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“Just check your b****y mirrors!!!” (Part 2 of 2)

26-02-2014 21-17-46In the first part of this article, we explored how to effectively develop our learner drivers’ mirror use.  If you missed it, we’d strongly advise you read that part first – click here to read Part 1.

In the second part of this article, we will be looking further into the cyclic nature of the Look – See – Respond routine.  Also, we’ll check out some higher level techniques to ensure your pupils not only continue to use their mirrors with better levels of understanding, but will learn to develop their own effective strategies to deal with situations arising behind them.

The ‘Silent Conversation’

In Part 1, we took some time to explore some examples of questions to use at the RESPOND phase of the routine. Although many instructors encourage their learners to look for cars, cycles or other vehicles behind or to the sides, it’s not these objects that cause crashes – it’s the driver of that vehicle that is responsible for their course of actions.

It can be helpful to consider the cyclic nature of the mirror routine as a ‘silent conversation’ between you and the other driver or rider. Not only do we need to respond appropriately to what we see in the mirrors, we also need to take into account how the driver/cyclist behind responds to our response. And having LOOKED and SEEN how they respond to our actions, we will then need to again RESPOND accordingly… and so it goes on!

So, assuming it’s daytime and you have a decent view of the driver behind, try asking your learner questions such as:

What’s the driver behind doing?
Is the driver behind paying attention?
What do you notice about the driver behind?”

Female driver talking by mobile telephone and doing make-up.It may be that they are arguing with a passenger, distracted by their children, bopping away to a really good tune, lighting a cigarette, picking their nose (ewww!), texting/chatting on the phone, putting on makeup (okay, some women are distracted sometimes, too!). I’m sure we’ve all seen what other drivers do while at the wheel.

Once you’ve identified what the driver is doing, explore how this will affect your pupil’s decisions – in effect, how they will ‘communicate’ with that driver. You could ask:

How can we make allowances for him?
What can we do differently with our speed on the approach to these lights?
How early should we start signalling for our turn?”

Once the learner has replied to your question and/or taken action, encourage them to LOOK and SEE how the other driver has RESPONDED to our ‘communication’:

What’s happening behind now?
Have they recognised what we’re doing?
How is he responding / What is he doing now?
Do we need to do anything else now?”

A painful experience

A few years ago, one of my former franchised instructors was giving a lesson to one of his pupils.  During this lesson, they had a crash which could potentially have resulted in very serious injury or even a fatality.

The learner driver was just a few weeks away from taking his driving test.  During this particular lesson, he was approaching a zebra crossing with a pedestrian walking towards it.  The instructor was watching the learner driver to see if he had checked the mirrors.  On noticing the learner’s lack of mirror use, the instructor failed to intervene, because (in his words after the crash) “he had his driving test booked and should have known what to do!”  There was no mirror check or any early positive indication that the learner had seen the crossing or the approaching pedestrian.

Only at the last moment did the learner driver see the pedestrian.  He then slammed on the brakes… hard.

AmbulanceMeanwhile, the learner and instructor had both failed to realise was that there was an enormous quarry lorry close up behind them.  Needless to say, when the learner driver slammed on the brakes the lorry couldn’t stop in time.  The lorry crashed heavily into the back of the instructor’s car pushing it through the zebra crossing.  Fortunately the pedestrian hadn’t started crossing – imagine the outcome if they had 🙁

This whole situation could have easily been averted.  Regardless of the standard of the learner driver, it is always the instructor’s responsibility to keep everyone safe.  On identifying the pedestrian crossing early and failing to see any response from the learner driver, the instructor could (and should) have asked something along the lines of:

What hazards do we have up ahead?
How close is the truck behind?
What will you do with your speed?
How is the driver behind responding?”

Developing Coping Strategies:

I’m sure most of us have experienced how learner drivers can get flustered with drivers following closely behind.  We explored this more fully in our ‘Dealing with aggressive tailgaters’ article.  As covered in that article, you may want to explore how to get out of the way if the driver behind seems totally distracted.  By doing so, they are no longer a concern, especially if your pupil seems on edge about having them behind. In both of the examples below, the ‘silent conversation’ between me and the driver behind helped avoid potential crashes…

Example 1: Looking for a POSITIVE RESPONSE

Whilst driving home from work recently, the driver of a supermarket delivery van was following about an inch from my bumper (OK, so that might be a slight exaggeration, but he was still really really close!)  I could see that he was occasionally glancing at the road but that most of his attention was directed at something on the passenger seat – maybe his delivery schedule.

My first thought was, “I don’t want this guy behind me; I’ll pull up and let him pass”.  I didn’t pull up as normal though – I signalled left and kept my speed at 30 mph.  I continued to drive until I got a positive response.  I saw that he had seen my signal because he began looking in his right mirror to look for an opportunity to pass me.  Only then did I slow down to pull up – he ‘spoke’ to me before I responded.  Had I not waited for the positive response and reduced my speed before he recognised my signal and intention to pull over, I would undoubtedly have ended up with an embarrassed van driver and a ton of groceries in my boot!

