Seasons Greetings

All the very best of health and happiness to everyone monitoring my blog. 

I wish you all the very best for the New Year.

7 Reasons to Learn to Drive with BIG TOM - www.BIGTOM.org.uk

Driving Lessons in Peterborough.  Driving Lessons in Grantham.

2012 has been an important year for me personally, as I’ve really got into my Customers' heads to understand what appeals to them.  I know I’m blowing my own trumpet here, but hey, it’s Christmas time, I’m in the mood for fun & festivity!  Here’s 7 reasons why my Customers are learning to drive with me:

Trusted – Look at my Testimonials here, and you will read how my Customers feel that they are respected, and feel comfortable in making mistakes as they learn.  Count how many times you read the word “calm” for example.  My customers like “calm” and I “do” calm.

Support – Take a browse round my website, how do I support my Learners?  There is a Q&A forum that they can put up any questions, they can keep up to date with all manner of driving matters via my Twitter, the Facebook page has got links to ‘tried and tested’ Car Insurers that offer value.  There is no surer sign of a business in touch with it’s Customers, than seeing how easy it allows it’s Customers to get in touch – live chat on the website, email, Twitter, Facebook, phone, Skype.

Results – Yes I have a bank of testimonials that Customers have been kind enough to provide, but look at my Facebook Timeline, you will see that Customers are so pleased with my service, that they are voluntarily posting up their comments.  This goes beyond me simply taking a photograph of a Test Pass and putting it on my Facebook as my competitors routinely do; these comments are from people taking the time and trouble...voluntarily, to recommend me.  Go look now if you don’t believe it!

Value – Yes, we all want value don’t we?  Everyone wants value.  I want value and I know my Customers want value.  I give 40 hours in-car driving experience for £737* – you find an Intensive Driving Course provider in Peterborough offering the same but cheaper than that as standard, and I’ll buy you a set of luxury Christmas Crackers for your Christmas Day dinner.

* Over 25's get even cheaper than that!!

Offering more than standard – Take a look at the comments on my Learner Blog and Facebook page and you will see that Driving Instructors and Learners from all over the UK & Ireland are monitoring my content.  Some have even been kind enough to voluntarily and publicly state how much they value my contributions for their own purposes as Driving Instructors and their own Learners.   As I add to this blog today, I see it's been read 3,633 times, I see that my YouTube driving channel has 22 subscribers and the videos have been viewed 10,522 times and I see 209 people are following me on Twitter.

Method - Anyone who has learnt to drive with me will know how much I believe in the importance of gaining driving experience – you drive more, you experience more and you learn more.  It is a significant difference in how I do business compared to my competitors as I GUARANTEE driving hours on my Intensive Driving Courses.  But one other key difference is making the experience personal to you, every driver is different, and should be treated as such.

Passion – Can you put a value on this?  Knowing that you are investing in training with someone who is passionate about their work.  You can see I run my business with complete transparency, I have blogs and tweets for all to see since I’ve been in the business.  I come from a background in Quality Assurance and I strive in everything I do, to offer my Customers a quality experience.  I acknowledge your trust in me when you sign up for my Course to ensure I deliver respect, dignity, sensitivity, flexibility, and passion.... that is what I’ve discovered my Customers want to see.

  

Please feel free to comment or grade this blog below.  Wishing you all a Happy Christmas.


www.BIGTOM.org.uk

The 1st test on your Driving Test

Sometimes people see the L plates on my driving school car and really go out of their way to try and help, but in doing so, kind of make things a little awkward.  I’m often pleasantly surprised how thoughtful others can be to Learners, but we had an example of this only the other day right outside the Test Centre at Peterborough, while on a standard driving lesson.

My Learner was practising coming out of the Test Centre on to that main road.  For people who don’t know the area, you are attempting to emerge on to a very busy main road.  The Test Centre is situated within an Industrial Estate, so as you immediately exit the car park, lorries can and often do feature.  But after leaving the car park, you then come to a bulk standard ‘T’ junction, that is on a very slight uphill gradient.  So you have a few things to deal with having left the Test Centre car park about 30 seconds previously; let’s look at some of the possibilities:

Vehicle turning into your road.  Very often, a vehicle (including lorries) turn into the minor road as you either approach or are actually at the give way lines. 

Busy major road.  You can (and regularly do) have to wait up to a minute to emerge.  Resisting the urge to just go what with all the nerves flying round your belly is key. 

Uphill gradient.  It is only slight, but enough to make the car roll back if you don’t fully control it.

So all the above will probably be going round your head as you sit there waiting to turn left or right.  But what I witnessed the other day was really quite odd.  As my Learner was sat waiting to emerge right, a cyclist in the major road, coming from the right, saw him, and actually stopped!  What?!  There was a bit of staring at each other for a few seconds, before eventually, my Learner gestured to the cyclist to say ‘after you’.  Although the cyclist was attempting to be really considerate, what he didn’t realise was that my Learner couldn’t emerge because there was so much traffic on the major road.  This kind of thing does crop up from time to time, maybe a pedestrian at a zebra crossing, waves you through the crossing, or maybe a car flashes you to drive across them.  All very kind, but they are not necessarily aware of who else is around them, that makes what they intend, really hazardous.

For example, going back to my Learner the other day, imagine for a second what a mess would have developed if a driver intending to turn right into our minor road, had spotted the cyclist waiting for us to emerge, and ALSO waited to allow us to emerge!  So you would then have increasing pressure on my Learner to emerge as we now have traffic queuing up to the left and a cyclist waiting to the right.  But, what about the traffic coming from the right?  Do they necessarily give 2 hoots about us in the minor road, do they realise why the cyclist in front of them has stopped, and do they have to normally wait for a car turning across them?  Hmmmm..... very hazardous, remember you should not make anyone stop, swerve, or slow.  You would need to assess that whole situation before you, and realise that actually, emerging in front of traffic coming from the right is not the best of starts for your Driving Test. 

