Overseas Pupils

The language:

A driving test candidate must have enough English for safe driving. In effect this makes the driving test an English test as well. Remember:

• Interpreters are no longer allowed
• The Theory Test must also be done in English

What you may ask is enough English for safe driving. This could be the difference between:

• Pull up on the left
• Take the next left
• Take the next available left
• Take the second left
• Bear left
• Take the left hand lane

You might argue that directions are not a requirement of safe driving but understanding is. Remember there is a section on the DL 25, ETA (V) which is Examiner Takes Action (Verbal). The candidate must be able to understand the examiner.

Quite often a pupils level of understanding is much better than their spoken English. A lot of educational textbooks are in English and a pupil will have good reading and writing English but not spoken. While they can have a limited command of spoken English they will often have first and higher degree level qualifications in their own country.

As you spend time with them they will get used to your voice and the way you use words and you will get used to them. Pulling over more frequently may be an option as you will be both putting effort into communication. Sometimes learning a few words of their language will show willingness on your part. It might only be hello and well done, but you are building bridges and creating empathy.

Greater use of visual aids may help and a picture can paint a thousand words. As always it is good practice to use the examiner phraseology, more so where the pupils’ understanding is limited.

General:

Remember cultural differences may also come into play:

• A general respect for a teacher and expecting you to lead
• A more hierarchical social structure where you are in a more dominant position

Not quite the client centred learning ethos but you can start working towards it and get them talking. Pulled up at the side of the road here is a good call. It will allow them to concentrate on your words of wisdom.

Remember also that the same as some written language to us looks like scribble it will work the other way also. And while these written words look like the most natural thing in the world, it may be hard for someone from overseas to get used to it.

The driving test and learning to drive is part of the process of making themselves better able to fit in.

• For some of them it has been a case of fleeing a regime that may want to imprison or kill them
• Others might have been expected to serve in the army and kill on behalf of the regime
• Another group may be just trying to make their life better either for themselves and or their children
• Everyone’s journey will be different

In many countries it will be possible to buy a driving licence so the skill level is not what you might have here. I had one pupil who was an overseas surgeon complaining half jokingly that he could have bought driving licences for everyone in the block that he used to live in back home with the money he had spent with me.

Another pupil told me that when he was 10 years old his father gave him a cushion and the keys to a pickup and said there is the desert, go and learn to drive.

Driving:

Two main groups here, ordinary learners and those on an international licence. You may occasionally come across a diplomatic international licence and these are valid for five years.

The ordinary international is valid for 1 year from the date of entry:

• Once they have an address here it’s a good idea to get the UK licence
• Going on holiday and claiming 1 year from your last date of holiday entry into the UK will not work
• Anything complicated, get advice!
• To convert they must start with a Provisional Licence

Provisional Licence all the normal rules apply but they may not be familiar with the system here so check:

• DVLA licence check if not sure of anything
• Eyesight and general health for driving

If from a country where they drive on the right:

• Interior mirror check can be over right shoulder with blind spot to the left
• Gear stick and handbrake will take getting used to
• Beware of them defaulting to driving on the right side of the road
• The above can be more so at junctions
• Be aware of going the wrong way at roundabout

As we said before if the written language of where they are from looks like scribble to you. Imagine what ours looks like to them:

• Get them used to following road signs
• Make sure they are okay with the satnav being in English

You can look at your high street and know things about the people and shops that you would not know if you had not lived here:

• Looked at a similar scene in downtown Bombay and it will be colours and shapes without the same meaning as your own street
• There is a discipline and predictability to UK traffic
• Sometimes being safe just will mean going very slowly

Their model of what good driving should be like will be very different to ours:

• For instance often the safe place is the middle of the road
• Driving along tooting your horn is expected
• Giving way is an act of cowardness
• Waiting till nothing is coming is not a sign of weakness but wisdom

Something to watch out for is crossroads. When there is nothing coming from the junction either side they will be okay. However if they see a vehicle approaching the last item above will often come into play. If the paragraph above sounds like your UK pupils as well, it was meant to. Treat them all as individuals and do your best.

© Liam Greaney

driving-pro.com

If you have done any of the Standards Check courses with Andrew Love one of the things he will point out is that our driving needs to be of a high standard.

While as teachers/coaches of driving this should be something that we all aspire to. The real benefit is when your pupil does something wrong it will stick out like a sore thumb. It will not feel right.

I had a trainee instructor who failed his Part 3 on risk, because his driving had gone back to what it was before we started his Part 2 training. He did not see the need to keep the standard up.

