Independent Driving – Test Pass Rate To Fall To 18% (Or Not)!

A couple of days ago the Daily Mail apparently did an article on the Independent Driving section of the driving test, due to be introduced later this year. I have mentioned on several occasions – most recently in this lighthearted-but-true story– about why this is an excellent idea.

The driving instruction industry is bogged down with antiquated instructors and antiquated ideas. Some of the forums have been almost in flames with some of these fossils opposing the idea because it comes from the DSA, or because – according to them – the minority-group pupils they specialise in will have particular problems doing it.

The Mail seems to have altered its original story (perhaps as a result of what I’m going to mention below), but  the Independent still has the misinformation [dead link] in its own version. Lest it should also try to change it, this is what it says:

In the DSA’s tests of the new section, the 100 learners tested made five times more mistakes than in the traditional test. The learners said it was “effortful, mentally demanding and frustrating” and just 18 per cent passed, less than one in five.

It isn’t hard to imagine the Daily Mail’s take on the matter – particularly when you consider that it was a Labour-led initiative. But changing the story as needed is just about what you would expect from the Mail, with its childlike political agenda (the coalition government is looking at scrapping the change, it would appear – probably around the same time it makes foxhunting legal again).

Today, the DSA has issued an alert to correct the Mail’s (and other newspapers’)  misinformation and scaremongering. It says:

Independent driving: the facts

Independent driving will become part of the practical driving test in Great Britain in October 2010.

It’s tasking the candidate to drive for about 10 minutes, either following a series of directions, following traffic signs, or a combination of both.

To help the candidate be clear about where they’re going, the examiner can show them a diagram too.

It doesn’t matter if candidates don’t remember every direction, or if they go the wrong way – that can happen to the most experienced drivers.

Newspaper reports

The claim in some newspapers that independent driving would lead to a fall in the driving test pass rate is based on early research where conditions did not reflect the eventual design of the new element of the test.

Subsequent trials with a larger number of participants and more closely reflecting the conditions in the planned new test showed no significant fall in the pass rate.

Video shows independent driving

DSA has published a short video on its YouTube channel explaining more about independent driving.

Watch the video here

It was funny, but even on the forums you were getting threads like this following the Mail’s initial story:

Quote:

“the agency’s own research suggests the changes will cause the pass rate to fall from 42 to 18 per cent – less than one in five.”

If that happens I can’t see many people standing for it for very long. On the bright side it would seem the number of hours per pupil looks like it’ll be on the up…

I think there is going to be a mad rush of pupils wanting to get there test booked before October 5th, thats for sure!!

Those with an inbuilt sense of direction ( usually the men ) will find this easier. I imagine it will lean the test in favour of the boy racer types.

It didn’t occur to any of them to question it, even though it was totally incorrect.

All Independent Driving is is testing people on something they have never been shown how to do in many cases. They will have to do it when they pass their tests – and the fact that many can’t explains why they are such a bloody danger out there on the roads. It’s just that now they will have to have been trained properly in order to pass. If people in small minorities (i.e. with other difficulties) can’t navigate a simple route using road signs (or do the other simple things the test asks of them) then frankly it raises questions about whether they should be on the roads at all.

The same people who are up in arms over this think nothing of making negative comments about non-UK drivers and immigration generally (and I think this is related to their typical age), and yet they will happily boast that one of their special needs pupils managed to pass the test first time after only 10 hours and no previous driving experience. But they will question the road-readiness of anyone without special needs who does it in less than 30 hours.

Their attitudes just don’t add up, I’m afraid. Well, that’s not strictly true… their attitudes stack up perfectly when you latch on to their anti-DSA agenda and the bygone age they were raised in.

A New Low? £1 lesson!

On one of my Google Ads I noticed someone offering the first lesson for £1!

Admittedly, it was an introductory offer, and after that normal prices were £20 an hour (or £18 an hour if booked in blocks of 10 hours) – but this was in an area which is one of the most affluent in the country, and where the national schools charge £25 an hour!

It’s worth just emphasising this point, because ADIs are more than happy to make up any weird and wonderful story to explain why they don’t have any work, and yet conveniently miss the truth. So…

An independent school operating in an area which can easily command £25 an hour, and which is in the most populous part of the country, is offering the first lesson for £1 and hourly rates of between £18-20 thereafter.

I won’t suggest that all the reasons ADIs cut their prices are like this one, but a lot of them are: they are cutting prices unnecessarily, then trying to blame it on certain national training establishments (one of them in particular tends to be their preferred flavour), the DSA (for not capping the register), other ADIs (who have cut prices more than they did), and so on.