Generally speaking, it is not our job as we drive round, to tell others what to do, where to go and control when they do it.  The reason is, you simply can’t necessarily be totally aware of everything that is around you, so gesturing for a pedestrian to cross the road, or waving a lorry out on to a main road are things to be avoided.  But, in this particular example, I quite like the way my Learner dealt with the cyclist.  The cyclist simply waved to my Learner and continued on his way.  My Learner then emerged shortly after.

Being able to assess these kinds of situations is no small thing, and comes with experience.  Last week an examiner took hold of a situation my Learner found himself in, and assisted dealing with some rather hazardous road works.  Full respect goes to that examiner, we are truly blessed with some excellent examiners at Peterborough Test Centre.       

Booking Your Driving Test

There's loads of ways to book your Practical Driving Test, click here for a very useful starting point.

If you do book online, make sure you are using the above link, because if you were to Google 'Booking Driving Test', you could end up going through to a link that is not an official site, and you end up paying more than you need to do for the test (this applies to the Theory Test as well).  So be warned!

In order to book the Practical Driving Test, you will need to provide your Theory Test Pass reference number, so you MUST have passed your Theory Test before you can book up the Practical Test.

Some organisations would have you believe there is some kind of Driving Standards Agency (DSA) waiting list and they have a 'special arrangement' to shortcut this waiting list.  Do remember that the DSA are providing a public service in the booking and undertaking of driving tests, they would not be allowed to associate themselves in some prejudicial way with any organisation.  So if an organisation is making claims such as that they can provide you with a test date 75% quicker than the normal DSA waiting list - ignore it.

What you and absolutely everyone is able to do is enquire either online or via the phone number the DSA provide, to see if there are any cancellations currently available.  These cancellation slots crop up frequently in any working day, and can be providing you with a test slot literally in a few days time.

In summary, there is no need to feel pressured in any way at all about the booking of the driving test.  Many of my Learners have said they prefer to ring through to enquire, as you end up speaking to a human voice, but you can also pick up cancellations online too.

Hope this has helped.  Feel free to grade or comment below.

Thank you.

Incorporating Customer Feedback

I've got a number of ways that I attempt to capture my customers thoughts and feelings after they have passed their driving test.  A couple of months ago I had a specific campaign that was beyond the normal activity I do.  I was very grateful to the customers who participated.  It's a little sad that they probably will not be seeing the fruits of their comments as they tend to move on once they've finished their driving lessons.

Nevertheless, it's very important to me to continuously strive to improve in ways that my customers say is important to them.

I'm looking forward to demonstrating that I'm prepared to invest the time, effort and money to do just that ...... big, exciting changes are coming soon.

Passed my driving test - which car to buy?

I was discussing this subject with a Learner on his last driving lesson before his driving test last week.  I thought I'd expand on it a bit to possibly help others.

Your first car should be small, economical, not too powerful, cheap to maintain, low insurance and with good visibility all around it.  

Small because you're going to need to do those manoeuvres and starting out in a small, agile car has got to be a good move; bay parks, parallel parks etc are going to be so much easier for you in a small car.  So think of a size of a Corsa, 205, Polo, Ka, and aim for no bigger.  

Economical is all about the amount of fuel it uses to drive.  Electric cars will soon be with us, so all you do then is just plug into the mains at night to re-charge, but until then, you will need to choose between running on petrol or diesel.  Although diesel is slightly more expensive to purchase, you do tend to get more mileage from a car running on diesel compared to petrol.  To give you some idea of what you should be roughly aiming for from the car you purchase, let me give you the stats for my Hyundai i10 for you to compare with when you are car hunting.  As of today, it costs me £41 to fill up the tank with petrol, and that is 30 litres of petrol.  That will provide me with about 255 miles of driving on driving lessons.  As 30 litres = 6.6 gallons, then my car is running at about 38 miles to the gallon.  When you speak to people about fuel economy they tend to speak in terms of “miles to the gallon” – although the size of a ‘gallon’ is an old, imperial size, and we all now talk in newer ‘metric’ sizes, old habits die hard it seems.  If you want to get quite precise about fuel economy, then you would need to account for the average speed at which the car is running at, and you hear terms like ‘urban’ (meaning driving in town), and ‘rural’ (meaning non-town driving), but to be honest, that is a little geeky, just taking an interest in the general miles to the gallon is a sensible question to ask any seller.

When I say ‘not too powerful’, I’m referring to the engine size.  My i10 is a 1.1 Litre (or 1100cc) engine.  This refers to the size of the engine; 1000cc = 1 L.  Generally speaking, the larger the engine size, the less the fuel economy, the more your insurance premium will be; also the larger the engine size in a small car = the faster it will drive.  I would suggest anything over about 1.3L as your first car is going to be quite a poky small car.  Might be quite flash for your mates to sense that acceleration and speed, but probably not the best idea in terms of a ‘safe’ option for a small car – a conversation to be had with your Parents perhaps.

You will be surprised how cars differ in terms of maintenance costs.  Things to think about are the cost of parts, general availability of parts, whether you want to service the car at a garage that is authorised for that make of car – how far is the nearest service station for that make.  Reliability is a big concern for drivers, some people don’t chance it, and buy separate break down cover in case something goes wrong.  In general terms, you may remember hearing about the ‘bath tub curve’ relating to reliability for products.  When a product is brand new, and when it is nearing it’s end of life, you can reasonably expect to experience faults crop up.  Some makes of car have got a reputation for being more reliable than others.  Cars will get through what is called ‘consumables’, these are things like tyres, bulbs, brake pads, exhausts, wiper blades – and ideally you should budget every month for these things cropping up as they inevitably will; it has nothing to do with reliability, it is simply acknowledging the fact that to run a car on the road, will automatically result in needing to replace certain parts that have a fairly short life cycle.  I can purchase a new tyre for general driving in my i10 for £37, I choose to pay a little bit more so that I know my tyres are slightly better quality, as it’s a Driving School car, so I pay £47 per tyre.  A new tyre in my family car costs £260, so pay attention to the detail when you choose your new car.

