Learning to Drive with Special Needs

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor, Driving Schools.

Having moderate learning difficulties such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or Aspergers syndrome can’t deny you an opportunity to learn to drive. This opportunity is vital for you to feel independent and fulfilled. Learning to drive with special needs can be very challenging both physically and emotionally. But aren’t you facing challenges in your everyday life? So think of learning as just one more challenge. Thousands of disabled people hold their driving licence, enjoying the excitement of driving. With diligence, robust motivation and the right training, you will be able to overcome your disabilities, too. Find out how you are going to make it.

Applying for Provisional Licence

Before you start looking for the right driving instructor, you need to consult your GP on your plan to learn to drive. The doctor will brief you on existing DVLA (Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency) guidelines for learners with special needs who are willing to get a driving licence. The agency’s medical advisers will establish whether you are able to meet conditions for safety driving and issue a special certificate that entitles you to apply for your provisional licence with Driving Standards Agency. It would be advisable to get medical reports from your GP to reinforce your application.

Choosing Sensitive Driving Instructor

If you think that driving lessons come natural to pupils with no special needs, you are not quite right. Many people never pass their tests and have to start all over again. Frequently, it is not even their fault. Anyone wishing to learn to drive needs a good driving instructor. But you want to look for more than that, a sensitive, experienced driving instructor who has knowledge of your needs. These people have special training and they can teach you more than just to drive. They will show you how to get in and out of the car more easily and how to operate adapted controls. Big part of learning to drive is learning how to handle adaptive equipment that greatly eases driving and reduces discomfort. Another consideration may be to contact the Forum of Mobility Centers, a network of organisations across the UK that specialises in advising and teaching those with medical conditions which may impair a driver’s ability to drive safely. They also provide a special course for driving instructors who take on teaching people with special needs.

There is no need to say a lot of disabled people can drive a car. If you can do that too, you will accomplish much more than able-bodied learners because daring to get your driving licence is really a heroic deed you can be proud of.

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Learning to Drive Programme Unfolds

Posted on November 24th, 2009 by admin, under Advice for Learner Drivers, Driving Instructor, Driving Test.

DSA continues to be taking measures aimed at improving road safety and the way learner drivers are instructed and tested. Today we are going to update you on DSA’s Leaning to Drive Programme. We will recap what’s been achieved already and look at what’s coming next.

Learning to Drive Programme focuses on newly qualified drivers and includes measures built around three themes.

• Pre-driver education
• Strengthening the learning processes and the way learner drivers are tested
• Post test

The programme includes three basic phases.

Phase 1: Voluntary Pre-Driver Qualification and Abridged Theory Test, 2009

January saw the introduction of a voluntary pre-driver qualification in Safe Road Use. It targets 14-16 year olds but remains open to all age groups. The course consists of two modules, each taking about 40 hours. Despite the course is voluntary, it gives an advantage to those who passes it. They gain a credit towards the theory test, valid for three years. This credit means an abridged theory test, including 35 multiple choice questions instead of 50 and a lower theory test fee.

Phase 2: Case Studies, 2009

If you are currently on the training, you should be aware about case studies included in the multiple choice section of the theory test. The revamp came into effect on September 28. DSA explained this move as a measure designed to better assess learner drivers’ understanding of the theory. Case study puts knowledge into context and brings pupils closer to real life situations. Case study takes form of a short story on which five multiple choice questions are based. Only one case study is currently introduced.

Phase 3: Assessment of Competence to Drive Independently, 2010

From October 2010, DSA plans to introduce an assessment of competence to drive independently on all practical tests. This independent section is supposed to assess the candidate’s ability to drive independently of direction from the examiner. In other words, the candidate will drive as if they were alone. This new section makes perfect sense as learner drivers should be able to make timely and independent decisions before they can safely use roads by themselves. Independent driving will not add extra time to the test. DSA plans to reduce the number of reversing manoeuvres from two to one to fit the interdependent section in.

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Stark Message for Impersonators

Posted on November 24th, 2009 by admin, under Latest News.

Beware of DSA, driving test fraudsters and impersonators! DSA’s Fraud and Integrity Team has sharpened its prowess at tracking down criminals who attempt to evade or infiltrate the driving test. DSA’s achievements cumulated in winning first national identity crime award on 20 November.

The National Identity Crime Award was introduced to honor police forces and government agencies which contribute to the national combat against identity crime. To address increased activity of organised criminal gangs which impersonate people unwilling or unable to pass the driving test, DSA established Fraud and Integrity Team in 2004. Since then it has investigated over 3,000 alleged incidents of impersonation, resulting in 821 arrests and 1,186 driving licences revoked. Hundreds of criminals, who were never qualified for driving, were barred from using public roads.