It’s the same round this way. You can easily charge £24 or £25 an hour, and yet people are charging under £20 in the mistaken and desperate belief they will steal all the business from the big schools and become millionaires!

Not long after I posted this, I saw another Google Ad advertising “5 for £55, and £15 an hour after that”. When I looked at the website, it said that £15 is a “limited time offer” – it didn’t say how long the offer is limited to, but what it did do was say:

Compare our standard hourly rate with other driving schools in your area.

  • Us – £18.95
  • AA – £26.00
  • BSM – £25.25
  • Acclaim – £22.00
  • Red – £21.00
  • ?????? – £20
  • Bill Plant – £20.95

I couldn’t see who that second to last one was – some of the graphics are very messy – but the point is that in an area where the going rate is £25-26 an hour, this outfit is charging £18.95 as standard (and £15 for a “limited time”). Even normally, with block bookings they are charging £17 an hour.

This is suicidal. These people can’t possibly have considered how much it costs to run the car, and what hourly wage it puts the ADI on. They’d be better off serving orders at McDonalds.

It all comes down to desperation due to not understanding business.

You Couldn’t Make It Up

On one of the forums, someone has written that they have been missing for a while because they have taken on a full-time job (i.e. moved away from full-time instruction), because:

…Regular pay, holiday pay, prospects of promotion, free training and development, off bank holidays weekends, set working hours, regular review of performance (unlike ct) which is as and when dsa fancy.

…the mortage paid every month without fail, a professional approach to work from work collegues, unlike driving instruction, and real potential to earn good money!

OK. So far, so good, though not sure where the DSA comes into it. But this character’s reason for posting is this:

Difficulties been that I cannot take my students for test! I have taken 1 day off but these are precious (I know paid holiday) and these are booked up for personal holidays.

My local test centre ****** and ****** are NOT doing sat tests. I called customer services at dsa they said to speak to test centres directly. They replied No can do!

I emailed dsa and 10days later they said No can do.

I want to take my students for test, I have had a fellow adi take mine for test before but this is not very consistant for the students!

I would go further afield but we are taking a long way out, and although I believe students should be able to drive anywhere, I think it is somewhat unfair to cart them miles away to do tests (****** do sat)

I have sent another email to dsa but this will take another 10days.

I’m not sure what to tell students who are pretty much ready for test to do now?

Any advice?

Right, so the problem is that by taking on a full-time job, he no longer has time available to take his pupils to test. And there are no Saturday tests available unless he travels quite a way to another test centre.

In the back of your mind, one half of you thinks “tricky one “, whilst the other half thinks “but why should everyone drop everything just because you took on a full-time job and more or less gave this up? ” But the topic develops a little – first of all, it toys with the obvious bad DSA route, with such comments from someone else as:

Like everyone else, DSA has cut back on spending, which includes paying examiners overtime.  It now has a policy that it will only consider out of hours testing if waiting lists at a TC go beyond target (which I think is 8 weeks).

You are wasting your time sending emails.

Later on, this same poster says:

No it’s not good customer service.  But when has DSA ever given a good service?

But the original poster – when informed that his third choice test centre isn’t doing Saturdays either, bursts out:

That is crazy! If I was employed by dsa I would want some flexibility.

My employer at the moment I feel has been great, in the first few months why would you take on an instructor? Its been hard enough to get a full time job, oh and by the way I would like to come in late cos I have a driving test. I know I was taking about dsa having flexibility, and why should my employer be flexible?

Thanks for all the suggestions, however I feel those are not very good compromises? Get another adi, ok done this before, I do not like this, why should I have to do this, when I’ve put the hard work in. Yes its good practice for students to drive with someone else. Oct would be ok because it is an option, we have been looking for sat tests since Jan!

Ok, so I’ll wait til Oct, then drive 19miles there and 19 miles back, that’s 1 hour already!

I’m not expecting a sat test next week! I’m not expecting the closest test centre, just somewhere with sat tests in a reasonable distance, with a reasonable wait!

I know this is dsa, but is that much to ask?

Right, so now he is blaming the DSA completely for the fact that he has virtually given up teaching and can only do it Saturdays and evenings – and they don’t do driving tests those times.

But now, an “expert” on these matters chimes in:

I found out this week I booked a pupils test. She never received a letter, we never received an email although the booking was an email request. I never checked online to confirm the booking 3 days before so have to admit I was sitting at the TC like a lemon…

Im shocked to think that in halfterm week all the examiners but 1 have decided to take holidays or are booked on courses. There is usually about 6 or more working at this TC.

