New Speed Limits? Really?

It will come as no surprise to most that new speed limits for HGV's is set to come into force on 6th April 2015, the decision was agreed by the transport select committee in January, however there has been no formal confirmation about when the changes will take place, with existing limits to remain in force for now.

The consultation saw 703 responses, the majority opposed the changes. The thought behind the increase was pressure from the hauliers, faster speeds to reduce the amount of dangerous overtaking on rural roads, however research points to the increase to 50 mph on that road type is unlikely to reduce the misjudged overtaking and rather increase the impact speed when it goes wrong.

A dangerous driver who takes risk with their own life and someone else's life, family and future will do so regardless of the increase. Drivers who can travel at 60 mph on this road type see 50 mph as an equal inconvenience.  With lorries seeing an increase on the dual carriageway from 50 mph to 60 mph is a wasted change, with trucks being limited to 56 mph and 53 mph.

For hauliers, the extra road speed opens up the possibility to do more work in a day, that will equal tighter time targets for greater production. More stress, more pressure for drivers, this in turn will add to fatigue and the loser is not the Government or the transport companies, whose push for this change to help their monetary situations led to this revision, it will be the ordinary people. The drivers, the public the vulnerable road users. For driver trainers, what will the input be? Three people die on a rural single carriageway every day, checks on working hours, driver records, licences and health checks reduced by half, meaning that the regulation of HGV drivers is poor compared to previous years.

The only upside is the fact that the meeting concluded many rural roads will be reclassified as 40 mph, making the rise in limits a token gesture rather than a reality.

More worrying is that there is no evidence to support a benefit to the change in speed limits for lorries, with road side checks for HGV's falling significantly.   If there was more enforcement, average speed cameras, Police on the roads to uphold the legislation then we could move away from lazy politics, where major players pull the strings and not the tax payer who will pick up the road safety bill when this ends in tears.

Although the general consensus of the transport select committee was that the move was a bad idea in terms of road safety, that will see an increase in road fatalities they voted in favour, and we pay these people to protect us!

RED Driving School - Update

The structure at RED has changed, surprisingly David Cowan has resigned as director and on 11th February 2015 this position was taken by Philip Weston.  Mr Weston was a director at Kelso Place Asset Management until 2006, of course with Kelso having so many different limited companies, Philip is still director for some..  As companies go the holding body is quite changeable in comparison to other driving schools. Whether this is good or bad news for RED is yet to be seen.

Philip Weston is also a director of I2S Group Ltd, accounts filed up to date, and the company is a green light one. Which is effectively good news. I2S Group Ltd has also changed it's name four times. As a management company their role is much the same as Kelso's had been.

Philip Weston is director of 22 limited companies of which 21 are active. The combined deficit for these companies amounts to 17,441,738, although there is over £1m in the bank for the combined cash available, it does pose a question for this company who are under their management control.

I have of course bought up the subject of RED several times, mainly because it is the least stable of the major players of driving schools.  With the AA now answerable to share holders, and more offers available for potential pupils but a higher overall hourly rate, may put them in the running for a potential take over bid.

Is there a future for large schools or are small cooperatives or franchises the future.  Driver education is frequently offered by smaller companies and in the corporate field is welcome more often even by major businesses. In the past RED made a conscious effort to raise it's profile, attract new blood into driver training and to revive it's media position.  This has recently stumbled and that is a shame as all competition is healthy.

Excessive claims by the company on TV were muted as the start of it's downfall but really it was how it was presented.  If the business had been packaged in a different way then it would not be the focus for discussion now. So really an announcement of future plans would be worthwhile to everyone involved.

Young Driver Risk

It's long been evidenced that shock tactics do not work, yet there are still some organisations using these methods to try and prevent young driver fatalities by scaring them.  In some EU states victim association is used, with those who have killed someone on the roads meeting the family who are also victims of such an event.  Schools and colleges do invite DVD events where pictures, images and accidents are dramatised so as a company we carried out some research of our own into the effectiveness of such dramatic footage.

Taking four groups of ten students, aged between 16 and 19 from cross economic environments some from sixth form and the remainder college students. The group included some non-drivers, new drivers and those with more than twelve months experience for the results to be as broad as possible.

Those who had seen footage of accidents but never been involved in one surmised the films were enhanced to produce maximum effect and that a real time accident would not be so dramatic.  Those who were new drivers agreed with this, with only one saying they believed that an accident could be so.  The drivers with more than a years experience believed that driver error, notably amongst other drivers not themselves, could result in life changing or fatal injury and that a low impact shunt could produce an effect similar to that of the film.

One learner driver had witnessed an accident while on a driving lesson between two drivers on an opposite carriageway, the impact was far more severe than she could picture and commented that the footage shown does not convey the reality.  She now found her driving had become more cautious and her awareness raised.  So real time, as expected was much more effective.

Talks in colleges from accident victims within peer groups had very mixed responses, with one asking if the victim who had been in a coma was being paid for his talk.  This indicated to the data collectors that personality also played a part, with some of the other group members being shocked by such a statement.

