Perhaps FlyingGecko should do an Advanced Course now, and see what the difference is.

Maybe the UK Government will just announce sometime soon that all UK Driving licence holders that have not had a UK Driving test in the last 40 years have 12 months to do it in or their Driving Licence will be revoked.

& Granddad rights to towing will be invalid unless they take a Trailer Towing Course within 6 months.

 

That should increase revenue to the Treasury and get some off the road that should not be there.

That 'eight years ago' is quite telling.  In the whole driver training business there has been a sea change during that time.  These days 'instruction' is out, it's 'coaching' that's needed (although I think I heard somebody recently suggesting that 'coaching' was old hat and that now we should be 'mentoring').

 

In truth it has always been coaching for those who work with experienced drivers, telling the MD that they are doing it wrong is not going to be well received.  Tell them that there are other ways they might like to try, that just might work.  I have only worked with experienced drivers, either for company vehicle drivers or on the NDORS courses for about 6 years, though I have been involved in both for over 10 years.  I just gave up learners six years ago.

 

I might add that your extreme ex police officer would fail his DVSA Standards Check if he carried on like that today, you have to be coaching most of the time (though if the client needs is it some instruction is accepted)

 

Just as a summary of the available courses for anyone who might be interested - 

 

Speed Awareness Course - normally classroom based but there are still a handful of places where it includes a practical element.

Driver Alertness Course - part classroom, part in car (for those who have had a crash or similar and are open to prosecution for 'due care').

What's Driving Us - classroom based (for 'attitude' based issues - mobile phone, tailgating, road rage, etc).

Driving For Change - in car (for those with vehicle control issues).

 

Avon & Somerset have two experimental classroom speed courses for those caught in 20 limits or in motorway variable limits.

 

Devon and Cornwall have an experimental classroom course for those not wearing a seatbelt.

 

Our aim on the courses is to try and get people to think about what they do, giving them some information to help that process.  Some people will decide that some changes could bring benefits, others won't.  At the end of the day the decision is theirs to make, we can't enforce change.

 

I recall a Driver Improvement Course some years ago (before it was renamed Driver Alertness) where I finished up with three van drivers in the car with me.  None of them accepted that their crashes warranted being on the course but, at the end, they all agreed that they had learned quite a lot.  I took that as a win.

Thanks for the explanations.

 

I had to take a SAC last year & it was "classroom" only, with no real attention paid on how to keep to speed limits, more on realizing that speed limits should be obeyed 

& what damage / injuries can result from excessive speed.

 

As for using top gear at 30 mph, all of our DSG's won't allow it, even in manual mode.......

 

 

DC

Maybe the UK Government will just announce sometime soon that all UK Driving licence holders that have not had a UK Driving test in the last 40 years have 12 months to do it in or their Driving Licence will be revoked.

& Granddad rights to towing will be invalid unless they take a Trailer Towing Course within 6 months.

 

That should increase revenue to the Treasury and get some off the road that should not be there.

 

That isn't going to happen for the very simple reason that they haven't got nearly enough examiners to keep up with the tests for new drivers, you can be looking at something like a 4 month wait to get a test at some locations.  Add to that the fact that they are having to take examiners off live test duties to get them up to speed for the changes in the test due to be introduced next July and the situation is likely to get worse before it gets better.

 

Actually, rather than picking on older drivers (who are by no means the highest risk road users) how about having to take some sort of formal refresher (and a proper eye test) every 10 years at photocard renewal time?  No government is going to introduce retesting, those who failed would blame the government rather than their own inadequacies and not vote for those who introduced the change.

 

By the way, 'grandfather rights' are removed at 70 unless you have a commercial vehicle medical each year, so they are more like 'middle aged' rights.

OK.

& maybe just in Scotland then that you can find Grand Parents that are in their 30's.

 

PS

UK Job creation. 'Driving Examiners' / 'Driving Instructors'.

For those leaving the Military Services and Police Officers retiring early, (or on ill health...)

young in years after maybe 40 years service so Middle Aged and still with decades of working life left in them!

Edited 7 November, 20169 yr by Offski

Perhaps FlyingGecko should do an Advanced Course now, and see what the difference is.

 

 

Difference between what?

 

 

 

 

 

 

And thanks for the input, keystone. Good to hear that things have moved on.

Thanks for the explanations.

I had to take a SAC last year & it was "classroom" only, with no real attention paid on how to keep to speed limits, more on realizing that speed limits should be obeyed

& what damage / injuries can result from excessive speed.

As for using top gear at 30 mph, all of our DSG's won't allow it, even in manual mode.......

DC

How to keep to speed limits.....

1. Check speed limit of road

2. Observe vehicle speedometer

3. Ensure speed on speedometer stays below speed limit of road

How to keep to speed limits.....

1. Check speed limit of road

2. Observe vehicle speedometer

3. Ensure speed on speedometer stays below speed limit of road

If in doubt, especially in streetlights or what appears to be a built up area, assume 30mph limit until you see a repeater or end of restriction sign. (Warning can annoy other drivers.)

