Monday 22 June 2020

The current situation regarding driving tests...

As the lock-down restrictions ease more and more, many people are wondering what is going to happen now with driving tests so I thought I'd write a few pieces to keep you all informed.

There are three elements to this and I've put them in priority order:
  1. You had a practical driving test booked at the time of lock-down
  2. You had a theory test booked at the time of lock-down
  3. You were either about to start or were mid-way through training but weren't ready to pass your theory test
Firstly, if you had a practical test booked at the time we went into lock-down, then you will know by now that it was cancelled and rearranged by DVSA. The process used for this was the same process they use if they cancel for any other reasons, and as such the system re-booked your test automatically. Most of those I had booked at the start of lock-down were re-booked to take place in late June and early July. Test centers were initially closed by DVSA until June 20th.

Last week, the DVSA wrote to us to say that they were cancelling all of these re-arrangements completely for the time being and test centers remain closed.

There are no general refunds being made. The way it's going to work is that when the DVSA re-open the testing system, we will be invited to re-book you into a convenient slot. The re-booking system will reopen gradually in stages, with priority give to those that were closest to taking their test at the start of lock-down (so if you had a test booked in late March, you'll have the first shot at re-booking when compared to friends that may have had tests booked in April, or May).

As a booking agent, I will take care of all of this for my clients, but I will be speaking to them all about the practice they've been able to get through the lock-down and we'll make the decision together about when a good time would be to present for test before making a booking. Some people have been able to practice a lot with parents; some haven't done anything at all and everyone will have varying degrees of confidence about going in for a test.

In terms of timing, we have no idea really as to when this system will be opened up but it is one of those things that is obviously dependent on the R value staying nicely below 1.

The DVSA have also written to us to explain that they are concerned about a whole host of things that affect reopening. Some of these things include building issues such as the risk of Legionella and staffing issues with examiners being in various states of health and at various stages of life. It is anticipated that there will be a reduced capacity for testing when it resumes.

As far as PPE is concerned, I am happy to discuss what I am doing and you'll be pretty well up to speed on that from what you're reading in the news. Basically there'll be temperature checks for everyone, compulsory wearing of masks, good hand washing practice and sanitisers available in the car, a practice of cleaning the car's controls down before every new driver and plenty of fresh air.

Like many reading this, I consider these precautions to be common sense and with, at the time of writing, government estimates of infection rates in the country being in the region of 1 in 1700,  I don't mind saying that the DVSA look pretty incompetent in appearing to be so confused and disorganised with regards to a plan to return to work. Whilst many ADI's are preparing to return to some form of service provision in early July, no testing is taking place until the DVSA decide to return to work, so watch this space.


If you had a theory test booked at the point of lock-down, the DVSA again cancelled this and you will have an e.mail telling you when you're new date is. I believe that the automatic re-booking system is managing this for us and that you'll have new dates allocated to you.

Theory test centers remain closed until at least the beginning of July at the moment and as with practical tests, the DVSA are remaining tight lipped about any plans they might be making to reopen them. My opinion is that they should be reopened immediately because a theory test center is one of the easiest public places you can go to in order to maintain social distancing - it was pretty much in place naturally anyway to prevent cheating!

Again, there is no news on what precautions will need to be put in place, but I see no reason why it should be different in many ways to a trip to your local supermarket with just a few additional measures to clean keyboards, use hand sanitisers etc.

Unlike the practical tests, it appears that you CAN still book a theory test if you want to take one. Worth remembering though, there may be a significant delay in being able to book a practical test if you pass your theory, because priority will be given firstly to all of those people who have had tests cancelled due to Coronavirus before the test booking system is opened up to the general public again.


If you were either at the start of the learning to drive journey or part way through it, then you are largely unaffected by these problems in the testing process.

I would advise you to continue to read up and practice for the theory test and where you can get practice at driving, do so. You should practice with somebody you live with acting as supervising driver (they need to have held a full licence for 3 years for the vehicle you're driving and be at least 21 years old). Strictly speaking, the practice of "just going for a drive" is still against government guidelines, but there's no reason why you can't drive to the park for a walk if you like or to the shop.