Example 2: Using observation links

A couple of years ago, whilst waiting to turn right into a side road, I saw a car approach a T-junction further up the road.  It shot straight over the give way lines and only stopped when almost at the centre line on the major road!  I made my turn and watched in my mirrors to see if the car would turn into the road behind me.  It did.  Before reaching the end of the road where there was a mini roundabout with just a left or right exit to choose from, I instinctively decided to turn into an empty car park without losing much speed, as I didn’t want the car behind to get too close to me.

The driver behind may have not have stopped at the previous junction for a number of reasons – perhaps he didn’t realise it was a give way junction?  Maybe he was distracted, drunk or under the influence of drugs?  Regardless of his reasons for doing so, I wasn’t feeling comfortable being in front of him so I turned off as soon as I could.

Car AccidentSo what happened next?  He continued to the roundabout, failed to stop and drove straight into the lamp post on the other side of the roundabout!

These are just 2 examples of when crashes may have been averted (away from me anyway!) by using the LOOK – SEE – RESPOND – LOOK – SEE – RESPOND cycle.  These examples also illustrate the importance of using ‘observation links’ within this cycle (clues as to what other road users are likely to do next).  This is what our pupils need to be able to do as well. They need to interpret the other driver’s response in our ‘silent conversation’ – does the driver behind recognise what you’re doing?  Is he responding appropriately or is he ignoring you?

ATTITUDE WARNING!

Road Rage FrustrationSometimes, thought-provoking questions relating to the behaviours of drivers behind can highlight your learner drivers’ poor attitudes towards other road users.  Your learner may scold the driver behind for using his mobile phone or for driving too closely, or for whatever other bad habit the driver behind is displaying. Instead of displaying similar levels of aggression by rebuking the other drive, think how you could use the other driver’s behaviours as a valuable learning opportunity.

What effect could that have on him? What about us? What could be the possible consequences?

You could then ask your pupil to identify what possible ‘bad habits’ they may develop once they’ve passed the driving test?  Just how attached are they to their phone? What if it rang whilst they were driving?  In what situations might they be tempted to answer it?  How are they for time-keeping?  What if they were running late for work, an interview, appointment or party?  How rowdy are the friends that they will be offering lifts to?  How might that impact their driving?  What strategies will they have in place to deal with it?

Are you up for the challenge?

Challenge Blue MarkerLet’s look back at the example questions we provided in Part 1 of this article when encouraging your pupils to LOOK and SEE what’s there…

What’s going on behind?
How close is the car behind?
How fast is the car behind going?
Are there any bikes coming down on our left?
Is there anything overtaking us?”

What’s missing from all these questions?  That’s right – the word ‘mirror’ isn’t mentioned at all.  Our challenge to you would be to try and eliminate repetitive reference to the ‘mirrors’ from your everyday teaching and instead to use awareness questions.  You can start doing this from the very first lesson!

‘Bottom-up’ instruction

Try to avoid the ‘bottom-up’ approach to teaching.  This is a typical trait of some PDIs and ADIs (especially those training for Part 3 or who have recently qualified).  For example, when teaching their pupils how to move off, they will often instruct in the following way:

Have a quick check in your centre mirror, then check your left blind spot, left door mirror, centre mirror again, the road ahead, right door mirror, and your right blind spot”

This simply gets the pupil to LOOK, but no further parts of the routine are explored.  Some lessons later, the instructor goes on to help their learners understand what they’re looking for (SEE) and then some will get around to exploring how the learner driver should RESPOND to what they see in the mirrors.

Signal or not?Other bottom-up approaches include encouraging the pupil to routinely apply the right signal when moving off for the first time (“just for practise”), rather than to LOOK, SEE and RESPOND appropriately to what is around us at the time.  Read our article on signalling for more guidance 😉

Unfortunately, such short cuts make life MUCH harder for the ADI and the learner in the long run – the bad habit of just looking blankly in the mirrors will have already formed from those early lessons and may be very hard to break at a later stage.  This is why we may often see the pupil quickly glance at the mirrors (and apply the right signal), but we know full well that they cannot possibly have had the opportunity to fully assess what they can SEE (and therefore signal accordingly).

‘Top-down’ instruction

Top-down teaching, on the other hand, is where we would start with the reasons for effective all-round observation, followed by directions on what specifically we need to be looking out for, and how to respond to (or ‘communicate’ with) what we see. A top-down approach is more likely to create a natural response and natural awareness within your learners, which naturally becomes much harder for them to forget! An example might be:

So now we have the car prepared, it’s important for us to look for a safe opportunity to move away, so we need to be aware of what’s happening all around us… so let’s first look to see if there’s a safe gap behind… then have a sweeping check all around… Anything coming out of the driveway over our left shoulder?  Any cyclists coming down our left side? Still clear behind?  Is it safe ahead?  What about our right side – any vehicles coming up to overtake?  And is there anyone emerging from the junction over your right shoulder?  What would be our best course of action?  Would it be safe to go now, do you think?  Would a signal benefit anyone?” etc…

learner-blind-spotAlthough this is an example of an instructional approach, a coaching conversation would work really well, too.  Yes, top-down approaches will take a little longer in the short-term, but the long-term benefits definitely outweigh this.
So, ask yourself if there is there any more you could be doing to encourage your pupils to have a better awareness of other drivers’ behaviour.  How could you work on helping them to communicate better with others on the road?  How can we help them be aware of their choices once they’re out there on the road themselves?