I did subsequently get rid of him which for me was an awful experience as I have never had to do that before. It felt a bit like what I imagine committing your first murder must be like.

The point here being that if he had kept his driving standards up, we would have likely had a different outcome on his Part 3 and possibly a different outcome with him working with myself and my colleagues.

This leads us to where we now say ‘drive the way you teach, and teach the way you drive’. Besides knowing instinctively when something is not right with your pupils driving, you will be aware of the advantages of driving in a safe, smooth and systematic way.

You will be your own advert for safe driving. You will see the advantages above and beyond passing a driving test and be able to put them over in a convincing way to your pupils.

I was followed the other day by an ADI who had his roof sign up advertising his services. He was tailgating me, arm out the window smoking a cigarette. Draw your own conclusions about an instructor like that!

Assuming we want to keep our driving standards up, and over and beyond what is required for a Part 2 what can we do?

Taking and passing advanced tests is very good. It’s nice to be able to say you are a RoSPA Gold . They will retest you every three years so that should help keep you on your game. The process of testing should serve to remind you what your pupils go through.

Commentary driving forms part of an advanced test. A lot of us use it with our pupils. One of the reasons given for commentary driving is that it forces more awareness on the person giving the commentary.

Description:
I was driving to pick a pupil up, on the A27 Dual Carriageway heading toward Chichester. I was in the middle lane driving between 60-70 mph overtaking some slow moving traffic that wanted to turn off for Havant. A very fast moving car came from the outside lane and cut in front of me, missing me by inches before they took the Havant turn off.

Feelings:
Before it happened I wasn’t thinking about much at all. As it happened I thought WTF! It was a big adrenaline dump.

Evaluation:
It was good that we both survived. I think that even a small bump at those speeds would have had both cars rolling.

Analysis:
Maybe the other driver was racing someone or could have been late for something. Sometimes life’s lottery wins are not what happens to you, but what does not happen, like that other driver just missing me.

Conclusion:
Most bad driving is just that, it’s just done badly. But drive badly often enough and something will catch up with you. I’d like to think the other driver has learnt a lesson from it, but I doubt it. I remember that he had a look on his face that he was enjoying the speed.

Action Plan:
There is nothing I can do about speeding drivers but I can be more careful in places where their speed may cause me problems. In this particular case at exits off fast moving roads. Just thinking about the idiot that nearly killed me should make me more careful at slip roads.

You may or may not agree with what I have written here. You might have used more questions or maybe reached different conclusions.

But I will certainly be more aware at junctions on fast moving roads. I could have read that advice somewhere, someone has probably told me that in the past. The process of writing out the above incident has certainly made me own the thought.

© Liam Greaney

driving-pro.com

Firstly I need to say that it was not me that killed him, but I was there. Secondly it happened many years ago before I was a driving instructor.

There were in fact lots of witnesses of which I was one. Surprising a couple of policemen saw what was happening, had a look and then left. The next witnesses that stick in my mind were the two priests who looked and chose not to be concerned, so they too left.

This all happened on a crowded railway station platform and I viewed it from my train window as the train waited for whatever trains wait for at stations. It was at night time but the only power and hence light was from the train, everything else was in darkness. The train itself was also crowded with every seat full.

It all started with a noise down the platform and got closer and closer till it all happened in front of the window opposite where I was sitting. Not wanting to stick my nose into what was not my business I remained seated. Various people around me got up and looked to see what was happening. It was only after the two policemen and the two priests had got up and looked that I decided it was safe for me to do so.

To my great shame I was not horrified though with hindsight I should have been. Lying on the platform was a man caught in the light from the train. A large pool of what still seems to me to be purple blood was coming from his head.

There was a man with his back to me holding an axe. I just remember his silhouette and his legs being astride. The noise that I heard was the sound of the crowd as he was beaten up the platform till presumably there was not much point in further beating and he had arrived at my window.

I immediately wound my neck back in and went to sit back down. As the train pulled away there were a couple of light snaps. This, my fellow passengers informed me, was the man being shot with his own pistol. Now the amazing thing about all this is everyone and I mean everyone priests and police included were totally alright about this.

It doesn’t haunt me at all because everyone was so cool about it. Now my story which I have told a number of times might or should have you wondering how all this could come about and how large numbers of people and it would have been hundreds of us witnessing it could let it happen. Also you might be wondering what this has to do with driving instruction and why it’s in an ADINJC Newsletter rather than the court round up.

