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Learner drivers will from this October have to demonstrate that they can drive independently. Candidates will drive for about 10 minutes, without step-by-step direction from their examiner. This will involve either following a series of directions, following traffic signs, or a combination of both.
This according to the Driving Standards Agency will make the test more realistic and better prepares candidates for driving after passing the test. At the same time the DSA will stop publishing test routes.
Well excuse me, but in the real world, in the year 2010, don't we all use sat-navs?
I came into driver training back in 1989 before we had a DSA and since then we have seen tweaks to the basic driving test and how ADIs (Approved Driving Instructors) are tested. The most obvious example is the online Hazard Perception test.
With all these tweaks the biggest road safety problem is still new drivers. Is it time for the DSA to stop doing little tweaks and have a radical re-think about how people learn to drive and are tested or should we just accept that no matter what we do, new inexperienced drivers will have crashes?
The problem is, in my opinion, that people see the driving test as the end of the process of learning to drive, where as it should be the start of the journey. I have lost count of the number of managers who have criticised the standard of their drivers, yet the company have done no driver development training. The managers that moan the most work normally for the company that employ young inexperienced drivers and put them in a large van or give them a large family saloon type car, without knowing the only car the young person has driven was the driving school car that they passed the test in possibly years ago.
If we really want safer drivers driving our company vehicles, don't wait for the DSA to make improvements that will actually result in better driving standards in new drivers, you will have to invest in your employees. You will see a better return on your investment than the DSA will ever get from their little tweaks.
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