*Disclaimer:  Throughout these articles, I have referred to drivers who exhibit poor driving behaviour as ‘he’.  This is just for ease of writing – it isn’t because I think men are impatient and generally daft drivers at all… honest! 😉

down arrowHave you any further advice for Paul (who originally asked the question about mirrors) that you would like to share?  What techniques or strategies have you used with your learners that has been successful? How do you incorporate the skills that kill (using phones, speeding, driving under the influence, showing off, etc) into your everyday teaching?

Please let us know in the comments below – I’m sure it will be appreciated by many.

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“Just check your b****y mirrors!!!” (Part 1 of 2)

check-your-mirrors“Hi Ged and Claire, I’m getting really frustrated with my pupils not checking their mirrors, they do it sometimes when I ask or tell them to, but then go right back to forgetting again when I stop helping them.  What can I do?”

This is probably a very common frustration for a lot of ADIs, so rest assured you are not alone!  I know I’ve had the same issues in the past, too and you can feel like a bit of a nag or a broken record repeating yourself every 2 minutes!

The problem with some pupils is that no matter how many times we tell or ask them which mirrors to check, unless we keep at it, some will keep forgetting. So what can we do differently so they are less likely to ‘forget’?

I like to think there are 3 elements to effective mirror use:

 

26-02-2014 21-17-46

LOOK

Many instructors stop after teaching this first part.  So invariably the pupils LOOK but don’t SEE.  This is more likely to happen when the instructor says things like:

Check your centre and right mirror before signalling
Which mirrors should we check?
New road, new mirrors
Remember – Mirror… Mirror… Signal
Come on, check this left mirror, you keep forgetting!

Any of these sound familiar to you?

Although these questions or commands may well instigate a mirror check, the check in itself has very little value.  The pupil is simply learning by rote, or ‘parrot fashion’.  They know they need to check them – after all, you’re there to keep reminding them!  But this is not an effective approach for long-term learning.  They are checking the mirrors because they think they have to check them to pass the driving test (and to stop your constant nagging!).  You’ll get a similar effect with chants or ‘easy reminders’ like “One Two Three” relating to centre mirror (one), door mirror (two), signal (three).  Another one we hear being used a lot on lessons is “Mirror, mirror, signal”.

Learners who are taught in this way can pass the driving test.  And afterwards, they’ll breathe a huge sigh of relief and think, “Yes! I passed! Don’t need to check my mirrors all the time now!”

SEE

Many instructors get to this part easily, although not always often enough.  This is where we start getting to the WHY.  In the ‘look’ part of the sequence, they learner looks in the mirrors but they won’t always ‘see’ what’s there.

InattentionalBlindness_021012_For the most part, the reason for this is that the learner has no idea what they are specifically looking for.  They’ve simply been told or asked to check the mirrors (as in the examples above).

So how can we direct their attention a little further?  Here are some examples of better questions to ask:

What’s going on behind?
How close is the car behind?
How fast is the car behind going?
Are there any bikes coming down on our left?
Is there anything overtaking us?”

These are much more efficient questions than some of those I used to ask in my early days as an ADI, such as, “What colour is the car behind?” [‘Red…. so what?!’].  And then there were also times when I would cover the interior mirror with my right hand and ask, “What’s behind?” These tactics don’t necessarily encourage the pupil to do much more other than check the mirrors more frequently to avoid getting caught out! There’s still no guarantee they’re considering the proximity or speed of vehicles behind.

And this brings us to a secondary issue that we need to be aware of – and that is ‘inattentional blindness’.  This is a psychological phenomenon which relates to our failure to notice unexpected visual stimuli when we are focussing on another task.  Driving demands a great deal of attention and focus for the novice driver, and their focus is largely on the control of the vehicle and the things going on in front of them.

Many of you will have seen this video (or ones similar to it) before, but if not, here’s a great illustration of inattentional blindness in action:

We could write a whole article on the perils of inattentional blindness when driving, but let’s focus back on the topic of effective mirror use for now…

In essence, we tend to notice what we are looking for – what we are expecting to see.  By asking poorly-phrased or poorly-directed questions, the learner driver does not notice the things which they should be noticing – those things which are of a high priority and could have an effect on our driving plan.  As experienced drivers and instructors, we may notice that the driver of the bus behind is glancing down at a newspaper, or that the driver of the car behind is more pre-occupied with their screaming children in the back seats than they are focussed on the fact we are braking to a stop.

driving-instructor-questionsAppropriately phrased questions will help bring these higher priority things to the learner’s attention – things which they may not have even considered paying attention to, or were ‘blind’ to due to overwhelm.