The biggest affect on this group of people is going to be the availability of Driving Instructors. The profession contains a lot of people who are of retirement age and health problems such as obesity and diabetes are rife within the cohort. As a result, it is expected that there will be a number of ADI's who leave the profession completely as restrictions are lifted and those that are left (I'm in this group) may often have availability problems caused by things like childcare. One interesting way in which this virus crisis has exposed us is that many industries are totally reliant on the assistance of grandparents for childcare reasons in order to earn a decent living with schools only being open for around half of what many modern working class people call "a working day". That isn't an attack on schools, it's a statement of fact and it'd be nice if "the new normal" re-balanced things a bit.


The long term affects of this Coronavirus will be felt in the economy for a long time to come, but the DVSA will recruit new staff to replace those that are forced to leave on health grounds, and people like me will continue to bring new Driving Instructors through our Driving Instructor Training programmes... eventually, normal service will be resumed but it's going to take a long time!

I'll provide further updates as I get them.

Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Saturday 13 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 6 - Weather Conditions

If you've been following these blogs this week and trying to complete the exercises, then well done!

You'll appreciate that driving at this standard isn't easy and you'll probably be finding it tricky to fit everything in. To recap, what we're doing is:
  • Looking as far ahead as we can to the limit point
  • Identifying information (ALERT):
    • Road Signs
    • Road Markings
    • Road Surface Conditions
    • Junctions (and other fixed hazards)
    • Vulnerable road users and other road users in general (and any other variable hazards)
  • Noting how if affects us (INFORM)
  • Setting out a brief, concise plan to manage that risk (MANAGE), usually involving:
    • A change in speed
    • A change in road position
If you've been doing it, you'll now appreciate how important it is to keep the speed down so that you can keep up mentally and also how important it is to be both concise AND not overly worried about terminology - "man walking in road" really is okay, even if they do turn out to be female when you get closer!

Our next step today is now to add weather conditions to the mix.

Weather conditions are well discussed as a risk increasing factor, but it remains the case that most drivers don't adjust their driving to suit deteriorating weather, until it is REALLY BAD! There are two points I'd like to make here:
  1. When I discussed limit points, I was intending to get you to look as far ahead as you can see with the aim of you gathering information about the road as soon as it became visible. Bad weather will often mean reduce visibility and as a result, this information might not be available as early as it otherwise would be - this may not be much of a problem for fixed hazards, but what about variable ones?
  2. The stopping distance problem is well documented - if the road is wet, then it takes up to twice as long to stop and the reason for that is that you have half the grip of course! In normal driving, this isn't a problem and you won't notice the car skidding when slowing for junctions or cornering... unless you do it in an emergency! This is because normal driving perhaps only uses 10 or 20% of the normal grip available in good conditions - if you wet the road and half the grip, there is still ample grip for normal driving.
Both of these factors SHOULD be altering your driving! It's not necessary to reduce speeds to walking pace just because it's raining, but advanced drivers choosing speeds on approach to bends will consider the increased stopping distance needed in their choices. Likewise they will "forget" that they know the road and know that the road is straight here and drive at a speed that allows them to stop easily if an unexpected hazard requires them to do so - fallen tree across the road in thick fog conditions for example.

Today is potentially a great day to add weather considerations to your commentary as the forecast is for a mixture of sunny, hot weather, cloudy spells and showers of rain that may turn thundery at times - a nice mixed bag to practice with!


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Friday 12 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 5 - Vulnerable Road Users

In my last blog, I looked at the subject of junctions.

Junctions are an example of a fixed hazard in that their location and layout are fixed and don't change - the decision is basically "is it safe?" and isn't generally affected too badly by "what might happen here that I don't expect"

Today, we're looking at the subject of "vulnerable road users" and if I'm honest, that means "all other road users" because we can all make mistakes and when we do so, we'd all hope that those around us act in a way that keeps things safe rather than making things worse.

To illustrate this point, I'd like to share a story from 1996. I was waiting at red traffic lights behind a Porsche as the lights changed to green. The Porsche moved off, but I saw a Landrover approaching from the right that clearly wasn't going to stop at the lights and stayed still.