Cars generally fall into ‘insurance groups’, not everyone knows about them, but most do.  It’s sensible to check what insurance group a car you like the look of falls into.  The higher the number of the insurance group, the more the premium will cost.  You can get this information easily enough from the internet.  Insurance companies generally speaking don’t like to hear about ‘modifications’ to cars, as they inevitably demonstrate that the car is a) being altered from it’s original design capabilities, and b) is not going to be used in a standard way.  Look out for any changes to a prospective car that you are interested in, as you would be contractually obliged to inform an insurance company of non-standard features like exhausts, bodywork, wheels, windows, engine, lights.  Failing to do so and then attempting to claim on your insurance, could affect your claim.  My Facebook driving page has got links to good insurance companies that my Learners have been kind enough to allow me to publish for others to benefit from.

Now although ‘visibility’ is last on this list, personally, I’d place it quite high up in importance.  You will be amazed how the size and position of windows in a car affects vision, which affects safety and ease to drive.  You might like the look of the car when you are standing 10 feet away from it, but get in the drivers seat and actually assess the vision all around.  How big and low is the rear windscreen for you to see the kerb behind, how easy is it to do that blindspot check over your right shoulder, how big are the side mirrors.  My advice is not to underestimate this point, the link between amount of vision, safety and insurance claims is strong.

You may have noticed that I haven't put 'safety' of the car on my list.  The reason is because it's a massive subject that would take over this entire blog.  On a practical point, there are certain features that are nice to see in a car.  Knowing how well a car handles impact from different points of the car for example.  How well 'equipped' it is with features such as ABS, Traction Control, airbags etc. And how 'solid' it has been built - by that I mean compare how a vehicle hitting one of these tiny 'Smart' cars will affect the occupants compared to some other car makes that employ size, stability, crumple zones, space in an entirely different way.  At least if you are aware of these factors when you are choosing your first car, you can compare them.  

Hope this is useful to you, please feel free to grade it below, or add any comments.  If you have made a good decision for your first car, leave a comment for others to benefit from it.

Thank you.   

Frequency of Driving Lessons- www.BIGTOM.org.uk

Most Learners settle for one session a week for their driving lessons.  It was being done that way when I learnt how to drive 27 years ago, and it is still a popular way of doing it.  Let's look at how the frequency of your driving lessons can impact on your rate of learning.

The Driving & Vehicle Standards Agency are an independent organisation who oversee the standards of the driving test and the Examiners, and they tell us here that it takes on average 47 hours with a Driving Instructor to pass the test.  If you have clicked through to that link, you'll notice that they also include an average of 20 hours of private practice in a car, in between the driving lessons with a Driving Instructor.  

Now personally, and this is just my opinion, I am only speaking here for myself and no other Driving Instructor, my experience has shown me that if you pay attention to the frequency of driving lessons, duration of session, and this element of private practice then that can drive down that average figure of 47 hours.  

I make the above statement with the benefit of monitoring this over the 7 years I've been in business.  Let me expand on this a little:

A chap who recently learnt how to drive with me went to test yesterday, and passed first time with just 1 (minor) driving fault recorded by the examiner.  He was taking 2 hour lessons on a Friday morning (fitted in nicely with his diary), and he did 16 of those sessions.  So it took him personally 4 months to learn to drive.  About 2 months in to his course, he bought a car, and his Dad started taking him out in between lessons with me.  The family represents England in a form of martial arts and when they had a tournament or awards ceremony to attend, my Learner would drive to it.  These were proper journeys I'm talking about here, the Father would plan a route to avoid motorways (Learners are not legally allowed on them), and a 150 mile round trip journey was not unusual.

Another chap earlier in the year, did 30 hours of training over a 2 week period and passed comfortably first time.  He did no private practice in between lessons because he was fitting in 3 hours a day from Mon - Fri for 2 weeks.

So I know from my personal experience that duration of sessions, frequency of sessions and amount of private practice does have a bearing on efficiency of learning.  You would be simply amazed at the progress a Learner can make on my 20 hour, 5 day, Intensive Driving Course.  

But, and this is a big but, do not under-estimate the importance of your own personal attitude to learning to drive. It is crucial to identify what kind of learning style meets your personal learning preferences.  Some people like driving sessions to be short but often, others can handle longer sessions but less of them.  Knowing what will work for you personally is important.  And you need to be real about this, discover what will work for you then realise the consequences of that.  For instance, if you choose to do 1 hour per week for example, then you know from the DVSA that it will take you on average 47 weeks (with 20 hours private practice included) to pass the test.... about a year.  

So in summary, my advice is to consider your budget, consider your diary (what you can physically fit in your  ordinary week), whether you will have the opportunity to practice in between driving lessons, and most importantly, consider your learning preferences.  As a general guide for you, the shorter the period of time for the course, the longer the driving sessions = the more intense the training i.e. the more steep the learning curve.  Some people like that, some even strive on it, and some people will not like it one bit.

Just make sure that if you are selecting an Intensive Driving Course, that you are told before hand how much driving you will be guaranteed to do on that course.  It is a golden thread of my own courses that 'the more you drive, the more you experience, the more you learn'.  Doing a 5 day course for example with driving for 20 hours having had no other previous driving experience will be just the start of the learning process.

I hope this has been useful to you?  Please feel free to add comments or questions below or at least 'grade' your reaction in one of the boxes below.

BIG TOM Driving School  Intensive Driving Course in Stamford, Spalding, Peterborough, Grantham, Sleaford and Boston 0800 689 4174

What makes a 'good' driver - www.BIGTOM.org.uk

Driving Lessons in Peterborough.  Driving Lessons in Grantham.

What is the ultimate test of someone’s driving ability?  Well, organisations that are interested in ‘advanced driving’ will assess you in 3 ways; on roads you are not familiar with (at least that is what they aim to do), demand that you make as much ‘progress’ as possible, and ask you to verbally describe what you are planning to do BEFORE you actually do it.