So ‘seeing’ isn’t about knowing if your pupil has checked the mirrors or even seen what’s there.  Instead, it’s about creating a connection between using the mirrors and knowing what to look out for.  It doesn’t really matter if they’ve seen the car behind, or if it’s red, blue or polka dot, what matters is that they realise they need to recognise what the car (or driver) behind is doing, e.g. distracted, driving close, approaching too quickly, overtaking, etc.

Now the pupil is looking and seeing what’s there, they’ve started to understand WHY there’s a need to check the mirrors… or have they?

RESPOND

If the pupil knows what they’re looking for, it might mean they understand what to check for, but not necessarily why that’s important and how to interpret and respond to it.

Let me share a short story…

I once asked a pupil of mine to turn right at the next traffic light controlled junction.  We were travelling along a dual carriageway and we needed to change lanes.  She looked in her centre and right mirror. “Great,” I thought to myself, “she knows which mirrors to check and so she’s seen the red car travelling at high speed who’s about to overtake us”.  She then went to signal and steer.  I pulled the wheel back and cancelled the signal and said “there’s a red car there!” She replied “Yea I know!” I was gobsmacked.  If she saw the car, why on earth did she try to change lanes as it was about to overtake us?!

Her actions and words told me that she had looked in the correct mirrors and had seen the red car, but she simply didn’t know how to respond to what she had seen.  She had actually thought the driver would let her go once she started signalling so we worked through what could have happened and what to do next time.

Fortunately this happened on a driving lesson and not after she had passed her test. Imagine that scenario on a crowded motorway! :O

The point is that until then, I didn’t realise how important it is to make sure (and not just assume) that the pupil knows how to respond to what they see in the mirrors.  It meant that I hadn’t been doing my job properly and it was a valuable lesson for me to make sure every pupil knew how to respond correctly to what they had seen.

Because this golden opportunity doesn’t present itself all that often, and because there never seems to be a cyclist coming down the left hand side when your learner is turning left, sometimes we as instructors can forget this important step in developing our learners’ effective use of mirrors. The ‘what if’ question can be the most important question to ask.

How close is the car behind?  What would you do if it was really close?
Are there any cyclists coming up on our left?  What would you do if there were?
Is there anything overtaking us?  What would you need to do if there was?

If you get a blank expression or “erm… I don’t know” as a response, then brilliant – you can save this driver from making a costly mistake once they pass their driving test!  You know that they don’t really understand the significance of using the mirrors effectively, and this can be a big enough reason for them to ‘forget’ to check and for you to keep having to remind them over and over again.
You can also explore different options and how they may need to respond:

If the driver behind was really close, what would we do differently with our speed/signal before our next turn?
What would be the benefits of doing that?

If there was a cyclist coming up quickly on our left, how might it affect the timing of our signal?
What would be the problem of signalling to turn left if he was very close to our car?”
“What if he was a lot further away? Would you do anything differently?

What would you do with your speed/signal if you were being overtaken and you wanted to turn right?
How do you think that would benefit us and the driver overtaking?

Once we turn, if the new road is clear and the car behind is following really closely, what could we do with our speed?
If the driver behind looked like he was about to overtake us, what would we do with our speed then?

ged-claire-mirrorsFinally, it’s important to notice that the diagram at the start of this article is cyclic.  The process is continuous – after responding, we need to once again LOOK and SEE how the driver or cyclist behind/on our left/passing is in turn responding to our action.
Now what you should achieve is lots more value attached to mirror use.

The pupil has a deeper understanding of their importance, will want to become more aware of what’s going on around them and more importantly, will be able to make decisions on how to respond to what they see.

down arrowIn the second part of this article, we will be looking further into how being aware of the actions of other road users around us affect our learners and how they can develop strategies to deal with these situations.  Click here to read Part 2!

For now, please share your experiences!  Please let us know how you develop your learners’ effective use of the mirrors – what questions do you find get the best results?  Your comments in the box below could really help other instructors improve their skills 🙂

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Overtaking – Are your learners fully equipped?

Overtaking Guidelines - car crashBack when Ged and I were training to become ADIs, the steps for overtaking in ‘The Driving Manual’ were stated as MPSLMSM. This remained the case in seven editions of the updated version of the book (retitled, ‘The Official DSA Guide to Driving: The Essential Skills’). But in the 6th impression (released in 2013), this guidance mysteriously (and without explanation) changed to simply MSPSL

So which method is best, and which routine should we be teaching?

The ‘Old’ Guidance

The following extract is taken from the 6th edition of The Official DSA Guide to Driving: The Essential Skills, released in 2007):

Mirrors – Always check in your mirrors to assess the speed and position of traffic behind.