The research pointed to the fact that consequence was relevant to attitude and that money spent on ideas that were deemed worthy may need to be rethought.  Campaigns will always hit a minority audience, and it's better than none at all, but current trials and research are not

Data Privacy

With the Government saving money by being paperless, the tax payer should be seeing a reduction in costs, however there seems to be an opportunity to make more money as opposed to less.  By making services available on line the profit on fees will increase, with the DVSA being responsible for accrediting all CPC courses for a fee on a yearly renewable basis, when is the tax payer going to see a benefit based on the savings?  The DVSA have streamlined their services, are saving on resources without costly test centres to run in many areas, and a cash intake from the sale of properties. So what will this extra money be spent on? Well prevention of scamming the system, fraud or similar. In fact anything that would divert money from Government resources.

So although scam websites with DVSA in their web address are reportedly illegal, why is taking so long to stop the few who are making vast profits from the less savvy internet user.  Surely the extra available funds should be directed this way. Well it seems that the most effort is advertising the fact that these sites exist, which is all very well, but unfortunately those who are most likely to be caught out are the ones who are less likely to heed or even understand the warnings,

As with most things, if you already revolve in an environment then you would expect a certain level of knowledge and that just is not the case.  With computer use estimated rather than confirmed, then surely information should be slightly easier to access.  Any system is easy and usable with experience, but with many using this service once in their lifetime that seems wishful thinking.

The DVLA have had huge staff loses with a rolling redundancy programme for over 6000 staff as we see the end of local offices, pushing the consumer online, which from my experience can be tedious, time consuming and at times very frustrating, and I consider myself to be very internet literate.

It now transpires that the DVLA will be raising their fee to make a 'small surplus' which to you and me is profit, for providing vehicle owner details to private parking agencies. A service that surely is using a loophole in data protection and leaves the tax payer vulnerable, particularly to the less scrupulous operators.

If a private company cannot enforce the fees and parking restrictions on their own property then surely individual management systems need to review their operating procedures, not sit in an office and target individuals because they do not have enough manpower.  If giving out data is cheaper than on the ground enforcement, then something is wrong with the system.  With this resource now being available on line as opposed to the previous postal requests then enforcement has just become too easy and invites lazy practice.

The shared ANPR data which the DVSA access is necessary in this technological age, with no displayed tax discs or MOT evidence.  However, selling of personal data should surely be restricted. With so much remote Policing and enforcement, we won't have anyone working in the agency offices, but just techy equipment and an operator.

The DVSA working with other agencies including the DVLA will have their own STMO, which does also confirms the moving into more limited companies, owned by the Secretary of State and the potential to sell shares. Privatisation is just around the corner for all departments.

AI Solutions: Wanstead instructors vs the rest of the UK?

AI Solutions: Wanstead instructors vs the rest of the UK?: I thumbed through an article in Driving Instructor Magazine and was a little shocked by the content.  Having browsed instructor forum...

Wanstead instructors vs the rest of the UK?

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.

The Dividing Line

The bridge has widened between the driving instructor fraternity and the testing agency.  Although the top four national associations have banded together to provide a voice, and this can only be commendable it still isn't reflective of the general vision that is debated in various groups who do not belong to an association of any type.

A recent survey identified that the driver trainers who took part, want to see the industry as a whole respected more by members of the public, with 60% blaming the Government for this view, 30% believe that cut price lessons are promoting poor public image, 5% believe that instructors are respected and 5% don't know.

In 2007, the then DSA announced at their Nottingham conference that as testing changed and driving instructor standards rose, the public would appreciate the professionalism and that the DSA would encourage and promote raised awareness of the crucial role ADIs hold in the future of road safety, so why did this not happen? As soon as purse strings tightened and the DSA road shows stopped any help to raise profiles disappeared, the proposed changes to the check test finally happened seven years later but where is the encouragement and support for the instructor, regardless of their role in driver training, be it teaching a novice, training a company car drive, supporting emergency services to name a few.  The stand alone statement that ADIs are doing a great job just isn't enough.  Although the majority are self-employed people the testing agency has great input to structure, with the test being an ultimate goal rather than a stepping stone.  Road safety figures so far in 2014 have bucked the previous trend of declining fatality figures, so tapping the instructor to perform better (standards check) and the modernisation of the driving test (questionable) has not had the effect anticipated, this confirms the view that attitude hasn't changed nor have inroads.

The economy has lifted, this is evident from generally raised trading levels for internet businesses despite the loss of six high street stores every week, as people turn to on line shopping they can spend without leaving the house and some are happy to pay a premium for this as it does not compare to the cost of fuel and parking expenses.

Many driving instructors are reporting an upturn in business too, as the financial outlook shows improvement, also reflected in the drink drive fatality figures then accident rates are likely to rise, can driver behaviour change, definitely, will it, not without some serious Government input and with Department for Transport PLC round the corner, who is going to lead the way where the general public listen.

A recent meeting that I chaired discussed public information films and how this really does make a difference to knowledge, because a good advert will stick in peoples minds, this meeting was attended by over sixty full licence holders, a mix of ages and experience.

Can the profile of the ADI be bought into the 21st century? Can the Government finally fulfil their promise? Or is it just on the shelf gathering dust until figures stay on an uphill trend and the EURSC step in and demand targets.  Oh no of course we want to leave the EU don't we, despite the fact that without their enforcement of the changes to safety features as a compulsory measure it wouldn't be happening.  112 in airbags from 2015, distance separators on LGV1 just to name two.