 

Why does driving on unfamiliar roads in particular help to assess how good a driver someone is?

One of my Learners who is coming up to Test soon told me the other day that he recently drove his Dad to Birmingham.  It was a 150 mile round trip.  It means that he is practicing driving on roads that he is not familiar with and he is also practicing the type of journeys that he will be doing once he passes.  Unless you only intend to drive locally, it really will develop your driving ability to drive in unknown areas....  assessing severity of  bends, identifying unfamiliar traffic signs, negotiating around unusual road designs etc.  There is a great diversity of road planning and design across the country and if you will be driving across the country after you pass, does it not make sense to venture out of your immediate comfort zone when training?  A good measure of anyone’s professional ability is to see how well they perform outside of their normal environment, that holds true in many walks of life.  The value that experiencing diversity gives you personally, is a great asset and one that will pay you back many times over.  A slogan I often use in regard to this is “drive more, experience more, learn more”.  So clocking up driving hours on roads that you are not familiar with is always going to be time well spent.

The term ‘make progress’ is simply looking at driving in a slightly different way to normal.  It is a more clinical, business like way of driving.  There should be no breaking of the law, this isn’t about exceeding speed signs, but more about ‘efficient driving’.  To drive efficiently, you need to be making decisions that ensure you spend more time travelling and less time stop/starting.  It is a no nonsense approach to driving from A-B, but still ensuring you do not compromise any other road users in the process – so being considerate, and being safe whilst busily ‘making progress’.  And what that adds is pressure, remember the intention is to ask you to do this on roads that you do not know – so you don’t have the luxury of just ‘holding back’ to see how something you are not too sure on, pans out.  You actually control the outcome, rather than wait for the outcome.  As the England rugby boys experienced yesterday playing against S.Africa, Thinking Correctly Under Pressure (T CUP) is a true skill that requires dedication and hard work to develop.  I often make reference to sport in my training, because an elite sportsperson is a thinking sportsperson – and that is exactly the same in the driving world.

Lastly, being able to describe what you are considering, and how that affects your driving, BEFORE you actually do those driving actions, will force you to plan in advance.  Reading and anticipating a situation, analysing it, deciding on a course of action, and implementing those actions is one thing, having enough time to firstly prioritise what bits of that you need to say, and secondly actually get the words out, can only be accomplished if you plan far enough in advance.   The reason this is good is not so you can bore the pants off all your friends/family in the car, but it will make you a better driver.  You wont be surprised by events as you will have already anticipated them, your driving actions will be smoother and more controlled.  

Observing a 'good driver' is very deceptive, the outward signs of control, calmness, politeness to others, mask an awful lot of work that is going on which is not so apparent. 

Does the content of this blog interest you?  Please grade below.  Any comments/questions, add your input below.

www.BIGTOM.org.uk

Feeling confused and angry after a test fail - www.BIGTOM.org.uk

Driving Lessons in Peterborough.  Driving Lessons in Grantham.

One of the key differences between the Driving Test and a school exam is that the Driving Test is fluid; it is impossible to predict what might crop up in the test, as there are variables that are completely out of your control.  But one key similarity is the feelings you will have pre-test, that nervous, anxious feeling.  To a degree this can be useful as the adrenalin running through your body, being pumped by the higher than normal beats of your heart, mean that all your senses will be heightened.  But there are other symptoms of these test nerves which can become counter-productive. 

One such common symptom is a problem to do with immense concentration that results in you being less aware of the situation around you.  Observe a Learner on test in that state, and you will notice without fail that there is a distinct lack of movement of the head.  They are driving with the ‘blinkers’ on, their sole concentration is on the immediate space in front of their car.  Because they are not turning their head, the eyes have only a restricted view in which to observe, and the consequence of this is demonstrated in a few ways:

The ability to forward plan is severely restricted so dealing with parked cars becomes an issue in terms of judging whether it is safe to pass them, and also judging how close you are to them.  Also reading traffic signs for roundabouts on the ‘independent drive’ section can be a problem, because the eyes have not properly read the sign, and you can find yourself approaching or even on a roundabout and not realising which is your exit.

You will miss speed signs because your eyes are not scanning, they are fixed on the road immediately in front of you, so driving at the wrong speed can crop up.

Not looking at your speedo.  As your eyes are fixed in front of your vehicle, you tend to not realise what speed you are doing, or not assessing what speed you need for the future situation; being in the wrong gear for the speed, taking bends too fast, driving too slowly for the conditions are all symptoms of this problem.

Making positional changes without first of all observing if it is safe to do so.  Exiting roundabouts and entering dual carriageways without using mirrors is a common symptom here as well as the classic of moving off from the side of the road without checking it is safe to do so.

Not anticipating events such as a green light changing amber, or a pedestrian walking on to a zebra crossing, or an oncoming vehicle coming into your lane to overtake a cyclist.

Staring at the vehicle in front and being influenced by what they do.  So you can find yourself easily copying someone in front who is approaching a roundabout too fast, or drifting between lanes on a multi-lane roundabout, or driving over 30 in a 30, or not giving priority to oncoming traffic in a meeting situation.

All of these problems can and will fail you your driving test.  When you get the bad news from the examiner at the Test Centre you inevitably feel cross, upset, disappointed, frustrated and primarily this will be because you KNOW that normally you do not drive like that.  Prior to the test, you will have repeatedly driven not committing any of the above faults, and so your feelings of anger are mixed with feelings of confusion.... “why did I do that?”.  You will go home and say to your Parents or friends, “I’m so cross that I let that happen, I don’t normally do that at all, what is wrong with me?”  You start doubting yourself, your driving ability and this is all not good.

Your only crime is that the ‘occasion’ got the better of you.  Put it another way, you try driving round with your Driving Instructor on a driving lesson, and NOT turn your head once, see how long you get away with that – I guarantee it will be less than 5 minutes!