Position – Be near enough to the vehicle ahead to overtake smoothly when you’re ready, but not so close that you can’t get a good view of the road ahead.

Speed – Be fast enough to keep up with the vehicle in front and with enough reserve power to pass it briskly. You might need to change down to get extra acceleration when you’re ready to start overtaking.

Look – Assess the whole situation

• the state of the road

• what the driver ahead is doing or might be about to do

• any hazards

• the speed and position of oncoming vehicles

• speed difference between you and oncoming vehicles.

Mirrors – Check your mirrors again to reassess the situation. Check especially for motorcyclists as they approach very quickly and may have been hidden from view previously. Be aware of, and check, any blind spots by taking a quick sideways glance if necessary, before deciding to pull out to overtake. Never begin to overtake is another vehicle is overtaking you or is about to do so. Overtake only when you are sure it’s safe to do so.

Signal – Always give a signal. This helps

• drivers behind

• the driver you are overtaking

• drivers coming towards you.

Manoeuvre – Make a final check in front and behind. If it’s safe, pull out on a smooth easy line.

• overtake as quickly as you can

• Check your mirrors to see that you’re clear of the vehicle you’ve overtaken

• Move back to the left again on a smooth easy line, but avoid cutting in.

This is all sound advice, especially when overtaking on a two lane, two way road and to overtake would require the driver to cross onto the opposite side of the road.

The ‘New’ Guidance

drivingThe latest version (6th impression, 2013) of The Official DSA Guide to Driving: The Essential Skills recommends the MSPSL routine:

Mirrors – Check your mirrors to assess the situation behind and look well ahead.

Signal – Give a signal if it will help:

• drivers behind

• the driver you’re overtaking

• drivers coming towards you

Position – Be near enough to the vehicle ahead to overtake smoothly when you’re ready, but not so close that you can’t get a good view of the road ahead.

Speed – Be fast enough to keep up with the vehicle in front and with enough reserve power to pass it briskly. You might need to change down to get extra acceleration when you’re ready to start overtaking.

Look – Assess the whole situation

• the state of the road

• what the driver ahead is doing or might be about to do

• any hazards

• the speed and position of oncoming vehicles

• speed difference between you and oncoming vehicles.

Make a final check in front and behind. Check especially for motorcyclists as they can approach very quickly and may have been hidden from view previously. Be aware of, and check, any blind spots by taking a quick sideways glance if necessary, before deciding to pull out to overtake. Never begin to overtake is another vehicle is overtaking you or is about to do so. Overtake only when you are sure it’s safe to do so.

So why the change of guidelines for Overtaking?

shutterstock_31395766aWe believe that each method has its place. Most overtaking opportunities arise on multi-lane roads. Because there are extra lanes to use, it’s not necessary to have to cross onto the opposite side of the road. For these types of road, the MSPSL routine is perfectly adequate. However, on two lane two-way roads, the MPSLMSM becomes more relevant and effective. It is imperative that the driver plans more thoroughly with the possibility of meeting oncoming traffic, and that they overtake quickly so they can return to their own side of the road safely and in good time.

It’s worth recognising how an overtaking manoeuvre can be different, depending on the type of road and layout, and discussing this with your pupils. Bear in mind that if you are working towards your ADI Part 3 test, or you have a Check Test and are including overtaking as part of the lesson plan (e.g. a Pass Plus module on Motorways, rural roads or dual carriageways), you must know the correct recommended sequence. We have met several DSA examiners who are not aware of the changes, so it’s a good idea to refer to both the old method and the updated method as recommended in The Official DSA Guide to Driving: The Essential Skills, and considering the distinction between them.

Something much more important!

Regardless of which routine is used, what doesn’t change is the importance of selecting a suitable place to overtake and judging a safe gap in approaching traffic, especially on a two lane, two way road.

The DECISION to overtake can be the killer, rather than the routine itself.

shutterstock_121576933aI always remember reading a local news story about a young driver who overtook another vehicle on one of the rural roads near to where we live. He had four of his friends in the car and he hit a single-decker bus coming the other way.  The driver and two of his friends were killed instantly, another two were left in a critical condition. It was a shocking (yet all too common) story. I couldn’t help asking myself if we as  driving instructors are doing all we can in order to reduce the chances of this happening to those we have taught to drive.

How can ADIs help?

When we discuss overtaking with ADIs coming to use for development coaching, many will say that they talk about overtaking with most of their learner drivers, but don’t cover it in much detail because practical opportunities to do so rarely arise.

It might be worthwhile for us all to consider how much depth we go into with regards to overtaking. After all, it’s a far more dangerous manoeuvre than all the reversing ones we spend so much time and focus on!

As an ADI, do you explore safe and unsafe places to overtake while out on the roads and the reasons that would make it unsafe or safe? For example:

“Would you consider it safe to overtake on this road? Why not?”