They should be made to work during the school holidays as this is a busy time. Now pupil waits till summer for next day off

Fortunately, the next poster is a little more in touch with reality:

…many examiners have children too and may need to take a break now and then! My husband [who it would appear was an examiner] was never allowed to take holidays in August so we had to grab any chance to take a week off with the children.

The “expert” is nonplussed that anyone should doubt his wisdom on these matters:

You dont say…..So employ people who want to work!

However, the previous poster’s realistic approach seems to trigger a few of the others. The DSA-basher (and others) say:

…They probably aren’t going to change their policy just because you’ve got a full time job…

…To be fair ****** you do have options, the fact is, it comes across that you don’t like the options…

…You made the choice to change your work patterns and not make yourself available to your clients at the DSA published test times.

Is it the DSA’s fault that they CONTINUE not to offer times that are convenient to your new career or work patterns? Baring in mind they weren’t offering weekend slots whilst you were a full time ADI…

But the best one has to be this:

I looked back at your earlier posts and saw how keen you were and the excellent training and guidance you received from *********, you were on cloud nine back then and nothing could hold you back, but now you seem quite bitter and I have not reached the posts that tell me why!

Now, doesn’t that open up a can of worms about this industry? Bitterness towards the DSA, everyone, and everything amongst many ADIs?

Bill Plant And Hyundai Deal

This an OLD story from 2010.


Saw this story this morning. Hyundai will be supplying 600 i30 cars to Bill Plant (driving school) this Bill Plant Logo - removed due to a complaint by them in another articleyear – it supplied 400 i20 models last year.

On the forums, there has been a lot of speculation about Bill Plant and the school’s supposed financial difficulties. Of course, at any other time the forums are incandescent over Bill Plant’s “5 hours for £56” introductory offer. The wise ones appear incapable of understanding the word “introductory” – and the fact that subsequent lessons are something like £22 an hour afterwards (and that’s usually more than those same wise ones are charging for their own lessons, and which also include introductory offers).

The Bill Plant franchise is pretty good value, starting at £149 a week including the car and various other benefits. None of the wise ones on the forums, who hate all franchises with a vengeance, seems to have cottoned on to the driving instructor training service. Not yet, anyway.

Edit: I have removed the Bill Plant logo above. This is because they have taken exception to a much more recent story where the ASA found them being a little creative with their “facts” about how many instructors they had, and how big an area those covered. In fact, the ASA seriously dented Bill Plant’s own claims to be “national” by declaring that they’re not! I therefore thought it prudent to anticipate further tit-for-tat action on their part by removing their logo from here.

Speed Cameras Make A Mint

A reader has brought this link to my attention. It concerns two new speed cameras in Peterborough, which have netted £54,000 in fines in their first 10 days of service.

Speed Camera Sign

Speed Camera Sign

Installed on the A1139 Frank Perkins Parkway, these cameras are allegedly there to “protect the workforce” while roadworks are carried out. The Police have commented that they will be putting up more signs to warn motorists of the amended limit. That’s good of them, isn’t it?

You can’t help wonder why they didn’t do it the right way round, and put the signs up first.

The story points out that at the current rate of entrapment these two cameras will overtake the current record-holding snap-happy camera on the M11 in Essex – which already catches 9,000 speeders each year. It nets around £500,000 in fines.

By how much? Well, they calculate that these two will manage almost double that… in half the time! So nearly £2,000,000 extra income for someone out there.

I should point out that I am a great believer in the principle that if you don’t speed, you don’t get caught by speed cameras. But this appears to be a cynical attempt to catch people out by having moved the goalposts without informing anyone.

Temporary and variable speed limits are a bloody nuisance, especially when they stay in force when no one is working (and if it’s anything like roadworks carried out by Nottinghamshire County Council, that’s anytime before 11am and anytime after 3pm).

Red Driving: Done By Dom

There’s a BBC show called Don’t Get Done Get Dom. Dom fights for consumers’ rights after they write in to him.

Red Driving School Logo

Red Driving School Logo

On this latest episode – shown today, and available on iPlayer for a limited time – he looked into the situation facing two people who had signed up to do training with Red Driving School .

One of the people was unhappy about how quickly he was getting training. The other one had suffered two heart attacks and his doctor had told him he shouldn’t teach people to drive. They had been unable to get their agreements cancelled through their own efforts, so Dom stepped in and got it sorted out.