Impersonation is a serious crime that is punishable with imprisonment. Criminals supply driving licences to people who are unwilling to pass driving tests or even those who are not eligible to do so. It may negatively impact road and public safety. In addition, driving licence may be used as a false identity to support further fraud offences.

DSA’s head of Fraud and Integrity, Andy Rice, accepted the award and reassured: “We will continue to develop our methods and intelligence in the future to combat all forms of crime around the driving test. Our investigations, and the resulting court sentences, send a clear message out to anyone thinking of this type of crime – we will use every method at our disposal to bring you to justice.”

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Motorists Should Go Back To Driving School

Posted on November 6th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Research and Statistics.

It is funny how rapidly learner drivers’ knowledge of Highway Code may deteriorate after they have passed their theory test with flying colours. Only three per cent of driving license holders would re-pass their theory test, if they had to take it tomorrow, according to a new road safety research.

The research in question was carried out by one of the biggest price comparison sites moneysupermarket.com. It was based on an online poll of more than 1,500 British drivers. The poll exposed really worrying road safety picture with only three per cent of those polled able to recognise the simplest rules and signs from the Highway Code.

As far as road signs are concerned, only half of British drivers were aware that 30 mph speed limit sign indeed means the driver has to slow down and adhere to the limit. 65 per cent of polled motorists failed to correctly identify the sign for ‘no vehicles’. 39 percent of them had no idea about the meaning of the sign and 21 percent understood it as ‘obey next warning sign’. About 7 per cent of drivers were unable to recognise the sign ‘oncoming vehicles have the right of way over you’.

The poll further found that 23 percent of drivers did not know pedestrians should be their main priority when turning into a side road. One of the most worrying unawareness of rules was how motorists would perform U-turn. 23 per cent of drivers would look over their shoulder first! Only a quarter of motorists would do signalling so other drivers can slow down.

It seems that after obtaining their driving license drivers never brush up on their knowledge of the Highway Code. This may wind up causing accident on the road or worse. Motorists are required by law to conform to the rules from the Highway Code, or otherwise they could be fined, given penalty points or disqualified from driving.

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Why Do Driving Instructors Need Business Skills

Posted on October 31st, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor, Driving Tips.

Why do you think it happens that a staggering 50 percent of newly qualified approved driving instructors quit within the first 18 months? In most cases, the reverse comes from disillusionment. After being lulled by the advertising industry into believing in a paradise-like future of being a driving instructor, they faced tough challenges and gave up. They were not bad driving instructors. What they were bad at was running their own business.

No Room to Swing a Cat

If you still think that you’ve made it when you stuck that green badge in your windscreen, it is time to start really worrying. The market is packed and it would take a good deal of business skills to rip it open and shove in. Despite advertising fellows telling you that a million of people learn to drive every year, there is still no room for a newly qualified ADI. Advertising does not necessarily misrepresent, but what these chaps don’t want you to know about is how many of your competitors are out there. And there are legions of them. It is estimated there are only 19 pupils per each driving instructor on the market. It goes without saying that luring in just one of those is not easy.

Think Like a Salesperson

To survive in this environment, you first have to think how good your business skills are. Being a driving instructor in most cases means self-employment. And self-employment is in many ways like running your own business. Look at your driving school. Are they sitting around waiting for would-be driving instructors to be pouring into their offices? Hardly so. They go out there and advertise like hell! Or look at a thriving baker’s shop. Their cakes must be the yummiest in the neighborhood, right? To make your “cakes” the best, you will need to take care of the following things.

Get yourself noticed. It all starts with advertising your services smartly. An advertising technique is largely depends on the audience you target. Basically, you customers are going to be young so make sure your advertising is both entertaining and informative. The best choice is to set up a website. It should be catchy. Boring website means you are a bore. Nothing can scary a young pupil away best than a boring teacher!

Be a Good Salesperson. Reaching your audience is not enough. You should be able to convert your audience into your customers. And this magic metamorphosis can be done by phone. Answer the calls effectively. That means you need a good answerphone message when you are not available. But as you pick up the phone, that’s when your salesperson skills come into play. If you don’t have any, start learning right away. If you can’t sell, you will have nobody to teach. Professional Excellence. Eventually, your best advertising is your teaching attitude and your personal pass rates. Your successful pupils may be your reliable references and they can become your word of mouth advertising. They tell a friend, their friend tells a friend and soon you will be teaching those 19 pupils. So it doesn’t matter how good you are as a driving instructor, if you don’t have any business sense, you’ll probably be struggling.