“Where might be suitable to overtake on this road?” “What makes that a good place to overtake?”

Also, do you explore how much time and distance would be needed to overtake safely?

“If we did need to overtake, which gap in the oncoming traffic do you think would be suitable?”

Once a gap is identified, a hypothetical overtake commentary can establish if it is a safe gap. For example:

“So we’d check our centre mirror and right mirror to look for anything overtaking us, maybe gear down for acceleration, signal right, check for anything overtaking us again, move out….. we’d be overtaking the car about now… oh look that car has reached us now!”

This would help the driver see how quickly the gap would close. You could then go on to explore possible consequences of overtaking without a sufficient gap. Do this often enough and the ‘calibration’ process of what constitutes a safe gap (or preferably a gap with NOTHING approaching!) will be better understood and judged by the driver in any future possible overtake scenarios. What’s really important is that they qualify as drivers with all the information and skills needed to make a safe decision… EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Returning to the tragic local story I mentioned earlier, we can only speculate whether or not the young driver’s instructor fully explored safe overtaking during their lessons together. If the instructor did cover this area sufficiently, then lack of kthinking-brainnowledge and understanding may not have been a factor in the crash. Perhaps the driver just made the DECISION to overtake, regardless of the risks. Maybe he was showing off to his mates, was distracted or thought he was invincible, a lot of young people have the ‘it will never happen to me’ attitude. Perhaps his brain development was a factor – the brain’s pre-frontal cortex, which governs emotion, risk-taking and decision-making, does not fully mature until the age of 25.

However, if the instructor didn’t sufficiently cover safe overtaking, then this could be considered one of the contributory factors. As ADIs, we are all responsible for ensuring our learners pass their driving test equipped with the knowledge, understanding and skills to tackle a multitude of real life situations, beyond that which is required to pass the driving test. This includes safe overtaking.

I know it’s hard to cover all aspects of driving in the limited time available, and yes – it can sometimes be challenging to change the pre-formed attitudes and beliefs of the people we are working with. I am sure Ged and I have not always explored overtaking as much as I have mentioned here with our own pupils, particularly in the early years of our career – nobody’s perfect!

But we like to think that all the ADIs we have trained realise the importance of teaching safe overtaking and go out there making sure that all the novice drivers they work with know and understand how to overtake other vehicles.

If you don’t already explore overtaking in depth with your pupils, please start now – you might just save some lives.

down arrowGIVE US YOUR FEEDBACK!  Do you teach your pupils how to overtake safely?  What if no practical opportunities arise?  How does your geographical location affect your ability to teach overtaking effectively? Please share your advice and experiences – we’d love to hear from you.

Finally, if you liked this article and know someone else that could benefit from it, please hit one of the social sharing buttons below!

 

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What makes SUCCESS?

road to success - shutterstock_37712386Things have changed a lot in the 16 years I’ve been part of the driving instruction industry, and the way in which I have run my driving school has had to change keep up.  One thing that hasn’t changed though is my definition of success.

From starting as an independent driving instructor as soon as I qualified, to starting a multi-car school 4 years later, I’ve learnt to adapt along the way.  So what are those changes I’ve had to make?  I’d like to share them with you, as I’m hoping you may find some of the following information useful.

The Road to Success

Back in 1997, I set up as “Claire Moores’ School of Motoring”.  Right from the start I was incredibly busy.  I think I had the low number of ADIs and the large number of 17 year olds partially to thank.  Other things that I think contributed were:

  • Being female – there were less female driving instructors to choose from.
  • Using my name – gives a more personal touch and learners looking for a female instructor knew from looking at my car (and looking at me hopefully!) that I was a female driving instructor.
  • Doing a good job – Recommendations contributed to probably 99% of my work.
  • My desire to better myself – Launching myself headlong into a journey of CPD, this made me a better ADI and my confidence grew with everything I learnt.

claire-car4 years later in 2001, I set up a driving school with a business partner, Glyn.  We looked to build a multi-car school.  This went from strength to strength, with 26 instructors at the height.  So what did we do to ensure that outcome?

  • I was responsible for training most of the instructors we had working at the school
  • We had a great team of instructors
  • I used to nag our instructors to do CPD, and not always with a positive outcome!
  • We spent heavily on advertising – a whopping £9000 a year on our Yellow Pages advert alone!
  • My business partner and I were excellent at converting calls into customers
  • We later had to go online and our first website was launched in 2005
  • Shopping centre promotions proved a big hit

Things were going good until the recession hit in 2008/2009.  Business got harder and supporting the amount of instructors we had was going to get tough.  We had to adapt.

female driving instructors in uk - claire-glynChanges we made:

  • Now all the cars were to be sign written and about 6 instructors didn’t want their cars done (they were their own cars), so we had to part ways
  • Prices were reduced from an earlier price rise a year or two before
  • We introduced a first lesson half price offer
  • A second and better website was launched
  • Directory advertising continued
  • We had stands at trade shows
  • We encouraged the instructors to promote themselves and get more recommendations and introduced a franchise review where the franchise was reduced the less work they took directly from us.

