Hello ladies. Was reading on another topic about dawdling car drivers on the motorway. Something I’ve thought for a long time is that we need a change in this country of the way drivers are trained. I think we need to make it a requirement that all drivers should be trained by qualified professional driving instructors. How often do you see someone learning to drive clearly with a relative or friend in the car and obviously they are both struggling to cope with the situation. All that happens with unqualified instructors is bad habits and bad driving gets passed down the generations in addition to other bad habits they pick up themselves, which is partly my theory as to why driving in this country gets so noticeably worse year after year. So when Bertie is PM this will be one of the first changes enacts. Driving on our ever busier roads is too serious to let amateurs train following generations. What are your thoughts?
(P.s I know some driving instructors driving may leave a little to be desired but that’s another subject!)
yep, I agree with all the above. I think instructors (car) could do with some extra training too, some of the worst driving habits I see are done by these clowns. For example, stopping on a bend to chat to the person learning or cruising in the middle lane not a care in the world.
I was going to give my daughter some driving lessons ,when I checked with the insurance co. I was told that I was not covered and extra cover would cost an eye watering sum.
The problem doesn’t arrise here in France, because to learn privately the accompanying driver has to follow a 7 hour training course, but more importantly the car still has to have duel controls. Simples
I live on a test route so see lots of drivers having instruction from qualified driving instructors, it would be more to the point to raise the standard of driving instructors
A bit of calling kettle black methinks.
Can you imagine if they said truck drivers had to have graduated license or periodic training?
These learners no doubt are having professional lessons and will be getting much needed practice and road experience and it is up to us “experienced” drivers to allow for them to get to the high standards we truck drivers set every day.e g.tailgating, rear ending, rolling over, speeding.
As we read on t/n daily every one is the worlds best driver . It’s not so much about having the skills but having the correct attitude.
I still cannot believe that no motorway driving is involved in a test, some poor young sod could pass their test then 10 minutes later head up a busy motorway all alone.
My Missus is an instructor and she talks them through motorway basics but unfortunately cannot do it for real unless it’s on a pass plus.
i was affronted when I was ‘encouraged’ to undertake a speed awareness course when caught by camera van in Wales last year, however, the course was very good, the instructors are people previously (and currently) working as ADI driving instructors.
They were sympathetic to the plight of us drivers having to undergo this dcpc rubbish with no result, and no clear direction.
It amazed me that the majority of people on the course had a poor appreciation of road regulations and the highway code.
The one thing that they point out is that we ALL drive badly from time to time, some more often than others, and that the reason it is not a problem is that for the majority of the times, we get away with it. There is, more often than not, no bad result from bad driving. Occasionally there may be some damage, more occasionally some injury, very rarely, fatality.
It is clear all drivers should receive periodic re-training, to a proper curriculum and aim, and with a result at the end of it, either pass or fail.
I don’t think friends and family should teach someone to drive either, never really thought about it before - good point.
It’s probably unrealistic, but I’d like to see car drivers, spend even just one hour in a truck so that they could get some idea of what it’s like. Might not be long, but it would give them an idea of blind spots, the reasons why we sometimes positions ourselves on road as we do.
I agree.
Dad teaching his son to drive is a waste of time perhaps once qualified to drive they ought to be encouraged to have a qualified driver (minimum 5 years experience) with them for 10 days and rewarded with a lower insurance premium.
Tipper Tom:
Also raising the driving age to 21 wouldn’t hurt
Wouldn’t hurt who? It would certainly hurt me as I’ve only just turned 21 now yet I’ve managed to drive round most of west Europe just fine In a van and the uk in everything else you can’t tar everyone with the same brush.
Raising it to 18 I could understand as it would encourage folk to stay in some form of education until then.
Truck drivers used to have a graduated training, from a car licence you couldnt go to a class 1 licence, it had to be a 3.2.1. or something on those lines. Motorctclist have a similar system with the size of the engine, or at least they used to ( possibly fazed out now ) so a car graduated system should be the way, but whatever system is devised, even the smallest car, with the smallest engine, is still a killer in the wrong hands. Maybe limiters for cars would be a good thing, and limit new drivers to town driving only, then as the mileage creeps up, extend the boundaries, then another set of training and a test for the motorways.