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Watch Out For Bogus Driving Instructors!

Posted on October 31st, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor.

There are certain driving instructors who can make money off driving instruction without investing in all the training and passing all the qualifying exams. Just like Mr. Ferris, of Newport, Gwent, who has been recently fined a £305 for giving illegal driving tuition to three learner drivers.

David Ferris, 50, was deceitful to three pupils that he was an Approved Driving Instructor as he charged them £17 per lesson. Ferris’ qualifications were doubted by Newport Driving Centre staff in November last year. As DSA’s Fraud and Integrity Team collected evidence, the bogus ADI received a warning to stop his illegal activity. Ferris said in response that he was helping his friends with driving training for free. Some time later, DSA received a complaint from one of Ferris’ “friends” and cracked down. The fraudster was arrested at his home on June 26, 2009. Mr. Ferris pleaded guilty for the offences and was fined a combined £305.

It goes without saying that taking lessons from illegal driving instructor may be dangerous and a waste of money. They never passed their qualifying exams and, thus, are unable to provide an adequate training to their pupils. In addition, bogus driving instructors are stealing customers from those who really deserve them.

Protecting yourself from the fraud is very easy. Be aware that any qualified driving instructor should display his coloured badge in the windscreen. Pink badge shows they are still under training and are entitled to provide driving tuition. Green badge indicates you are being trained by fully qualified person who is on the Register of Approved Driving Instructors. Make sure the person on the badge photo quite looks like your driving instructor!

Being an illegal driving instructor can bring about more severe penalties than just paying a £305 fine. One fraudster named Donald Johnson – who could have made a brilliant driving instructor – was sentenced to two years in jail for doing the same thing as David Ferris, but at greater scale and with more talent. In 2006, Mr. Johnson illegally taught 19 pupils, and 15 passed their tests first time! It is almost 80 percent with national average pass rate for pupils who take driving test first time being at only 46 percent.

If you have any suspicions toward your driving instructor, ask him to show you his badge or call DSA.

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Things to Know Before Embarking on Driving Instructor Career

Posted on October 26th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor.

We posted earlier about what it takes to become a driving instructor. If you are considering this career you surely have heard how adverts are touting the perspective of being a driving instructor. Be your own boss! Choose your working hours! Enjoy lots of cash in your pocket! Some adverts go as far as naming a driving instructor profession as recession proof…

Many of advantages to being a driving instructor are not necessarily just a sales pitch, but if you have made up your mind to take the plunge, make sure you do so with your eyes open. This post is a must read for those who are serious about embarking on driving instructor career. So here are four things you have to know about your future business.

1. Watch Your Expenses

Throughout your training process you will have to pay for a lot of things. First, you will need to buy all your training materials for theory test. The costs greatly vary depending on what you choose. Then, there is a £90 fee for the Part 1 test. Be aware, if you fail, this fee will be payable again to allow you a second attempt. As you move on to your driving training, your expenses surge with most trainers charging from £25 to £40 per hour. A total will depend on how much training you need. Here comes your Part 2 test and before taking it you will part company with £110 in a fee, payable again if you screw up your first attempt. Your expenses, however, don’t stop when you pass the Part 2. Now you can apply for your PDI licence, costing you about £140. To be fully trained for the Part 3 instructional test, you will have to find a reputable ADI trainer who may charge over £30 per hour. This is the hardest part of the whole training process and you will need a minimum of 60 hours. And again you will be charged a £110 fee for each attempt at Part 3 test. Fresh off your successful ADI exams, you will have to apply to join the register as an ADI and obtain your ADI licence. This will add another £300 on your expenses list.

2. Rigors of Being Self-employed

Be your own boss! Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, if you can do without your job security and steady income, it does. Compared to employees, the self-employed have no guarantees whatsoever whether they can make money on their own. Your income will entirely depend on how many pupils you can steal from your competitors. Don’t forget being self-employed means dealing with your tax and insurance issues yourself.

3. Throat-cutting competition

Running your own business has never been easy. And with credit crunch gripping the economy, competition has turned into the battle of life. If somebody on the telly tells you there is a shortage of driving instructors and swelling crowd of learners, don’t jump at it. Here is more news for you. According to official statistics, as of 2 September this year, there are 45,371 approved driving instructors and 6,910 trainee licence holders. Some adverts say: “A million of people learn to drive every year”. And now let’s do a simple math. If there are 52,281 ADIs on the market, it makes roughly 19 pupils per each every year.