Before the programme was aired, some of the forums were in meltdown with the usual learned opinions from the usual learned crowd. The reality was always going to be that Dom was fighting for two people who had been unable to get their agreements cancelled (even though only one of them had a cast iron reason, the other one was a little bit grey and was based on alleged promises and admittedly hard-to-get training slots). But the learned crowd – as usual – speculated that the industry was going to be turned on its head and Red would be forced to close down!

It’s worth noting that the “agreement” I refer to is that the training course costs several thousand pounds and can be paid for with a loan. The loan has an APR of around 30%, so you end up paying back almost double the original loan amount. The argument is that the first 12 months of the loan are interest free, and you pay it back out of your first year’s earnings. This is how the advertising goes.

The reality isn’t always the same as the advertising, though. It is a massive subject, but some people don’t qualify as quickly as they’d like (or in the shortest time mentioned by the advertising). Some never qualify at all (the pass rate is very low). Some decide it is too hard and give up. Undoubtedly, Red is unable to provide lessons in some cases – but by no means in all of them. And so on.

Dom and the two people he was representing referred to the number of complaints on the Internet about Red. What they didn’t make fully clear – though Dom hinted at it – is that the vast majority of those complaints are about issues which do not justify cancellation of the agreement those people signed. However, you do get situations where someone has a real and genuine claim, but it is lost in the noise made by those others, and it was two of these that Dom was dealing with.

It was also interesting that right at the end they said that Red was under new ownership and had said that it was intending to address some areas where there were problems.

I’ll tell you what, though. I’d love to be able to sit in on some of those sales meetings and listen to what really gets said. Everyone who wants to get out of their agreement – usually the day before they have to start paying it back – claims they were promised absolutely that they would pass within six weeks and be earning £30,000 within 6 months. Such claims are always dubious when you consider that anyone with an ounce of sense, and who had looked into this even a little bit, would realise that failure at the first, second, and even third attempts (Part 2 and 3) is easily possible, and that exam lead times can be several months. Add to that the people who state categorically that Red’s advertising says things it clearly doesn’t (they ignore key words like “could” and “up to”), and you just know that something is amiss.

I don’t doubt some sales reps go too far, especially if they are on commission. But not all of them.

As an aside, since the programme was shown this morning the blog is getting a lot of hits on terms like “has red gone bust”. It worries me slightly that people who are currently in training with Red or who are already involved in the industry as ADIs  don’t know what has happened. I even edited the posts about Red because it was clear people were finding the earliest post (” Red HAS Gone Bust “) and not moving on to the almost immediate update ( ” Red Is Saved “).

General Election: Aftermath III

David Laws has quit after only 3 weeks as Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

I find it hilarious that David Cameron should say this – of an MP in a different party to his own (Laws is LibDem):

“The last 24 hours must have been extraordinarily difficult and painful for you.

“You are a good and honourable man. I am sure that, throughout, you have been motivated by wanting to protect your privacy rather than anything else.

“In your short time at the Treasury, you have made a real difference, setting the government on the right path to tackle the deficit which poses such a risk to our economy.”

This is nonsense. He wasn’t as understanding during the previous expenses row and his contradictory attitude was one of his election manifesto items – the self-styled sheriff was going to clean up this dirty town!

Cameron would not have had this attitude if the Tories weren’t in coalition with the LibDems.

The ridiculous planned cuts to “reduce the deficit” have already got a lot of people up in arms. It has to be one of the worst starts to a new government ever.

Driving Test 75th Anniversary

From the DSA:

The British driving test marks three-quarters of a century of helping keep people safe on the road when it turns 75 on Tuesday 1 June.

The first car and driving licences were introduced in Britain in 1903. But it was not until 1 June 1935 – amid rising numbers of deaths as the popularity of the car increased – that a compulsory driving test was introduced.

The first driver to pass was Mr J Beene and within a year, the number of deaths on the road had fallen by 1,000.

In 1934, 7,343 people were killed on the roads and there were 1.5 million cars. The latest figures show there were 2,538 deaths on the roads in 2008 when there were around 34 million cars.

Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said: “The driving test is not just a rite of passage, it has helped save thousands of lives on our roads.

“The test and the learning needed to pass it are a vital part of giving drivers the skills they need to drive efficiently and safely.

“High standards of driver training and assessment are an essential contribution to helping Britain’s roads remain among the safest in the world.”

Trevor Wedge, Chief Driving Examiner at the Driving Standards Agency, said: “The driving test still retains some of the original elements included in 1935, such as turning in the road and reversing, but it is updated regularly. We continue to make sure that the test properly prepares drivers for the demands of modern roads.

