I thumbed through an article in Driving Instructor Magazine and was a little shocked by the content. Having browsed instructor forums for years, the majority frown upon on intensive courses, whereas a few embrace the intensity, this article sent mixed messages along with a large dose of self righteousness. The writer, Noel Gaughan, says he gives a better service for the money he charges, you can see this where he charges £250 for ten hours, against a £200 charge by another instructor for a two hour lesson and use of the car on test day, which actually equates to four and a half hours on test day. Pass rates are not relevant, post test survival is, and there is no current evidence to support that a high pass rate equates to safer drivers.
So along with the self elevated status comes comments regarding 'cash machine instructors', so also we have to assume that Noel teaches for fun and not to earn a living. I've been involved in road safety for many years, I have written articles about it, I blog about it, follow the statistics and decipher them and I give talks about it too, but I would never claim to be better than anyone else, my previous experience as a research journalist led me to tracking figures and outcomes.
The test centre mentioned in the article, Wanstead, is one I used when I lived a stones throw from there, it does have one of the lowest pass rates in the country, but you can't only blame the instructors that use it. Several examiners were disciplined here after failing the last wave of tests so they could have a darts match, an examiner at the same centre wasn't invited to take part and reported it to the DSA. Of course nobody knows how many more of these incidents there were, it can of course be assumed if using the same logic as this article, they are in it for the money and not to put safe drivers out there. Retests did take place once it hit the press.
Wanstead test centre, on the outskirts of East London no car park facilities, the waiting room is akin to a cupboard and you can hear examiners discussing previous tests while you wait. The roads surrounding it have double yellow lines and are heavily parked, so quite difficult to park pre-test. I used this centre infrequently but on one occasion I took someone who lived nearby, it was pouring with rain so I waited in the very cosy waiting room, an hour later no sign of pupil or examiner, other tests of which there were three had returned and the ADIs gone, it was the last test of the day. I knocked on the office door and was told the examiner had gone home.
It transpired that my pupil had been left in the car two blocks away and told to wait there. The examiner had gone to the test centre through the back door, of which I did not know there was one, dropped off his paperwork and gone. As while I was waiting another examiner had opened the door to the waiting room and had seen me there it wasn't as if they didn't know I was there. Although the conclusion of my complaint was in my favour, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence. Although I now live in a different part of the country I still use test centres in those areas for instructor tests.
So cash machine driving instructors? Examiners believe their life is in danger? The test won't end happily because of the school presenting the pupil for test? I think that is dangerous ground and absolute prejudice. I have seen many people present for test who have never had a driving lesson, some arrive driven by someone else and then try to drive away from the test centre, some arrive without L plates, others believe they don't need a car for test. Although the figures for those arriving for test independently are not available does that mean this is okay or is Mr Gaughan going to choose this category next time.
'How do we get rid of the cash machine driving instructors? Only the DVSA are in a position to do so' (Noel Gaughan Driving Instructor Magazine p.23, 2014), as a tax payer and member of the public I think my money is better spent on education and the health service. Leave the DVSA to test, and us to continue to do our job. The research to date is varied and extensive, and I have read the majority of it, the aforementioned people will not pass the test if they are below standard, if they choose to try then that is their prerogative.
In six years we reduced our road fatality rate by 1200, a huge achievement and one of which as a country we should be proud, our driving populous has grown yet still we are saving lives, the opinion of a high percentage of the (voting) public is that there should be some form of assessment, and the EURSC would like the same, yet our Government is a little reluctant to be that controversial although they are quite happy to have a postcode lottery for cancer drugs.
The future sees the DVSA being a training establishment only, with quality control being the order of the day and private companies controlling examiner employment, which is why more remote centres will appear and along with that no requirement to publish performance results. As the DFT becomes a limited company in the same vein as the HA and the DVSA follows suit, I think the opportunity for some to use the DVSA as a punch bag for all that is wrong in driving training will end, and personal responsibility will finally take over.
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