To help you with this first I need to give you context. Many years ago in 1980 and another life I was leading, I was following the river Nile down through Egypt into the Sudan and then onto the Blue Nile to its source in Uganda.

Having achieved this goal I was returning following what is sometimes known as the Lunatic Express. This is the railway line that goes from Kampala in Uganda to Nairobi Kenya and on to the coast. It is more formally known as the East African Railway. At the time of my visit Uganda was occupied by the Tanzanian Army who had invaded with the intention of overthrowing Idi Amin the Ugandan despot.

His men were on the run and being paid back for the cruelty they had inflicted on the local population. The man who was killed on my platform was given very rough justice. My point with all this is two fold.

Firstly as you started to read this you were making certain assumptions. I knew that this happened in war torn africa, you did not. I told this story to other people before and everyone assumes that it happened here in this country. Nobody really questions it, or possibly I don’t give them the chance. But how often do we take stuff our pupils tell us at face value. How often do we jump in with our opinions. Do we really dig down enough.

Have you ever listened to someone describe something but leave out some vital information which changes how you might see things. Your pupil who failed for missing check to the right when emerging but doesn’t tell you about the cyclist who appeared there. My story about the murder is a good example of that. If it happened in your hometown it’s one thing, but over 40 years ago in war torn Uganda it’s another.

Something I see with overseas pupils is that they may be fine with crossroads when they are on the major road and there is no one on the minor or approaching the minor road. But as soon as there is a car on the minor road approaching the major my pupils’ behaviour on the major road changes and they slow right down in case the car on the minor road emerges. Because they have slowed right down every so often the car on the minor road taking advantage of my pupils slowing down does emerge reinforcing my pupils’ behaviour in slowing.

Once you understand that what your overseas pupil is doing is a very sensible survival strategy when there are no road markings and driving licences are not worth the money that someone might have paid for them, you are on your way to dealing with it.

Another thing to consider is that you know an awful lot about something just by looking at it. If I look at a busy shopping street in my home town of Portsmouth I will know all sorts of things without even thinking about it too much. The way someone is dressed will tell me a lot about them, I’ll know what the shops sell and where to get what I need from them.

Contrast that to let us say downtown Delhi, which to me is a mass of colours and shapes in which I’d be pretty lost. Now I know that I can get by, but my lack of knowledge means it’s all a bit slower just like my overseas pupil approaching the crossroads. As I question things I know I’ll get better and my knowledge will improve. But if I don’t question anything it all stays the same, just a mass of colours and shapes and no understanding.

My second point is that everyone who was there on the station platform was okay with what happened, it was almost the norm. How often do we accept what we should not accept. What happened to that man on the station platform was accepted by everyone there including me. I’d been in Africa a few months by then and had learnt to love her in all her raw beauty so I wasn’t going to rock the boat.

Because everyone around me accepted it, so did I. What if I had not and tried to do something about it. What could I have done.

What about speeding, do we accept that drivers break the speed limits. How often do you read of people attacking speed cameras. To some people, those that attack the cameras are heroes.

My speedo shows a top limit of 140 mph, apparently my actual top speed is about 115 mph. As a disclaimer I would like to point out that I had to look that up. But why the 140 mph and a 115 mph that I will never use. As far as I am aware no country has a limit in excess of 100mph. Germany has no limit but recommends 130 kph which is about 80mph.

The 140 mph could be a generic speedo, but where can you do that speed. Is it so that 70 mph is top dead centre on the dial so the needle is upright at that speed. Or does speed or its capability sell cars?

How many of us have a device built into the car (Apple Play etc) that warns us of speed cameras. Sometimes the warnings are visual flashing speed limits on the dashboard and sometimes audible. My car and I imagine most of yours have a device that makes loud audible noise if we drive without a seat belt.

Compare what happens if you drive off without a seat belt to what happens if you break a speed limit. Ask yourself why seatbelt related deaths are less than speed related ones. Is it because it’s harder to drive without them than it is to break a speed limit.

In this country alone we see approximately 1700 deaths a year on the road of which about 300 are due to speed. Deaths due not wearing seat belts are around 200 a year. These are rounded and approximate figures to make a point.

Do we challenge our pupils’ attitudes. Have a look at the ADI Part 3 (SC) marking form and see where that could be addressed. Surely by addressing attitudes we are creating drivers who will be safe after the test?

© Liam Greaney

driving-pro.com

You may be wondering why a man of my age couldn’t tie his shoelaces up. Those of you who know me personally might not be surprised.

