you MUST stop at a STOP junction. Indeed, on your test, if you don’t stop completely if you encounter one, then you will – absolutely and definitely – fail. The examiners’ DT1 Internal Guidance states:
Expected outcome / competence
Ability to understand and be able to react to all traffic signs and road markings…
Assessment criteria
Serious fault
Failing to comply correctly and promptly with an appropriate traffic [sign] or breaching a legal requirement.
DVSA
What does ‘stop’ mean?
It means ‘not moving at all’. Not even a little bit. It means not creeping, crawling, rolling, slowing down, or anything else which involves movement. It means absolutely stationary.
The problem with learners is they are sometimes not as spatially aware as they should be, and they genuinely think they have stopped when they haven’t. I get a lot who try to argue that, and if they won’t accept me stating that they didn’t stop, I show them the dashcam footage and it shuts them up.
Let’s face facts here. There is a special sign which has ‘STOP’ written on it. It is a special shape which is designed to be recognisable even if it is covered with snow. It is intentionally different to the triangular ‘GIVE WAY’ sign, so logic dictates it must also have a different purpose compared with that. And it does have a different purpose – it tells you that you must stop. If you don’t stop, then you are using it as a ‘GIVE WAY’, and it isn’t a ‘GIVE WAY’.
Any competent driver should know when they have stopped. And I mean properly stopped. Unfortunately, some beginners are not quite there yet, and they need to do things a little differently. That’s why I sometimes advise them to use the handbrake/parking brake.
This in itself can cause problems if they pull it while they are still moving, but in most cases that will only be a driver fault as long as they aren’t moving too quickly and don’t keep doing it. However, it is a good way for them to be sure they have really stopped still at a ‘STOP’ junction.
Let me just clarify this. You do not have to use the handbrake/parking brake at a ‘STOP junction. I highlighted the words ‘some’ and ‘sometimes’, because some people sometimes need a little extra assistance. If you have trouble knowing if you have stopped or not, using the handbrake will help you be sure that you have.
Where should I stop?
At the STOP line. Every single car is obliged – by Law – to stop at the STOP line. It doesn’t matter if you stopped behind the car or cars in front of you first. You must stop when you get to the STOP line.
And it doesn’t matter what the cars in front of you do. You can guarantee that most drivers – particularly those of Audis, BMWs, Mercedes, and so on – will not stop unless they absolutely have to. That’s their problem, because by Law they should be stopping no matter what.
What gear should I do it in?
You’re going to stop. What gear do you think? You want 1st gear, and you should be planning to drop into that and stop. Nothing else: just 1st gear and stop.
If you approach in a higher gear, there is a risk you will forget to stop and keep going.
And if you’re learning in an Automatic, get your instructor to find a method that works for you.
I’ve mentioned this 
