The Driving Tests

Intensive driving courses are becoming more popular as more of us find we have less time to devote to learning to drive. The concept of being able to simply take a week off work, stay over somewhere in a hotel and pay a modest sum of money to be taught to drive (and pass your test) is always going to appeal. read more »

A recent study by Newsbeat has shown that the number of young people learning to drive has dropped dramatically since 2005, with a 19% decrease over the 6-year period. This equates to 200,000 drivers.

The reasons for the drop in numbers are, sadly, fairly obvious. Rising insurance costs, changes to both the practical driving test and theory tests with the introduction of independent driving and the hazard perception test, and of course the increases in the cost of driving lessons, have all contributed. read more »

Calls from a UK road safety charity, BRAKE, have been prompted after a report concluded that the average driver broke the speed limit over 18,000 times in their life.

BRAKE’s warning to watch our speed comes as the summer holidays see more children playing outside in the streets – and therefore a hike in the number of child-related car accidents.
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Mother Helen Strange and son Michael have brought a little bit of driving fame to Redditch & Bromsgrove Institute of Advanced Drivers by both passing their Advanced Test at exactly the same time.  read more »

In the latest of a series of ‘cost-cutting’ measures, the DSA has revolutionised the way it now deals with Welsh-speaking clients.

The administrative office in Cardiff is, in the main, being closed, with only a small DSA presence remaining. The three fluent Welsh speakers who work there are no longer being employed to handle Welsh-speaking callers. Instead, callers are being given a number in Newcastle to ring, where an interpreter will translate their comments for the benefit of the English-speaking call operator. read more »

Three 17-year-old siblings have pulled the rabbit out of the flat cap this week, all passing their practical tests first time. The tests, which took place over the course of two weeks due to booking schedule differences, were all a success for Dan, Melissa and Rebecca Lewis, who are proud to abandon their L-plates en masse after less than a year taking lessons. read more »

We’re all guilty of the occasional bad driving habit, and we’ll freely own up to the less incriminating ones, such as singing along to the radio, spending the car park money on cigarettes, and squeezing the extra kid or two into the back seat on the way back from a local football match.

But what about the habits we don’t admit to? read more »

In a quintessentially ironic approach, the badges to denote a qualified or a trainee driving instructor are green and pink respectively – the exact opposite of standard driving licences. Whether this was intentional or a quirky twist of fate is unknown. read more »

For too long, young drivers have been the target for increasingly ridiculous car insurance premiums, with insurance quotes as high as £12,000 not unheard of. Of course, young learner drivers are undeniably the least experienced – and thus most accident-prone – of all road users, and this should be reflected in the premiums they pay; but hiking prices so high that new drivers abandon the idea of driving altogether seems a little contradictory. After all, if they don’t get out there and get some experience, they’ll never improve.
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A recent report on pass rates for practical tests has shown that over 112,000 tests last year ended in ‘near misses’ and a fail for the learner driver in question.

Near misses are classed as incidents where bad judgement – speed, road position, decisions taken – could have led to an accident had emergency action not taken place. Whether the driver or the examiner takes the appropriate action is irrelevant – it is classed as a serious or dangerous fault, and results in an automatic fail. read more »