The following 3 tips on how to be a great driver will save
you hundreds if not thousands of pounds over the course of your driving life.
Have you noticed how drivers get very defensive about the
standard of their driving? Seldom will
you hear a person admitting they are not a good driver. Have you ever considered why that might
be? What is it about driving that makes
people get so defensive? Fear, pride,
nerves, over confidence, lack of co-ordination, uncertainty about a car? Does gender make a difference, the age of the
person, what kind of vehicle they drive, how often they drive, where they
drive, how well they were taught to drive, who and how they were influenced
about standards of driving from childhood upwards?
Well, any given person you choose to ask these questions to,
could give you a different answer – for such a common activity that millions of
us undertake on a daily basis, it is actually a highly personal subject. The path a person takes on their journey to
passing the driving test, and then driving for the rest of their life, can be a
highly emotional one and very personal.
It still remains a fact that on average, less than 50% of
people taking the driving test in the UK will pass first time, and the car
insurance premiums are a constant reminder of the difficulties we all
experience on the roads. But spend a
minute considering those two factors alone:
Each driving test costs £62 for the test itself, and if a
driving school car is being used, typically an attempt at the driving test will
cost in excess of £100.
Having a collision in a vehicle is costly in terms of the potentially
raised insurance premiums, and the excess that may need to be paid, but also
the effect on your health with injuries, loss of pay due to lost work, not to
mention any psychological trauma that may result. So this is most certainly a fluid situation,
forever evolving, dependent on many factors that alter as you go through your
driving life.
What is the answer to this problem?
My work experience for nearly 20 years now has given
me the opportunity to see for myself, in close detail, the problems encountered
with the process of learning to drive, and also the general consequence of poor
driving. It is fair to say that whilst a
lot of media attention is afforded to laying the problem at the feet of young
drivers, there are dozens of reasons why the standard of driving of any driver
can start to dip. Let me offer 3 tips
that will help you on your path to be a great driver:
1.
Train well.
The training for this skill that you will be using on a daily basis for
the rest of your life, will equate to less than 10p per day if you start to
drive as a teenager. See the bigger
picture, take the long view, and plan for safe driving beyond the driving test –
this will be money well spent.
2.
Have a
professional review your driving ability on a yearly basis. Consider it like a health check. Big Tom Driving School provides a
comprehensive assessment that reviews eyesight, reaction time and forward
planning skills in today’s busy and hectic driving conditions for as little as
£30. When you consider the possible consequences
involved, the price to pay for this assessment will be tiny in comparison.
3.
Form good habits. Just like many other aspects of our life,
whether it is to do with health, gardening, cooking, playing golf, nurturing
relationships, construction, when you do things well, because you have got in
the habit of doing them well, it takes less mental effort to obtain the same
high standard. A high driving standard
is no different. By gaining the
knowledge of good driving techniques, and getting used to applying them so that
they form habits, you are well on your way to becoming a great driver.
You have the opportunity to
greatly influence the experiences that will be coming your way in the future on
the roads. Experiences that are as much
to do with how you may possibly affect other road users (mostly inadvertently), as they are to do with how others affect you (again, mostly inadvertently). As a rule, drivers don't deliberately drive round, intentionally upsetting others with their poor driving.
There is a vast array of drivers
out there on the public roads, all with varying degrees of confidence, ability,
and experience, but one thing you do have control of is reviewing how you fit
in to that complex mix. In that regard,
the future is indeed, in your hands.
BIG TOM Driving School Intensive Driving Courses in Lincoln, Peterborough, Grantham, Spalding, Sleaford, Boston, Bourne and Stamford Tel: 0800 689 4174