At the lowest point during the recession, we had 13 instructors and from that point onwards it was about growing organically.  We built up again steadily and today we have 20 instructors.  So what has worked and what hasn’t?  We have always monitored where new learners found out about us and this helps target the right kind of marketing.  Here are our findings:

thumbs-downWhat doesn’t work well?

  • Newspaper advertising:  I did this once when I was independent and got one new learner – I didn’t bother with it again after that!  As a multi-car school, we tried it several times without much success.  My guess is that not many 17 year olds read the newspaper!  Is it where parents may look?  Possibly in days gone by, but probably not now in this age of technology.
  • Directory advertising:  This worked well for a number of years pre-internet.  Almost everyone used the books to find what they needed.  Again, in this age of technology, the books have become a poor investment for new customer leads.  We haven’t used them for about 4 years.
  • Leaflet drops:  These are notorious for their low conversion rate.  Does anyone who lives at that house want to learn to drive?  And if so, will they see your leaflet before it goes in the bin?  Is it likely to be filed ready for when someone in that house is ready to learn to drive? The probable place it will be filed is in the recycling bin!

thumbs-middleWhat can work:

  • Directory web sites:  In my opinion, not a good way to invest.  Most people searching for a driving school want to see a driving school website in as little clicks as possible, and going through a directory only lengthens the process.  However, sites that allow reviews can work well and, if linked to your website, can boost your search rankings.
  • Trade shows: If targeted properly these can get leads, especially if you are willing to give away lessons as a prize draw; it’s a great way of getting email addresses from potential future customers.
  • ‘Staff discounts’ for people working at a particular place.  For example, offering discounts for anyone working at your local McDonalds (most people working there will be in your target age range).
  • Printed butty bags:  At carefully located butty shops near colleges, your name will be seen literally every college day by all the students buying their lunch (or dinner depending on where you’re from!).
  • Shopping centre promotions: Our local shopping centre was within walking distance of the two main colleges in Oldham and our stand always used to be outside Greggs, which was very handy when the students were queuing to get their lunch!

thumbs-upWhat does work (for us anyway!):

  • Recommendations!  This continues to be one of our main sources of work.  An excellent reputation virtually guarantees referral after referral.
  • Sign-written cars:  Especially if Mum or Dad are responsible for finding a driving instructor for their son or daughter, it can create a more ‘professional’ image.  I would guess that the majority of Mums and Dads booking with BSM and AA do so because they ‘appear’ to be the more professional and more established driving schools.  It also makes cars stand out and people notice them more.  I’ve lost count of how many times people say to me ‘I see your cars EVERYWHERE!’
  • A top ranking website:  This is a MUST for us.  A website will only work if it features highly on search engines when potential customers look for ‘driving lessons Oldham’ and such like.  I think it’s also important to have good content and make it customer focused rather than instructor led (where have we heard that before?!).
  • Facebook and other social media – Love it or loathe it, it’s where our potential 17 year old customers interact.  I’m still learning how to use it (and always will be!), but using Facebook has been the one big most recent change that has found its way into our marketing strategies.
  • Under 17 Driver Training – We have run our ‘Head Start Programme’ for 15 and 16 year olds since 2003. It really helps younger drivers get to grips with the basics of car control in a safe, off-road environment before they start driving on the road at 17. When they do turn 17, the majority of them book their driving lessons with us.

None of these strategies would work for long though without an excellent team of instructors to back us up.  Who you choose to represent your driving school is one of the most important business decisions you can make.  Anyone who doesn’t measure up has to go; you can’t afford for the reputation of your instructors to be tarnished by one that isn’t doing anything less than a great job!

I know there are many other things that you can do to market a driving school, either as a sole trader or a multi-car school, but really think about where to spend your time and money.  Find a few things that make a big difference and work on them rather than doing lots of little things that make a small difference.

In future posts we will look at what works well in more detail.

So what’s my interpretation of ‘success’ in business?  If you’re still interested and you’ve read this all the way to the end……

‘Success is finding something you love to do, doing it well and always striving to do it better.  Success for me isn’t about financial reward, it’s about achieving excellence and being the best!’

ACTION STEP:  Write down YOUR definition of ‘success’ in business.  List the strategies that are working for you at bringing in new business.  What strategies aren’t working so well?  What new strategies will you start to implement?  When will you start?

down arrowWe’d love to hear your stories of what strategies are working well for you and your driving school, so please add your comments below.  And remember, if you liked this article and know someone else that could benefit from it, please hit one of the social sharing buttons below!

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h10 Comments

Bay Parking Manoeuvre – Room for Error?

Bay Parking Manoeuvre - Girl reversing carThe Bay Parking Manoeuvre (bay park exercise) can be one of the most frustrating to teach and to learn.  Getting the car in between the two white lines first time isn’t always easy, especially from a 90 degree angle to the bay, and when there are no other parked cars in the adjacent bays to help guide you.