In the normal course of events I am normally successful in achieving the task of getting my laces done up. But as a special treat for myself I bought some Clarkes boats (the shoes with the laces around the outside as well).

The fancy laces that came with the shoe that caught my eye were rounded ones. A problem with rounded laces as I was to find out, is that they are more prone to coming undone and hence becoming a trip hazard.

My wife who generally does a marvellous job in taking care of me and protecting me from my own stupidity came up with a very obvious solution, “use a double bow”.

This information is of course the most practical solution to my problem of the laces coming undone and the consequential risk of an accident. What this solution did not allow for was that I did not know what a double bow was. Worse than that, not only did my wife know and tell me, male pride prevented me from asking what a double bow was.

This was made worse by the fact I knew that this information was freely available to children and most children would not only know how, but be able to demonstrate this to me. Whenever my wife said anything along the lines of “why don’t you use a double bow”, I would nod wisely being none the wiser. She was prepared to let me learn from my own stupidity, which is a luxury which we may or may not deny to our learners depending on the circumstances.

Undeterred by my own ignorance I set out to find a solution (without asking my wife of course). Naturally I blamed the laces so I returned to the shop where I made the original purchase. Once again I was confronted with the phrase “why don’t you use a double bow”.

This time it was uttered by a young woman who recognised my blank looks and nodding donkey sort of head. Clearly she was much more up to date with dealing with small children and men who can’t admit that they don’t know something. She sprang into action, knelt before me and in an instant my laces were tied in a double bow. The scales fell from my eyes. Once again I could stride boldly up the road safe in the knowledge that tripping was now only a very remote possibility.

A solution was obvious now that I had seen it. But what had stopped me from seeing it, foolish male pride maybe. Now the real question I want to ask here, which is the whole point of all this, is how often do you tell a pupil something which is so obvious to you that you don’t even think about it.

Looking at how we coach our pupils, do we really listen well enough. The lady in the Clarkes shoe shop did. But besides listening, she looked. She recognised from my body language that I hadn’t really understood the answer she gave to my question.

Have a look at the ADI 1 (Instructions for the Guidance of ADI Enforcement Examiners) under 3.27 Did the trainer identify the pupil’s learning goals and needs? It’s on page 47 of that document which is used to guide the marking of Part 3’s and Standards checks.

It talks about body language. When I was in the shop I was nodding wisely about double bows, but in reality I had no idea what they were. The lady in the Clarkes shop read my body language and got it spot on. The thought occurs to me as I write this, that my wife is used to a blank expression followed by a grunt. Apparently a reaction a lot of women are used to when talking with their husbands.

Reading body language is something that we should be doing all the time with our pupils. It is a check on reality. Have they understood, are they comfortable, are they stressed or upset. Are you being effective and safe.

What should we look for. In general the eyes are a good starting point. Are they welling up which might indicate that they are upset or frustrated. Narrowing might suggest thinking or concentration or possibly anger. If the eyebrows are raised, are they doubting your words of wisdom.

Where is the tip of the nose pointing. This you might see more clearly than their eyes. While it won’t reveal too much about a pupils mental state while driving, it will show you where they are looking and you can be aware of this in the corner of your eye as you drive along.

Listening to the sound of breathing is a good indicator of stress. In general you won’t or shouldn’t hear much at all. Driving examiners will probably be much more tuned into this one than the normal ADI/PDI as the test candidates will often be stressed.

Look at the mouth and see what that tells you. Lips narrowing would suggest concentration. This might be accompanied by tension in the jawline. A throbbing vein under the ear is another sign. Reminding your pupils to keep breathing quite often breaks the tension. Choose your moment for that. An easy mouth and a wide smile from your pupil will make the lessons go well.

Hands are another good one. Knuckles going white while gripping the wheel shows tension. What is their posture like at the wheel. Quite often a tense pupil will sit forward. Get them to sit back and relax if you can.

When pulled up at the side of the road are you getting the nodding donkey look (yes dear) that I was giving to my wife. What does their face say about if they have understood you. Do you get that eureka look when the pupil gets it. When you do, it’s one of the things that makes the job worthwhile.

As an experiment when you have a few minutes and you are parked somewhere safe. Grit your teeth, clench your jaw, grip the steering wheel tightly and sit a little bit forward in your seat. Ask yourself could you drive safely like this and would you be able to learn anything when you are all tense. Then relax, shake off the tension from your hands and shoulders. Breathe deeply and sit back into the seat. Note the differences.