How to keep to speed limits.....

1. Check speed limit of road

2. Observe vehicle speedometer

3. Ensure speed on speedometer stays below speed limit of road

 

I would just add to that car speedometers are usually pretty inaccurate and better to use the GPS speed reading which is likely to be closer to true ie what the doppler radar would read ie GPS about 1%, car speedo can be legal and 10 to 12% inaccurate !

 

Also, when going through the 50 mph or so road works, the trucks have a good measure of what they will get knicked at, the often cruise at a real GPS 53/54 as they know the average speed camera will not tend to be set a less than 10% + 2 mph to account for speedo errors.

 

The above said there are reports that sometimes some speedo, and indeed the please commissioner for Bedfordshire wanted to set the cameras at exact 70 mph on the motorway.

 

My Clio and Bike have digital speedo which is preferable.  

 

Oh for Germany where they treat their citizens as grown ups  It is crazy that when I go to Germany I can drive at 200 kph plus and then do it here, in a car off the same production line, and it is a major offence.   Even te French are smarter in having different speed limits for dry and wet conditions.  Woe is me.  Only got knicked one in nearly 40 years of driving, touch wood.    

Also, when going through the 50 mph or so road works, the trucks have a good measure of what they will get knicked at, the often cruise at a real GPS 53/54 as they know the average speed camera will not tend to be set a less than 10% + 2 mph to account for speedo errors.   

Don't trust trucks in road works, just do the 50mph it states, I only wish they would do the same...

 

Reduced speed limits are there due to the narrow lanes putting vehicles much closer together, they are there to protect the general public primarily not those of us who work in them. I'm a Civil Engineer working in the Highways Industry, last year I ran a drainage upgrade scheme on the M5, on that lanes 2 and 3 were only 2.5m wide (larger than the minimum allowed in Chapter 8 btw).

 Even te French are smarter in having different speed limits for dry and wet conditions.  Woe is me.  Only got knicked one in nearly 40 years of driving, touch wood.    

And what about (different days) when it is not raining but the road is soaking wet, or when it is raining enough to need wipers but the ground is warm enough that it's not getting wet?

How to keep to speed limits.....

1. Check speed limit of road

2. Observe vehicle speedometer

3. Ensure speed on speedometer stays below speed limit of road

 

Excellent. And if someone doesn't know how to do any one of those, they shouldn't be on the road.

But if they ignore that they can get away without Points / Fine in England & Wales by going on a Speed Awareness Course.

No toting up points and off the road...

How to keep to speed limits.....

1. Check speed limit of road

2. Observe vehicle speedometer

3. Ensure speed on speedometer stays below speed limit of road

 

Wise words indeed. Pretty sure it will be impossible to exceed signed speed limits before long anyway. With the advent of road sign recognition and autonomous controls, the car will automatically apply the speed limit that is appropriate for the road. Where will they get their revenue from then?

Edited 8 November, 20169 yr by octyal

But how fast are we really travelling?

 

Whilst we can actually measure it quite accurately we choose to mostly have analogue instruments that are usually about 5% over-reading and even when we do have digital, half my vehicles have digital speedos, even they are about 5% over-reading.

 

If we had a system which read the road-sign for a speed and base that on the car's speedo reading many of us would take 5% or more to travel the journey and be 5% under the actual speed.

 

I can see people looking to get bigger wheels to try and get that extra couple of miles an hour.

 

About time GPS speed measurement actually fitted as OE in the vehicle is introduced but do we use the US or Galileo which is being launched currently and will either let us use it in years to come?  The Russian have a system too called GLONASS.

 

Need to stop using the old technology  http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-speedometer-works.html

 

Many Italian and Japanese vehicle manufacturers sold thousands of extra vehicles by mis-reporting their speed whilst we, with our Smiths Instruments played with a straight bat and lost market share.    The Italian company Veglia become know a Vague-lio and I have seen the 15 to 20% over-reading.

If in doubt, especially in streetlights or what appears to be a built up area, assume 30mph limit until you see a repeater or end of restriction sign. (Warning can annoy other drivers.)

What about the 20mph limits becoming more and more common nowadays. Especially in built up areas. We have them now.

What about the 20mph limits becoming more and more common nowadays. Especially in built up areas. We have them now.

 

 

You'd see a repeater sign saying 20.

How to keep to speed limits.....

1. Check speed limit of road

2. Observe vehicle speedometer

3. Ensure speed on speedometer stays below speed limit of road

Sucking egg syndrome strikes again.

 

ISTR that we were taught something about speed limits back in the 60's, but back then, 30 mph limits only applied in built-up areas,

rather than every village in the country.............

 

I'm not likely to miss a magic 30 sign again, but keeping to today's over-severe limits can be a PITA, especially when ever-one around you (on the "open" road) is happily 

cruising at speed limit + 15/20%.

 

Have a happy life, DC.