But does it have to be done this way?  Not at all!

Two common myths about the bay parking manoeuvre among learner drivers (and even some instructors) seem to be that on driving test day:

1.       You have to park from a 90 degree angle, and
2.       You will fail your driving test if you don’t get the car into the bay in one movement.

Bay Parking Manoeuvre Techniques

A recent trainee driving instructor I was training believed the above to be true because she was told this by her previous ADI trainer.  Many other instructors will have been told the same by their trainers.  Inevitably, this gets passed on to the learner driver.  They too believe they have to carry out the bay park from a 90 degree angle and complete it first time.

The ‘90 degree’ method

Reproduced with permission of DriverActive

The ‘90 degree’ method is often the preferred option by instructors for the following reasons:

  • It can be easier to develop a ‘method’
  • It helps them relate to the reverse around a corner exercise
  • It can encourage the learners to not rely on their mirrors as much.

It can be easier to use reference points from a right angle to the bay, but this relies on the driver starting the manoeuvre from the same distance from the bays, and the width of the bays being the same in each car park.  If these conditions are met, this method regularly results in success.

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h2 Comments

Effective Fault Analysis ADI Part 3

ADI Part 3 - Core Competencies“Hi Ged & Claire.  I failed my ADI Part 3 test last week and the examiner told me that although I spotted all his faults and tried to fix them pretty well, my fault analysis needed work.  But I’m not sure where I went wrong, because I did what my trainer had told me.  For every fault, I asked him why he did it, but he just said, “I dunno” or “not sure”, and at one point he acted really defensive.  Is my trainer right, or was my examiner just having a bad day?”  Jim (PDI)

Fault Analysis ADI Part 3

Thanks for your question, Jim.  Fault analysis, the second of the three main core competencies on the ADI Part 3 test and ADI Check Test, is often an area of weakness for PDIs and ADIs, so hopefully I can help clear things up for you!

To explain the basic principles of the core competencies in simple terms, imagine you have terrible stomach pain and decide to pay a visit to your local GP.  After entering his room and briefly explaining your symptoms to the doctor (IDENTIFYING the problem), what would his next step be?  Is he likely to ask:

a)    “Why do you have stomach pain?” or
b)    “When did the pain start?  Where is the pain, specifically?  Are there any circumstances in which it is better/worse?”

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h12 Comments

To Signal or Not to Signal… That is the Question! When to use Car Indicator Signals

car indicator signals - Signal or not?“Hello Ged, I’m looking to get your opinion on the “use of car indicator signals”.  A discussion has started up in our local association with regards to following traffic and giving signals.

Some say that once you have stopped and taken up position in a meeting situation, you should put on your signal to show your attention to all parties. Others say that you should solely use your vehicle position to show your intention and no signal is required.

Basically, would you give a signal every time you are stopped from making progress?

Another question on signals also came up today – some instructors are saying that when changing back to lane 2 or lane 1 on dual carriageways or motorways that we should always give a signal.  Would you say that it’s necessary?

I would be interested to find out your opinion on these points and pass them on to the association.”

When to use Car Indicator Signals

This is a regular topic of discussion with many PDIs that are working towards their Part 2, and I also often come across it when assessing ADIs in preparation for their Check Test.  In a nutshell, many PDIs and ADIs are guilty of trying to create a ‘one rule fits all’ approach.  In the modern world, this just isn’t workable – there are far too many factors to take into account, and besides, a good driver should be able to decide if and when a signal is appropriate, or when one could lead to confusion or even danger.

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h5 Comments

Dealing With ‘Difficult’ Learner Drivers

difficult learner drivers - road-rage-learner“Hey Ged.. I got a really difficult pupil later. Good control of the car but in a ‘boy racer’ way. Very impatient, slightly aggressive to other road users, especially cyclists. He does know all the dangers/hazards but has the ‘it’s their own fault’ attitude. Any advice for dealing with difficult learner drivers?”

Great question! Firstly, the problems of attitude, peer pressure, etc, cannot be dealt with on a superficial level, which ‘traditional’ driving instruction deals with. Rather than concentrate on the dangers/hazards OUTSIDE the car, this guy needs to take a closer examination of the dangers/hazards WITHIN the car, or more specifically… the person sat in the driving seat. For this reason, I would definitely deal with this issue using a coaching approach.

Learner Drivers 10-Minute Extended Lesson Technique

I would first start off by suggesting that this be carried out at the start of the lesson. It may take 10 minutes or so, so if you are conscious of the time taken to do this, ask if it’s ok for the lesson to run over by 10 minutes. Then say something along the lines of, “OK, so what I’d like to do this afternoon is to explore what your thoughts are on driving. So I just want to ask you a few questions to find out your opinions; some of these may be a little challenging, but I’d like you to answer as honestly as you can – that way you’ll get the full benefit. Is that OK with you?”

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