You need to be aware of what is around you so that you can plan for what is around you.  The only way, the absolutely ONLY way you can be aware of what is around you, is to see it.  Sounds a stupid thing to say I know, but if you do not turn your head, and allow your eyes to feed your brain with the conditions around you, you will be driving reactively and not proactively.  A key difference between a mediocre driver and a good driver is the degree to which they forward plan.  Your eyes play an essential part in your ability to forward plan. 

Find this blog useful?  Any comments, questions, please add below.  Any real life examples you can give of this happening on your test.... others will benefit greatly from you taking the time to feedback below.  Thank you!

www.BIGTOM.org.uk

A weekend of inspiration

I took my 10 year old son to see England v Australia at Twickenham on Saturday.  For anyone who doesn't know, we got thumped, good and proper.  The way Australia played was an awesome display of organisation and commitment that will stay with me for a while.

My Sons then went to their rugby training session on Sunday, yesterday, and while they were training there was a game going on in the u13's where we (Bourne) got well and truly hammered by Lincoln.  And believe it or not, I could see similarities in the way Lincoln played, with the passion, organisation and commitment that I had seen the day before by the Aussies.

You're probably wondering what on earth this has got to do with learning to drive.  Surprisingly perhaps, an awful lot.  

If you happened to see Helen Flanagan last night on "I'm a celebrity get me out of here" you might know where I'm going with this blog.  She had previously failed to earn her camp mates one single solitary meal on any of her previous 5 trials.... not a sausage.  The mood in the camp went from a very understanding and supporting one with lots of hugs and commiserations to a very hostile one of 'get out there and win us some meals', because they were by then getting extremely hungry.  If you had seen the young lasses face last night as she was overcoming her fears and habitual urge to opt out when the going gets tough, you would have seen a person who was 'in the zone'.  The result was that she earned the maximum amount of meals, and the elation she felt afterwards, when she realised she had overcome her fears and succeeded was inspirational.

The reason why I'm mentioning these examples, is because they demonstrate how powerful our minds are.  It is easy to overlook this incredibly important point.  I recently had a Learner on my Intensive Driving Course who initially was breaking down in tears.  When we dug deeper about what was happening, she was angry with herself, the last thing she needed or even wanted was support and empathy, she wanted help to focus on overcoming her driving issues, and she well and truly did exactly that.  The lass on Day 1 was not the same lass on Day 7 - it was an inspirational journey for both of us, that week.

I appreciate that not all of us are necessarily sports people, and none of us are celebrities going on shows in Australia, but managing the mind to overcome fears, focus on the task, and persevere to find success is something that will chime with each and every one of us.

In my world, that just happens to be unlocking pathways in the mind to allow people to learn to drive.  People come to me literally shaking sometimes.  They are trembling with fear, anxiety and stress.  Others will not shake, but internally they are a mush, they will feel sick, perspire, their head will be fuzzy, and they forget to breathe, as they are so engrossed.

So what do you need to do if that is how you feel about learning to drive?

The first thing to do is embrace the opportunity.  By that I mean, don't fight the challenge, actually live for the moment that this challenge brings.  Accept it.  Find a means by which you can convert that nervous energy it instills in you, and channel that energy into actions that are helping your cause.  Remove from your mind any feelings or internal voices that are telling you that you will fail, and giving you a 101 reasons why you will not be able to achieve the challenge.  Literally do not allow those thoughts to fester in your mind and zap your energy.  Instead surround your personal world with energy fillers, things that inspire you.  That can be visual pictures of what success looks like for you, thoughts of what actions will result when you succeed, networking with people who are either in the same situation as you, or have succeeded.  You need to regularly feed your mind with constructive actions that slowly but surely lead you to passing your test.  By regularly I mean, at least 5 positive actions per day.

Let me give some real examples of what I mean:

When you are next a passenger in a car, observe the driver, look at what they do, ask them what they are thinking while driving, and what they are looking for.  You will simply be amazed how helpful people are when you start taking an interest in what they do.  Look what the hands are doing, look what the feet are doing.  Do you know what every action is for?  If not.... ask!  Get involved, engage.  Why are they signalling, when do they need to check their mirrors, have they got any tips?

Use free resources to fill your mind with good information.  Boy is there a lot of good stuff on the internet.  When I just look at what I provide alone: there are free driving videos on my YouTube channel ("2010BIGTOM") that Learners and Driving Instructors over the UK view, there is information on cheap insurers on my driving Facebook page, there is essential information on the Driving Test standard on my blog, there are visual presentations for Learners freely available to see on my Prezi page, there is a Q&A forum on my G+ just for Learners to network and help each other.  And that is just in my own small world, there are far bigger fish out there in the driving training world than me I can assure you!  

My point is, accept and engage.  Cancel out negativity with hard positive actions, not wishy washy stuff that doesn't mean anything.  Helen Flanagan worked really hard mentally last night, such was her desire to succeed, and that effort then converted to pure ecstatic elation.  And this is what success does.  The path isn't easy, only a fool would pretend it is, but there are many things that you can positively start doing TODAY to help you succeed.  And let this blog be the first 'dig in the ribs' to get you on the path to mental positivity.

Is this blog useful to you?  Please grade below.  Feel free to add comments/questions.          

Why do I have to do these driving actions?

Many Learners on driving lessons wont be prepared to ask this question.  The temptation is to just do what the Driving Instructor says; once the driving test is passed, then you can decide for yourself what driving actions you do and don't want to bother with.

In other words, this becomes an issue of compliance for a limited period of time.  In my opinion this is a really dangerous situation to develop.  Taken to an extreme, all that is churned out after a course of driving lessons is a person that is conditioned to do certain driving actions in order to satisfy the examiner in the test.  It can breed resentment, distrust and poor communication in the relationship between driving instructor and pupil.  It is in effect a 'LOSE-LOSE' for all concerned.  

Here is a short presentation on this theme, just intended to provide a sample of reasons for driving actions, not intended to be a comprehensive list.

I ask any Learners monitoring to take a look, and give an honest assessment whether you 'buy' into the reasons given.  If it doesn't do it for you, let me know by adding a comment here on this blog or on the presentation comment section.    Thanks in advance.