The Landrover hit the Porsche with a lot of force, throwing it up onto a traffic light and I got out of my car and dialed 999 as I went to see if the Porsche driver was okay.

Whilst I was handling the 999 call, an elderly man came over and asked if I was on the phone to the Police. He asked me to pass a message on to them that "I didn't mean to do it, I just didn't see the light"

Like I said, we can all make mistakes. Modern culture means we all like to imagine that we're experts in the legalities of it all and tear this situation apart trying to answer the question of "should he be driving?", but it all boils down to a simple mistake and I'd seen it coming, whilst the Porsche driver hadn't - with the result that I was safe, and the Porsche driver was injured.

Those on 2 wheels, might change position in the road to avoid grids, cats eyes and manhole covers, those on 4 legs might find their ride spooking away from hedges and those with 4 wheels might be taken ill at the wheel or react when they see a bee trapped in the cabin with them... the possibilities are endless really, but many of the most common acts of other road users can be predicted.

For example, that Landrover SHOULD have been slowing down a long time before he got to the stop line, so the fact that he didn't stop WASN'T A SURPRISE AND NEITHER WAS IT UNEXPECTED - all it needed was for the Porsche driver to look to his right as he prepared to move and he'd have seen it.

Likewise, if you can see that you've got to pass a horse, all you've got to do is look ahead and see the oncoming traffic and you avoid getting forced to move back in too early by simply holding back until it's safer.

And if you're on a motorway and you see an HGV coming down the sliproad, it's easy to predict whether he needs the same bit of road as you or not if you look... if he does, adjust your speed and position in good time so that he can get on safely without you having to take any avoiding action.

It's very important that you comment on what is actually happening based on factual evidence rather than anything else. Assuming that people are going to walk into the road in spite of the fact that they're standing at the kerb looking carefully and clearly waiting for traffic to clear is not what this is about - that's treating everyone as though they are stupid and what's we're looking for is to identify those situations that are going wrong.

I'm not going to give any specific examples of what I'd say here, because it's all so unique to the situation, but I want you now to add commentary about other road users to what you're doing already.

So by now, your commentary includes:
  • Signs and markings
  • Road surface conditions
  • Junctions
  • Other road users
Your now at a stage where you'll find that your commentary is filling your driving. This is good. Every single one of these things you're talking about is a hazard and every single one of them could develop into a crash on the right day and by commentary driving, and going through that process of seeing the hazard (ALERT) acknowledging the risk (INFORM) and describing how to reduce the risk (MANAGE) you're stopping yourself from getting involved.

Tomorrow, we'll discuss the weather in our final blog on this subject.


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Tuesday 9 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 4 - Junctions

In yesterday's notes, I touched on the subject of variable hazards.

Variable hazards are changeable hazards that may or may not be there on any given day, at any given time or in any given circumstances. Broken down cars, flood water, vulnerable road users and debris in the road are all examples of variable hazards.

In contrast, fixed hazards are those that are always to be found in the same place and generally have a fixed number of possibilities, which obviously allows you to plan for them with more ease than those random things that just appear one day and are gone the next. Common examples of fixed hazards include traffic lights, junctions and bends in the road.

Fixed hazards can be responsible for a degree of debate when we're training advanced drivers, because these hazards still usually require some level of decision making and as your actions will be dictated by the decision you make at the time, some drivers prefer to view them as variable hazards. A good example here is traffic lights, which obviously will regularly change colour and that is a fair point of view, but the difference is that those traffic lights will be there every day and you are generally limited to just three basic actions (give it some thought and feel free to debate that on social media if you like).

Today, our focus for our commentary driving practice is junctions.

What we want our commentary to include here is clues that the junction is there, so now, in addition to the signs and road markings that already feature in your commentary (and the road surface), I want you to look to the limit point and consciously seek out pieces of information that indicate the presence of junctions.

We'll then use the AIM process to acknowledge the risks and make adjustments to our driving as we negotiate a safe path through those junctions.

The types of things you're looking out for include gaps in the building line, lines of lamp posts or trees, shadows or reflections, or signs (not necessarily direction signs). In the rural setting where street lighting isn't usually present, bundles of street lamps will often be placed around junctions to increase visibility and you may see these in the distance by looking over fields and hedges. Vehicles ahead of you may be seen to signal or start braking as they begin to prepare for a junction just beyond the limit point too.