“This year will see the introduction of independent driving into the test, to help candidates demonstrate their ability to drive without step-by-step instruction. We believe that this added element will lead to better and safer drivers.”

Facts and figures:

  • the test became compulsory on 1 June 1935, after being introduced on a voluntary basis on 16 March the same year
  • the test was suspended during World War II and the Suez Crisis – examiners were put in charge of fuel rationing instead
  • until 1975, candidates still had to demonstrate hand signals
  • the theory test was introduced in July 1996  

It’ll be interesting to see what the outdated fossils on some of the forums have to say about this.

You don’t really notice it until you think about it, but the number of cars on the road has increased enormously. I can remember driving to gigs at Wembley and getting an almost free run up and down the M1… then I can remember regular congestion starting around the Watford Gap services going South… then later around Junction 24 going North… finally, the gridlock you sometimes see today.

New drivers have to cope with far different conditions these days – indeed, conditions which are changing dramatically from year to year.

EDIT 28/06/2010: A more recent email from the DSA:

It’s celebration time this month as we mark the British driving test’s 75th anniversary.

Since a Mr J Beene took the first ever driving test in 1935, over 94 million tests have been conducted in Great Britain, playing a vital role in making the country’s roads a far safer place.

In the 1930s, there were only 1.5 million cars in the UK, but over 7,000 people a year were being killed on the roads; more than twice the present level – when traffic levels are 20 times higher.

To honour the test’s 75th anniversary, in this month’s Despatch we look at the history of the driving test, assessing the impact it’s had on road safety and its evolution over the years.

We also meet some long-serving ADIs who have plenty to say about their own experiences of the driving test.

The road safety industry can rightly be proud of the achievements of driver training and testing in this country since the first test in 1935, but the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has its eyes firmly on the future as we continue to implement the Learning to Drive (L2D) programme.

This month you will find information about some of the programme’s key policies: independent driving, observer on test and continuing professional development.

So happy reading! I hope you find the information useful, and as always, thank you for all the hard work that is being done across the country.

Rosemary Thew
Chief Executive, Driving Standards Agency

You can read the latest issue of Despatch here. Despatch is the official DSA magazine for road safety professionals.

Spyda Diary Software

This is a very old post.

I keep getting hits for this – I mentioned it in a post earlier this year. It is one of the things Red Driving School had listed under its assets when it was put up for sale.

Here is the outline from the Trademark application LVG made in the USA (in 2009, granted this year):

I’m a little confused by the amount of interest there is in this. Indeed, the title of this blog attracts a lot of people who are searching based on the words “ADI” and “diary”, so there is obviously a lot I am missing.

Spyda appears to be oriented towards franchisers – the part about “payments in car” and “payments with head office” give that away. Not many solo ADIs can justify having a merchant account that lets them take credit card payments in the car – it just isn’t cost effective. (Edit: this is a very old post, and this last statement is no longer true. Taking solo payments in the car is extremely cost-effective and very simple in 2023).

I always think that ADIs make life very complicated for themselves. A mobile PDA running Outlook and a PC/laptop with Outlook are just about all you need – sync them and you have up to date files very quickly. Add mobile Excel and you can sync pupil records.

Mind you, if offered the choice of the two products shown below, I’m pretty sure I know which one many ADIs would go for – even if they had to pay twice as much for it:

This is the whole point: you don’t need fancy software to run your business if you are solo. The more complicated it is, the greater your overheads – and it’s hard enough as it is.

For franchisers, though, it is different. Administration is easier if you have a centralised system.

May Bank Holiday 2009 – Travel Advice

Just had an email alert from the DSA:

May bank holiday travel advice
Travellers are advised to check for delays and cancellations before beginning journeys this bank holiday weekend.

As many as 15 million cars are likely to take to the roads this bank holiday weekend.

With schools breaking up for half-term, roads are expected to be particularly busy on Friday 28 May, and again on Saturday.

The AA predict that routes to the south west of England are likely to be the busiest, with congestion also expected on main routes to the coast and national parks.

The Highways Agency is due to complete 23 sets of roadworks before the weekend and is suspending 31 other sets from 6.00 am on Friday until midnight on bank holiday Monday.

Although 32 sets of roadworks will remain in place over the weekend, including those on a section of the M25 in Hertfordshire.

The Highways Agency is telling people to check their journey before leaving.

[link removed – out of date]

The Met Office weather forecast looks good (which means it might be cold and wet, or it might be hot and sunny). The May Bank Holiday is the bank holiday formerly known as Spring Bank Holiday, by the way.

I’ll be working , though.