13 Things You Probably Don't Know About The Drivers Test

Here are 13 facts about the driving test* that most Learners that I talk to on driving lessons are not aware of:


1.  You never get asked to pull over on the right side of the road (likewise, the reverse parallel park manoeuvre is only ever done on the left side of the road).

2.  You can have the radio on quietly if you want.

3.  It is not intended to be a test undertaken in silence, nowhere does it say "no talking".

4.  The bay park manoeuvre for the test is always done by reversing, however, if you had one of the other manoeuvres on your test, then you will only be asked to drive forward into a bay back at the Test Centre.

5.  As unlikely as it is, you COULD be asked to perform a right reverse around the corner.

6.  You will be asked to pull over about 6 times at various stages of the test.

7.  You can have any person aged over 16 observe your test in the back seat.

8.  Making a directional mistake on the 10 minute 'Independent Drive' section need not cause a test fail.

9.  You do not have to use a driving school vehicle for the test.

10.  It is possible to fail your driving test by repeatedly driving too slow for the conditions.

11.  For the reverse parallel park manoeuvre you often park up behind one vehicle, not between 2 vehicles.

12.  It is not the responsibility of the examiner to supervise your driving, only assess it.

13.  There is no credible evidence to suggest that there is a set quota of pass/fails from the DSA examiners per week. 

* relevant to car practical tests undertaken at Peterborough Test Centre, Cambs.

How to be a safe driver

We all use the term 'safe driver' but seldom do we summarise what we mean by it.

Your tip for today; read it, absorb it and then apply the principles to your driving.



Your Driving Instructor will have one eye on you passing your driving test, and the other eye on preparing you for driving after you have passed.  

Newly qualified drivers are being hit hard with high car insurance premiums because the learning that is taking place on driving lessons, is not being consistently applied after you pass your test, and THAT in a nutshell is why accidents occur and premiums are as high as they are.  This makes you a HIGH RISK.

It's a short presentation, but your little golden nugget for you today.... please remember to comment/grade and if you like it, tell others too, they may benefit from it as well.

Safe driving everyone.

5 key ingredients on my Intensive Driving Course

Click here to view how my Intensive Driving Course gets results.


Please do add any comments/questions below.... thank you!

Top 5 Tips to Pass your Driving Test

5.  Personalize the driving test.  This is your test, you've paid for it, make it yours.  Put the radio on quietly if you want it on, sort the temperature to make YOU comfortable, use a cloth on that side mirror to wipe rain droplets off before your manoeuvre, tell the examiner what you're thinking if you want to (remember, you can't ask them to make driving decisions for you), need a moment to compose yourself... do it.  This is YOUR moment to demonstrate that YOU are a safe, efficient and considerate driver.  

4.  Avoid added pressure.  You will be anxious enough about the test itself, but when the test result affects another important factor in your life then that is piling up the pressure on you.  This is aggravated yet further if the important event is very close in time to the driving test – because that means if you were to fail the test, you don’t even have time to have another attempt.  A new job is a classic example of this problem e.g. the job requires you to have passed; fail the test, you don’t get the job.

3.  Drive to the conditions.  It will be natural to want the test to be over as soon as possible, and it will be so tempting to rush through the 38 minute test, to get it over and done with.  A driver who is not responding to different driving conditions is test fail material.  Whatever crops up, crops up and needs dealing with.  Think of the test like a moving goal, your responsibility is to be seen to be able to adapt to that moving target.  Look at the top reason given for why the test is designed as it is.

2.  Observe first, drive second.  The top reason for failing driving tests is lack of observations at junctions.  You will need to demonstrate an attitude of consideration for other road users.  A fundamental development in driving ability is being able to consider how your driving affects other road users.

THE NUMBER 1 THING TO DO TO PASS YOUR TEST FIRST TIME........

1.  Get lots of driving experience.   How much experience you have of driving will greatly influence your potential to pass first time.  People who rush through a few driving lessons, to then rush into a driving test, are very likely to be rushing to fail.  Look beyond the test, aim to train to be safe for the years ahead.  Paying for lots of tests, or high insurance premiums due to accidents,  or even paying with your life – is avoidable by training well so that you drive well (passing the test then becomes a side issue).

Any Learners monitoring this blog that have any questions on the above, please feel free to add comments below. 

Do you offer any guarantees?

I was very recently asked: "I want to pass first time, and I want to do it as quickly as possible.  Do you offer any guarantees with your intensive driving course?"

I will guarantee that you will be provided with 30 hours driving experience in a week for £540.  

When you are learning to drive or fly or swim, there is little substitute for experience.

Pilots record meticulously their 'flying hours', the hours literally spent from taking off, to landing; not in a simulator but actually flying.  




You can try to TELL a child all day and all night how to ride a bike, or how to play piano, but they simply will not learn unless they literally experience it for themselves.  

Put simply... "you drive more, you learn more".

If you have no driving experience at all, then you can choose to have 40 hours of driving experience for £737.  If you are not ready for test by that time, then in recognition for your loyalty I will further train you at heavily discounted rates.  If you are ready for test by that time but fail, then I will re-train you for FREE.

So to get back to the question asked, when ringing round training providers, make sure you ask them "How many hours am I guaranteed to be driving on your course?", because classrooms and driving simulators don't feature on my Intensive Driving Course.

Hope this blog helps... please grade below or leave me a comment... thank you.

Learning to ski v learning to drive

Being willing and able to forward plan when driving is essential as you progress with learning to drive.

 I draw an analogy with skiing.  As you become a more competent skier, you realise that if you fail to plan in advance where you are going, then the consequences can be really painful!  When on a driving lesson if you find yourself stalling a lot, or braking too soon or too late, or being in the wrong position in the road, or the wrong gear, these are all signs that you are not planning in advance what you need to do and giving yourself enough time to actually put the necessary actions in place.