As has been the case with the other exercises, keeping your comments concise and keeping the vehicle speed low will help you to avoid getting tongue tied. This example might help too:

"Left hand bend up ahead, warning sign for junction on the right" (Alert)
"There could be queuing traffic. I'm turning right and might need to give way" (Inform)
"Reducing speed for the bend. There is some oncoming traffic so giving signal. Position towards the centre line. Can go after the red car. Holding back and selecting 2nd gear. Looking into the side road for hazards. Red car clear, right hand mirror clear. Turning into the side road" (Manage)

You'll notice that this talk through is getting more involved now as we start to actively manage several risks associated with the same hazard.

In the example, the junction around the bend poses a number of risks and thankfully, ALL of them are reduced in severity by a reduction in speed in this example. Generally speaking, drivers will lower risk by reducing speed and / or altering road position to allow extra space.

When it comes to these situations with lots of possible risky scenarios, it's important to remember that the aim is to make us more aware of our driving and therefore safer drivers. A comprehensive list of possibilities isn't required and with practice, you'll find that you naturally prioritise certain possibilities that suit your way of thinking. This is why Driving Instructors talk so much about children running into the road. None of us want to hit anything and the traditional training of Driving Instructors tells them to go for the most graphic example when discussing the potential problems one might encounter. In reality, hitting a Wheelie Bin being blown into the road in high winds is just as undesirable and both are equally as avoidable using the same tools of changing speed and road position. As long as you acknowledge that a risk is present and adjust your driving to reduce that risk, it's fine as it is.


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Commentary Driving In A Week - Day 3 - Limit points & Road Surface

How did you find yesterday's commentary driving exercises?

It can seem difficult at the start and I think most people recognise that at some point over the course of their driving lives, they've forgotten bits of the Highway Code and also fallen into a habit of ignoring quite a bit of information as they drive down the road. When I first did it, I realised just how fast I was driving too - I found that I was driving faster than I could think and reflecting on the potential consequences of that was an important part of my training to become a Driving Instructor.

That's why this technique helps people to become better drivers - it's like waking them up from their daily habits and re-engaging them in the task of driving.

Today, I want you to add road surface information to the road sign and marking work you were doing yesterday and in doing that, we're also going to discuss the limit point.


Limit Points

The limit point is that place up ahead where the road disappears out of view.

You have an uninterrupted view of the road up to the limit point, so looking up there regularly, and giving commentary on what you can see up there means that you're seeing and considering information nice and early and making any adjustments to your driving smoothly and in good time.

Furthermore, if you drive at speeds that mean you can easily stop before you reach the limit point, you virtually eliminate the possibility of being involved in a crash - simply because if something comes into view at the limit point that's a problem, say a fallen tree blocking the road for example, you can easily and safely pull up.


Road Surface

I think most drivers know that it can take twice as long to stop on a wet road than a dry one and that it can take up to ten times as long on a snow covered road.

But how long would it take to stop on a loose road surface?

And how long would it take on a layer of dirt or mud?

The truth is that we're all guessing at the answers to these questions and if we're honest, we are guessing with the wet and snowy road surfaces too. There are so many variables that the statements made in the Highway Code about this are very general and can only act as a guide rather than a definite fact.

And then there's potholes, manhole covers and cats eyes - all of which can unsettle the car and alter the amount of grip available to it as it travels along the road and crucially, affect it's ability to stop in an emergency.

It's weird, but whereas motorcycle trainers often talk about road surface condition and it's affect on grip with their trainees, it's often the case that car drivers have never thought about it until it's mentioned at an advanced driver level and that's in spite of it being part of the driving test! The truth is that as car drivers, we aren't as vulnerable to falling off and getting hurt, but we are obviously just as vulnerable to crashing and I believe that we all share the goal of not crashing don't we? The fact that we're in a safety cage and unlikely to fall out of our car's shouldn't really stop us from considering things that increase road risk. 