4. Passing Test Is Not Easy

And now comes the big news. Official data says less than 10 percent of those embarking on ADI training process actually become driving instructors. 50 percent of those quit within the first 18 months. Check below pass rates for ADI qualifying exams in 2006/2007:

The Part 1 Test: 49%

The Part 2 Test: 45%

Test of instructional ability (Part 3): 28%

We didn’t mean to scary you away, but a person who is considering a driving instructor career must know about the realities of his business before taking the plunge. There are no easy ways to earn money these days and being a driving instructor is not an exception.

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Learner Driver Theory Test Revamped

Posted on October 26th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor, Driving Schools, Driving Test.

Learning to Drive programme launched by Driving Standard Agency (DSA) is coming into its new phase with the introduction of changes to learner driver theory test. The Learning to Drive was planned as a long-term programme to overhaul learner driver test practices and regulations with the aim to strengthen the way drivers are trained and tested at driving schools.

From late September this year, learner drivers taking their theory test will face case study questions. As of now only one new question has been added in each theory exam for drivers, motorcyclists and moped riders. Instead of just choosing correct answer out of multiple-choice list, learner drivers will find a case study of driving episode. Candidates will judge by context and answer the case study question in the common way by choosing the right answer from a multiple-choice list using mouse or touch screen. Case studies are not something learners never heard about before as they are being extensively used in education.

DSA announced about the introduction of one new question based on existing multiple-choice questions so learner drivers could adapt to the concept. DSAofficials, however, say they plan to include more case studies into exams in future. The reason for revamping the approach to the theory test was that case study can really put candidates into the context and show how well they understand what they have learnt during their theory training.

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What does it take to be an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI)?

Posted on October 15th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor.

Are you considering the career of driving instructor? Well, it’s a good choice because being a driving instructor generates a great deal of advantages. Once qualified, you can become self-employed and be your own boss, deciding on your working hours and making good money. Or you may want to consider the opportunity of becoming a franchised driving instructor. But before you can start learning how to drive, you first should get trained yourself.

Before looking for a driving instructor school, you will need essential requirements to apply successfully. First, you have to have held an unrestricted car driving licence for a minimum of four years. Second, your driving history during that period should be impeccable. And third, you should be ‘fit and proper person’ in the opinion of the DSA. In other words, this relates to convictions not spent under the ‘rehabilitation of offenders’ act.

The training consists of three parts: theory training, in-car driving training andinstructional training. So you must pass three qualifying tests accordingly.

Part 1. Theory and Hazard Perception Tests

These are much like learner’s tests, but as a driving instructor you are going to be tested at a higher level. The theory test is 100 multiple choice questions with 90 minutes to complete them all. During Hazard Perception Test you will be shown 14 videos of developing hazards and you will need to demonstrate an adequate reaction.

Part 2. Driving Test

If you have chosen to teach others to drive, you should be brilliant at driving. No wonder the pass mark for driving instructors is greatly different from that of learner’s. Within the test, you must not have made more than six minor driving faults.

Part 3. Practical Test of Teaching Skills

This is the most challenging and the most important part of entire training process. You can be a great driver but it takes a whole new mix of skills to become a good teacher. So this test shows your instructional abilities. Supervising Examiner will role-play a leaner driver, doing it all wrong. You would need to display your core competencies as a driving instructor, identifying, analysing and rectifying the faults.

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No Driving Instructors In the Back Seat On L-Tests

Posted on October 15th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor, Driving Test.

Driving Standards Agency (DSA) initiative to force an observer into the back seat of learner car during driving test has been reversed earlier in the week. That mandatory requirement was dropped, though candidates may still ask their driving instructor or a parent who learnt them to drive to be present in the car on theirpractical driving test.

DSA planned to revise driving test regulations last May when officials announced their intention to make it mandatory for the candidates to take an observer on-board during their practical test. The idea behind new rule was that an observer could be valuable during the learning process, which in turn would bring road safety benefits.

Driving Instructor Association (DIA) representatives and other stakeholders, however, saw it as the initiative could do exactly the opposite of what DSA officials were trying to achieve. The revamp of driving test regulations generated hot debates. There was even an E-petition from candidates to stop DSA from introducing the rule. The final round of debate was the meeting of DSA and DIArepresentatives late in September, just weeks before the rule was scheduled for introduction.

Finally, Transport Secretary Lord Adonis announced DSA put a hold on the revamp to avoid unnecessary regulation. But the choice whether to have observer sitting in during L-test still remains with candidates. In his statement, Adonis insists that having someone sitting in will enhance learning experience and, in turn, improve road safety.

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