When we start off on the nursery slopes with a skiing instructor, there will be a lot of controlling elements happening; the location tends to be fairly flat, there is a lot of space around you, the instructor will ask you all to have a go one at a time, and he/she will be standing a few feet from you, giving you instant verbal instructions of what to do, how and when.  If something goes wrong, the risk of injury is minimised, you inevitably end up landing hard on your backside.  After a while, this becomes less funny, and more annoying, and your motivation to improve becomes more focussed, as not listening tends to result in pain!

It is very similar when you are learning how to drive.  The demands required of you will be limited to reflect your current ability.  Large flat off-road spaces, and no other traffic are ways of assisting you; things are done in slow time, your Driving Instructor is giving you lots of help and support, demonstrating and prompting you to do your actions in a methodical, logical sequence.  You are told why something needs to be done, you are shown how to do it properly, you are given tips of how to make that action more manageable and slowly but surely progress is made.  As long as you keep applying the fundamentals then with time, the actions become more and more efficient, and the controlling elements around you are gently released so that you are driving in more demanding locations.

Your Driving Instructor will ensure that you do not crash, you do not run anyone over and you do not overly affect other road users.  There will come a time where you will be given the opportunity to take on the responsibility of applying these fundamentals on your own.  And this is where this forward planning comes in.  Previously, you will have been encouraged to identify hazards, spot oncoming cyclists or junctions, consider what is the sequence of actions needed and given time to put them in place, as prompted by your Driving Instructor.  For further learning to take place, those key skills need to be seen by you, and then you apply the sequence independently.  It will still be good to make mistakes, because that is how all of us learn, so tips and techniques will still be coming your way to further refine the fundamental skills learnt.  But the key thing is that you are building blocks, you are slowly but surely developing skills, progress is being made and you can see for yourself that you are becoming a more competent driver.  

Go back to skiing for a second.  When your skiing instructor gives you the nod to go and practise on the slopes, it will be you who is deciding the grade of run you go on, you decide how to ski across the slopes and you who will feel the pain if you try to do things too soon or without applying the fundamentals.  As such, it tends to grab your attention just a little bit more dynamically than it can do on driving lessons.  If you find yourself hurtling down a ski slope uncontrollably, and colliding off the main slope into a tree, and your leg is broken, you get air lifted off the slopes, game over.  If you are finding that your Driving Instructor is not giving you the freedom of driving on more busy roads, then just consider why he/she might be doing that..... are they concerned for your safety, their safety, the safety of other road users, their driving school car?

Trying to short cut that learning process is troublesome.  It tends to result in inconsistent driving ability because the learning blocks have been built on weak foundations.  It can still be possible to pass the driving test, it may take you a few attempts, you may only just pass, but a reliably safe driver you will almost certainly not be.  The insurance premiums for newly qualified drivers are as high as they are for good reason, and not applying the fundamentals that were covered on your driving lessons can be a major factor.   

Has this blog been useful to you?  Can you relate to any of the above, are you getting frustrated at your lack of progress?  Any comments/feedback please feel free to add below.  

Road Safety

On 31/10/12 BBC2 broadcast a programme at 11.20pm called "How Safe Are Britain's Roads".  It is a weekly series, and well worth a watch if you can spare an hour.

I have condensed some of the quotes provided in Episode 1:

In 2011 there were 1900 deaths on our roads, and 23,000 seriously injured.  Although the number of road deaths has been declining since the max in 1965 of nearly 8000, last year (2011) was the first INCREASE in road deaths for a long time.  

In 2011 there were 106 deaths on motorways, and 1041 on A roads.

The Dept for Transport estimates that every fatality costs our economy £1.7 million, and every seriously injured costs £190,000

49% of drivers drive over 70mph on motorways.

There is 3 times more traffic on our roads now than in 1966.

It is a known fact that if you increase the speed limit on any type of road, more people will be killed and seriously injured.  

Although 'A' roads account for only 10% of the road network, they account for 50% of all fatalities.  When you leave a motorway and drive on to an 'A' road you are 5 times more likely to have a collision.

1 in 3 of all people killed in 2011 were not wearing seat belts.

25% of ALL crashes involve one car hitting another from behind, and 80% of all crashes occur at a speed of around 20mph.

70% of all accidents occur on 'urban' roads.

Pedestrians account for 1 in 4 of all road deaths.

90% of accidents involve human error. 

Being '30 something' and unable to drive....

Our circumstances change, perceptions and outlooks in general are forever evolving, and unless we take the trouble to specifically review something, the danger is it gets filed deep in the mind, under the heading ‘for another day’ – a day that never arrives.  Consider where you live.  You may have selected 10 years ago where you are living now for very good reasons that were appropriate to you and your life... 10 years ago.  

Things move on, and bringing little ones into the world means options of schooling in your area becomes an issue.  Consider your work.  Occupations change or develop and you may find that not being near a mainline train station is quite inconvenient.  It may be as simple as things that you considered to be tolerable 10 years ago, have just become quite intolerable as the years have marched on for example, noisy neighbours, or having a very small back garden, or not having broadband covered in your area.  My point is that things evolve, and unless we consciously pause, and review where we are and check that is where we want to be, then the danger is we just trundle along not reaching the levels of satisfaction that are very much achievable.                                        

And perhaps that is worth acknowledging from the start, change in our lifestyle is very often good, very often positive and to be encouraged.  Long gone are the days when we start a job at 17 and retire doing the same work 50 years later.  We are in an age where diversity rules, and having the courage to break free from ‘routine’ is very uplifting.  A good case in point is Zappo's the shoe people, no. 2 of their 10 core values is ‘embrace and drive change’ – their employees are positively encouraged to do things differently, break free from rigid processes and the benefits to their customers are plain to see.                             

We are all able to search in the Driving Standards Agency website for statistics on tests in the UK.  Randomly looking at the year Apr 2010 – Mar 2011 for example, shows that nationally 513,178 passed the practical test between the ages of 17 – 24, and yet a staggering 230,704 passed between the ages of 25 – 91 (yes, a chap of 91 passed his test that year – 3 cheers for him!  Spare a thought though for the poor chap of 95 who took the test and failed).  So if you are 25 or over, whilst you possibly may FEEL that you should have been driving many years ago, the statistics tend to indicate that you are by no means alone, over 30% of all test passes in that year were from 25 year olds and over. 