So it's essential that we consider road surface if we want to be able to be able to stop within the distance we can see is clear up to the limit point.

The condition of the road is what we call a "variable hazard" in that it's different every time you drive down the road. Variable hazards are dangerous because people have absolutely no idea about them until they see them regardless of how well they know the road and it's for this reason that advanced drivers try to pretty much ignore the fact that they know the road and drive as though they have no local knowledge whatsoever at all times. We'll be looking more at variable hazards later in the week.


Practice

So today's practice involves going out and commentary driving and talking about road signs and markings as you did yesterday, but looking further up the road to the limit point and talking about them earlier than you perhaps did yesterday.

I also want you to add information about the condition of the road.

Remember to keep it concise, and that reducing speed when you first start will help you to fit it all in. It's also worth doing it in short bursts of 5 minutes or so at the start and then allowing yourself to rest and reflect on what went well, what didn't go as well and how you can alter the driving to help to get it right. Practice makes perfect, but that reflection means that less practice will be needed!

Remember also to keep to the AIM structure...

Alert - What information can you see?
Inform - What hazard does it present?
Manage - How will you change your driving to lower the risk?

As far as road surface in concerned, if you try to imagine a driver driving along an A road between towns where a farmer has recently been working on fields, the commentary might be something like...

"Straight road ahead, can see a long way to the limit point, opening on the right, mud on the road there, road could be slippy, reducing speed, positioning slightly left where there's less mud"

Obviously, there'd be mirror checks in that lot, and you can add them to the commentary if you like but the aim of these blogs this week is to help to improve your driving, and not to turn you into a Driving Instructor - I'm assuming that as a regular driver, you're already using your mirrors.

And that's it for today! As you practice you'll hopefully see it getting easier and you'll hopefully see your driving improving too - less risk, less stress, better fuel economy and often quicker arrival times in spite of us talking so much about slowing down (the truth is that the opposite is also true you see - where you can see that there are no problems, you can increase speeds and are governed then of course, by the speed limit and traffic conditions)

Tomorrow, we'll be discussing junctions and adding them to your commentary.



Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Monday 8 June 2020

Commentary Driving In A week - Day 2 - let's get started!

So following on from yesterday's introduction to the subject of commentary driving, today I am going to suggest a few practical exercises that you can try in order to start and develop a good commentary driving technique and improve your driving.

Remember that we use the AIM process in commentary driving "Alert - Inform - Manage" and as it's the first time many of you will have tried this, I need to go into a bit of detail on each of the steps this morning so you understand what you're trying to do. As a result, I find that this blog is longer than I expect the others to be as we progress through the week.

We're going to be looking at road signs and markings in these exercises.

You don't need to do any specific preparations, but some general tips will help you:
  • Be as concise as possible as you speak
  • Speak out loud to get the biggest benefit
  • Slowing the car down a bit helps you to think
  • Do it for a few minutes at a time and then rest your brain - it's hard work at first but gets easier with practice!
  • Look as far ahead as you can
  • Turn off the radio so you can concentrate
  • If you find yourself talking about things behind you or struggling to keep up simply stop the commentary, drive normally and rest your brain for a bit and start again using road signs far ahead in the distance
  • If anything happens that requires you to take action, stop the commentary and respond normally and naturally as you would have done before today
Let's go!


Step 1 - "Alert"

As the foundation of our commentary driving, this bit deserves the longest explanation:

As you drive, I want you to start by simply mentioning to yourself all of the signs and road markings that you see.

I want you to notice when you see speed limits change and when you see warning signs (triangle shaped), direction signs (notice the colour of these - each colour tells you about the road ahead of you), prohibiting signs (those in red circles), instructional signs (blue ones) and those extra, unique signs such as clearway signs (no stopping at all unless you're in a queue), deviation of route signs (the more black and white arrows there are, the sharper the bend is) and stop signs (octagonal signs used at dangerous junctions).

I also want you to notice road markings, in particular those at junctions (which define priority) and along the center of the road (which generally describe overtaking conditions by allowing, disallowing or urging caution when planning to overtake). The word "SLOW" is written in the road a lot you'll notice and rather than being an instruction to slow down, this road marking should be seen as a warning to you that there is a hazard in the road ahead.

