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Driving Tests | UK Driving Test Advice
Driving Newsletter - Tips and Advice on Passing your Driving Test

Congratulations, you've passed

  • How to get the cheapest young driver insurance
  • Advanced driving courses
  • Pass Plus driving courses
  • Advice on driving on Motorways and at night
  • Eco driving - how to get the best out of your car
  • Car maintenance and advice on running a car
  • Skid pan driving

What Next? Everything you need after you've passed!

  • what now for newly qualified drivers?
  • new driver insurance
  • pass plus
  • test your driving skills on a skid pan

You’ve done it: you’ve passed your theory test, your practical test, and you’re now a fully qualified driver. But where do you go from here?

The main concerns facing new drivers are insurance and driving confidence. Both of these can be easily dealt with; newly qualified driver insurance courtesy of Young Marmalade; and confidence thanks to a range of additional driving courses to improve your skills in tricky situations.

Getting insurance as an NQD (Newly Qualified Driver) can be difficult. Most insurers see new drivers, especially young ones, as a major insurance risk. It’s a stereotype brought about by a minority of (mainly) young male drivers or ‘boy racers’, but their reputation affects all young drivers, whether male or female, sensible or not.

It’s unfair, but there’s very little anyone can do about it, so you simply have to soldier on and make the best of it.

Thankfully, there are a handful of companies like Young Marmalade (the NQD version of Provisional Marmalade) who offer affordable insurance for young drivers. Young Marmalade also provides you with your own car, which is included in the quote, allowing you the instant freedom so many NQDs yearn for.

Failing that, persuade your parents to add you to their policy. It’s by far the cheaper option (which quotes dropping by over £1000 in many cases) but does limit you to using their car, rather than your own. However, if this isn’t a major issue, then being a named driver on your parents’ insurance is definitely the way forward.

As for driving courses, most people have heard of Pass Plus. It’s the standard accompaniment to your full green license, with many NQDs choosing to hone their motorway, night-time, town and country driving skills. Pass Plus also offers a section on all-weather driving, including snow, ice and heavy rain.

If you’re only concerned with this last part – the all-weather practice – then a Skidpan course might be more appropriate. In a totally safe environment, you’ll learn how to cope with skids, slides and aquaplaning, and how to get yourself out of potentially dangerous situations. Skidpan courses cost around about £100 for an hour or two, and believe us, it’s a real eye-opener - and worth every penny.

Newly Qualified Driver Insurance

Endsleigh, Young Marmalade and the AA are some of a handful of insurers who offer specific insurance tailored to new drivers, offering comprehensive, third party and third party fire and theft cover.

Alternatively, consider being put on your parents’ policy. It’s cheaper, but it does mean that you’ll have to share their car. Sometimes, it’s worth the sacrifice.

Pass Plus courses

The Pass Plus option isn’t, thankfully, exam-based; you simply attend the course in much the same way as you did your standard driving lessons, and at the end you get a certificate, which you can then send off to your insurers in the hope of getting a fair proportion of your premium knocked off.
Pass Plus courses last a minimum of 6 hours and cover driving in towns and countryside, night-time driving, coping with motorways and dual carriageways, and a healthy (and extremely useful) section on driving in adverse weather, be is snow and ice or blindingly sunny.

Skidpan courses

Skidpan sessions deal with, perhaps predictably, skidding. A standard course costs around £100-150 for anything between 1 and 4 hours, and focuses on improving your ability to cope with skids, aquaplaning, correcting over steer and under steer, and recovering safely from skid situations. It’s well worth the time and money, and can be a real lifesaver.

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