There are a whole variety of reasons why people don’t pass their test until later on in life.  At 17, 18 and 19 we are young adults and are busy ‘finding our feet’ in the world.  Some of us get engrossed in academic study which often entails moving to another part of the UK near to your College/University.  Being able to drive simply does not have the priority in your life.  Others are busy trying to find work, or taking further training for their work and that is the centre of their life for that period of time.  

For others it can be a problem of finance – not just affording to train with a Driving Instructor, but even if you were to pass, finding the money to buy a car and insure it can be just too difficult to achieve.  For example, as an absolute beginner, you can pay in the region of £650 - £1500 to train, you will pay about £1000 for a second hand small car, and a 17 year old can reasonably expect to pay 2-3 times that price to then insure the car for 1 year.  When you also consider fuel costs whereby a small car will cost about £50 to fill it up with fuel, then if you needed to do that once per week, that itself would cost £2600.  And then there are the maintenance costs for consumables like tyres and exhausts and then servicing and MOT costs.  All in all, for a 17 year old in year 1 of their driving life, they can reasonably expect to spend about £7000 to train, pass the test and then drive around.  Now that is a large expense and may go some way to explaining why people choose to leave learning to drive until later in their life. 

Other reasons can be to do with personal circumstances, such as living in an area where it is hard to find a Driving Instructor or Test Centre.  Conversely, some people live in areas where the public transport is actually extremely reliable, very frequent and reasonably cost efficient, which means that there is simply little need to drive.  Our upbringing can also have an effect on our desire to learn to drive; some have bad experiences of being a passenger involved in a nasty accident, some are subjected to poor driving standards by key people in their lives like parents or friends and those experiences literally put them off being in a car.  For some it comes down to their attitude to learning, maybe they had a bad experience of learning at school where they had issues with a Teacher or the teaching style, or maybe struggled with tests and as a consequence hate to take any kind of tests.  People can be frightened of failure, I’m not talking just about tests here, for some it troubles them that they may not be able to achieve, they may not be able to perform the necessary mental and physical skills required to drive.  There can be a whole raft of reasons for this, and all of them perfectly natural and valid.  The mind affects nerves, motivation, and let’s not forget your attitude to driving.  

There is no stigma attached to being 20 or 30 ‘something’ and not being able to drive, it is actually very common.  It is one thing considering how not being able to drive affects your pride but quite another to consider how it now affects your lifestyle.  Although it is very easy to immediately consider how it can improve your career prospects, and opens up opportunities for choosing where you live, sometimes the benefits are far more practical.  A Parent being able to CHOOSE to take the car on a school run when it is very cold or wet is no small ‘life changer’.

Having the ability to drive a sick child to an out of hours Doctor Surgery and pick up medicine out of hours is huge for a family with young ones.  Being able to fit so many more jobs in to your 24hr day will be fantastically liberating – they don’t always need to be routine tasks, some of these new options affect mood, health, relationships .... if you just ponder for a second how being able to drive will benefit a sport or hobby or interest you have, or how it will benefit you visiting and supporting an elderly Parent.

The fact that you have taken the trouble to read this blog is a sign that you are willing to consider ‘change’ – do not under estimate the power of your mind and how it makes you do the things you do.  Learning how to drive or fly or play an instrument or write creatively or sing or dance or play a sport involve learning new skills.  That is the kind of ‘change’ that you wont necessarily know you are missing; you often hear elderly people resenting the fact that they never fulfilled a lifelong desire for a certain activity.  They realise in their heart of hearts that they actually would have got so much success, reward and satisfaction if they had learnt this skill they have longed for all their life – which makes me think of our 95 yr old friend on the DVSA stats who clearly was trying to right this wrong in his life.

What you do have though that is worth celebrating is experience.  This is a key fact that differentiates you from a 17 year old who is wanting to learn to drive.   You will have a very good idea of learning styles that you like, in other words HOW you like to learn.  You will undoubtedly have experienced passing and failing in different walks of your life.  You will appreciate the importance of being ‘allowed’ to make mistakes in a safe environment, discover techniques for yourself that work for you personally.  You will very likely have had to identify a strategy to achieve a certain goal, and you appreciate that an open mind to learning can often be the difference between success and failure.   Consider the benefits of building relationships, and how open communication between important people around you is so incredibly important.   Think how your actions can affect others around you, and how important it is to be considerate to others.  

These are all very important lifeskills that will benefit you greatly when you learn to drive.  Attitudes, motivation, relationships, communication, learning styles – these are significant factors on the journey to becoming an independent driver.  Being able to see the connections and differences between driving lessons, the driving test, and how you then want to drive for the rest of your life is something that is aided with experience..... and experience you have!  

Another practical advantage of learning to drive later on in life is that the car insurance companies acknowledge that this experience you have will dramatically alter the chances of you being involved in an accident as compared to a 17 year old for example.  In general terms, the insurance premiums for a 26-35 year old newly qualified driver will be about a third of that for a 17 year old male for example – another cause for celebration.

To give balance to my point here I should point out that sometimes these experiences are perceived by some to hinder learning a new skill.  Self doubt can be quite corrosive in a learning environment.  Sometimes I’ve noticed that more experienced Learners can be too thoughtful for other road users around them, they are so conscious of not wanting to upset others that they are actually being too thoughtful and do not show enough assertiveness.  Likewise, some people have experienced poor driving over the years that really sticks in the mind – maybe speed related on a motorway, or an accident involving a vulnerable road user.  These experiences should not be considered as negative at all – being wise to the possibility of what can occur is a skill to celebrate not criticise.  Being alive to the risks, dangers and possible outcomes of poor driving is quite often what is seriously lacking in young male drivers, so do not be thinking that your ‘considered’ approach to driving is in any way negative.

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