Here are some examples (remember to be concise):

"Warning sign, junction to my left" (Alert)

"The word SLOW written in the road" (Alert)

"Overtaking disallowed in both directions" (Alert)

Whilst this is a 3 stage process, I want you to simply mention the signs to begin with as there is an important process taking place here as you do this.

As you drive, you might realise a few things and the following thoughts are normal:
  • "I didn't realise there were this many signs around!"
  • "Why do they bother putting signs up for that? I know there's a junction there - I drive this road every day"
  • "I've been speeding down this road ever since I started driving!! I didn't realise the 30 zone started there"
  • "I think I need to read the Highway Code!"
  • "How does Nick expect me to keep my eye on the road whilst looking at all these signs??!! They're a distraction!!"
If you're having these thoughts then your commentary driving is already working for you!

Firstly, you can read the Highway Code for free by following the links here and it's obviously available through all good bookshops and on line for just a couple of quid - I'd urge all drivers who are serious about being seen to be good drivers by those they share the roads with to get an up to date copy of the book and read it.

With regards to the other thoughts - it's worth spending a bit of time reflecting on them in a bit fo quiet time (when you're not driving).

As you reflect, it might help to consider these specific questions:

If you're either finding those signs and road markings distracting or finding the task of taking them all in to be hard work...
  • What does that tell you about your speed?
  • What does it tell you about everyone else's speed?
  • Are your thoughts about risk changing?
  • Is there anything you can change in your driving to help you to reduce the risk in your driving?
Some of these thoughts can challenge us if we're generally proud of our driving, but spending some time thinking about them is vital if we're going to reduce road risk for ourselves and others around us. Remember that nobody's asking you to share your conclusions.

The next steps are easier to cover


Step 2 - "Inform"

Back in the driving seat now, the next stage of our commentary driving involves mentioning to yourself how the road sign or marking you've noticed affects you as a driver - not all of it will pose an actual danger, but all of it is important to you in some way.

The trick to getting the commentary right here is to avoid too much verbal detail and keep your comments concise. Here are a few examples:

"Warning sign, junction to my left" (Alert)
"Vehicles may emerge" (Inform)

"The word SLOW" (Alert)
"May be a problem over this hill" (Inform)

"Overtaking disallowed in both directions" (Alert)
"Road may be bendy ahead" (Inform)

Expressing these risks vocally like this is likely to be the first time many of us have actually appreciated many of the risks actually posed by different features in the roads we drive on daily.

It is again worth spending some time reflecting on and pondering these realisations... how can these thoughts have a positive effect your driving?


Step 3 - "Manage"

By simply noticing and vocalising the risks, you'll probably have already noticed that you're doing things naturally to reduce your road risk as you drive.

The final step in commentary driving is to put these natural actions into words.

You're not training to be a Driving Instructor, so again, you'll find it easier if you're as concise as possible and here are some examples:

"Warning sign, junction to my left" (Alert)
"Vehicles may emerge" (Inform)
"Slowing down & moving away from the kerb" (Manage)

"The word SLOW" (Alert)
"May be a problem over this hill" (Inform)
"I can easily stop at this speed if I see anything, so no change" (Manage)

"Overtaking disallowed in both directions" (Alert)
"Road may be bendy ahead" (Inform)
"Forget about overtaking and hold back from vehicle ahead" (Manage)


And that's it for today!

Notice that not everything requires an action. Sometimes you'll conclude that your current speed, gear and position choices are fine as they are and that's perfectly okay! 

The important factor that is being introduced by the commentary today is simply to be aware of the amount of information presented to you as a road user and a realisation that it is all important in your assessment of risk as you drive.

Hopefully, if you've had a go at commentary driving today, you'll have seen that whilst it's hard work (it really does get easier as you practice - you'll find short bursts of a few minutes at a time is a great way to start), you'll have already started to change the way you drive through certain stretches of road.

Tomorrow, we're going to add to today's work the subjects of road surface condition and limit points and I hope you'll join me for that and carry on trying to improve your driving. I promise that the blog tomorrow won't be anywhere near as long now that you've got the basics! Feel free to message me any thoughts or questions through my social media outlets.


Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk

Saturday 6 June 2020

Commentary Driving in a week - Day 1 - Introduction

Have you ever heard of Commentary Driving?

Commentary Driving takes many forms (dependent on the context of the driving task being undertaken) but it is essentially about putting your actions into words and saying out loud the thoughts that are going through your head.

Most commonly, you'll have seen the Police using a form of commentary driving on many occasions when you've been watching those fly on the wall documentaries where the cameras follow a couple of Police Officers for a few days. During a pursuit, you'll be familiar with the following type of commentary:

"Following the suspect straight ahead into Maddison Street. Speed is 45mph in a 30 zone. Suspect is on the wrong side of the road. Turning left into Osbourne Road now"

That level of commentary is doing several things that assist the Police in the course of their work. It's a record of what's going on and as such it's gathering evidence, but it's also communicating the presence of risk and the driver will be focusing hard on managing that risk.

That's one of the reasons why commentary driving works you see - it forces you to concentrate and in order to do it at high speed like the Police do takes a lot of practice. Most people find that they need to slow the car down quite a bit in order to get the commentary in line with actual events but even then, you'll notice that the Police are prioritising their commentary in those examples - they simply don't have the time to mention absolutely everything.

So with that in mind, let's look at another type of commentary driving - the type your Driving Instructor used when you were driving for the first time:

"Push the clutch down. Move the gear stick towards me and then forward into 1st gear. Set the gas. Raise the clutch to the bite point and keep your foot still when the front of the car rises a bit"

Whilst that might appear to be "instruction" to you, it is only by practicing commentary driving at that level of detail for spent many hours that allowed the Instructor to develop competence in that skill. With a learner driver at the wheel of course listening and trying to complete the actions so that they can drive the car, it is essential that that level of detail is there (otherwise something important might not be done... looking both ways at a junction for example) and the car MUST travel very slowly in order to allow that level of detail to be used. The Police couldn't do that (and neither should they because there is no benefit for them in mentioning what they're feet are doing when they're involved in a pursuit).

So context is important and so are the aims of the driver when we're discussing commentary driving. For most of us, I imagine that our context is simply driving to and from places of interest (work, home, shops etc) and our aim is to do that with as little hassle as possible - none of us either want to crash or get involved with the Police in terms of paying speeding fines etc do we!

So what  we need to do in our own commentary driving is to firstly describe the information available to us, followed by a quick assessment of the risk it presents and a brief summary of how we're going to deal with that risk.
AIM
ALERT - Make a conscious note of the hazard
INFORM - Tell yourself consciously what problem it presents
MANAGE - What are you going to do to manage this risk down to minimal levels?

Doing this will improve your driving by focusing you on the task of reading the road rather than driving allowing you to simply drive from memory. The road is a constantly changing environment and whilst you might know every lump, twist and bump in local roads what you don't know is that there's a broken down vehicle parked dangerously on the bend today, or that as you go over the crest of the hill today you're going to see a vehicle on your side of the road overtaking a horse in a bad place - we call them variable hazards and it's those are often the things that cause the crashes.

Starting on Monday and over the course of the next week, I am going to release daily blogs with the aim of increasing the number of commentary driving drivers and improving people's level of safety on the roads. Each blog will take a few minutes to read, and give you a task to carry out on the next drive you take. Every day, we'll ask you to add more and more to your commentary driving until you reach a level next weekend where you're starting to see real changes in your driving style (hopefully).

As each blog is released, I'll publicise links through the following outlets and I'll be available through the social media pages to chat over what whatever questions, queries or findings people have:



Nick Heath Driver Training is located in Rode Heath on the Staffordshire / Cheshire border and provides driving training services to those looking to either improve their driving or learn from scratch. In addition to media work, we conduct Taxi Driver Assessments for local authorities and offer Advanced Driver Training and Testing, Motorway Training and Fuel Efficient Driver Training alongside refresher courses and learner driving lessons. We are ORDIT registered to provide Driving Instructor Training and are listed on the DVSA's register of Fleet Trainers so we can help you with your business needs.

More details are available on our website www.nickheathdrivertraining.org.uk