As you get to know your pupil you will become more aware of what their triggers are. Part of active listening is looking at the body language of the person we are communicating with. This will be both for what you say and what you hear. We look, we listen and we learn.

© Liam Greaney

driving-pro.com

We have previously looked at what Aristotle might have been able to do to help us poor old driving instructors. But can his fellow Greek Socrates also help and if so how.

When I read Richard Bates’ article last month, I thought he has beaten me to it with what I wanted to say. But what I realise is that he has given a theoretical basis to what I want to say.

What Richard was saying if I have interpreted it correctly is that the more of our brain that we engage when doing something, the better it is. So when we say something out loud we use the part of the brain that speaks but also the part that listens.

By pointing at something we involve even more centres of the brain. The more brain activity we have, the more alertness and concentration we have. From a driving perspective, commentary driving uses more of our brain which forces more alertness and concentration. This is what we want, thinking alert drivers.

I learn some things by just reading. But if I have to write something out I learn a bit more. If I have to explain it to you I will learn even more.

One of the things about Socrates is that he liked a lot of questions. In fact he liked questions so much that he upset the powers that be and they sentenced him to death. This they did by making him drink a poison called hemlock and Socrates uttered what was to be his most famous quote. ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’.

This certainly brings him into line with the DVSA. But to the best of my knowledge no one in the management of the DVSA has forced an examiner to commit suicide by drinking poison. I imagine they are much more subtle than that.

But what about Socrates’ love of questions. In fact there is a style of teaching called the Socratic Method. So you might ask ‘what’s that all about’.

At its simplest it means instead of being the mere provider of information you are having a thought provoking dialogue with your student. You are engaging with your pupil for the benefit of your pupil. You are asking open ended questions. You also want pupils to ask questions of you.

If you remember from last month with Aristotle we talked about knowing your subject. Have a look at the marking sheet for a Part 3 or a Standards Check and tell me how many competencies having a dialogue with your pupils that might cover.

I could give you my opinion on what it might cover but the whole point here is that you work it out yourself. By finding your own solution you will have learnt it in a way that is more likely to stay with you. What you will find is that if you write it down that will reveal to you more thoughts. When I write these articles, what I was thinking and what I was going to write quite often changes.

Have you noticed that when you are having a dialogue with your pupils new thoughts come to mind. How your pupils explain things gives you new ways of saying things. Your pupils’ questions reveal stuff, you get to see the world from a different point of view.

If you ask your pupils to explain to you how to do something like approach a roundabout it is an interesting experience. They will have a look of concentration on their faces that they didn’t have when you explained it to them. There will be some gaps. You can ask them questions about these gaps. If you are lucky there will be a lightbulb moment.

© Liam Greaney

driving-pro.com

If you sit at the test centre, or in a Facebook Group, for long enough, eventually you will find an ADI complaining about a parent only being interested in getting their child through their driving test as quickly as possible.

There are two ways for ADIs to deal with this kind of challenge. The first is to accept that it’s just part of the job, try to ignore it, and complain about it to colleagues. We can even get a laugh out of it (😂) if we paint the scenario well enough.

The second way is to be a bit more reflective and consider the opportunities. Parents have been rushing their children through driving lessons for over 50 years. As an industry, we’re brilliant at complaining about it, but hardly anyone ever tries to do anything about it.

The fact is that the way we train people to drive has (hopefully) changed. As a result, we need to be able to effectively communicate this to our customers.

If you are an ADI keen to address the higher levels of the GDE, capable of using coaching approaches and techniques for the benefit of your learners, and a believer in your role as a post-test guide for the people you train, you need to be able to explain this.

Here are some quick tips on how to do that.

1) Make a short list of all of your training methods. Focus on what makes you stand out from your competition, and, if you employ coaching techniques that involve conversations at the side of the road, be sure to mention these. An example list might look like this:

My Training Methods

• In-car instruction and guidance on car controls
• In-car training on rules of the road, traffic signs, etc
• Encouragement to complete reflective work in between lessons
• Encouragement to complete independent research on new topics in between lessons
• Coaching conversations focused on driving-related goals, self-assessment of own performance, and reflection on own progress. These conversations build responsibility and reduce over-reliance on the driving instructor
• Coaching conversations focused on road safety and the risk-increasing factors post-driving test (EG driving with friends in the car, differences between driving for pleasure and driving for work, distracted driving)
• Coaching conversations focused on thoughts and feelings about own likelihood of being involved in a crash
• Note that many of these conversations do take place at the side of the road for the sake of safety and to encourage deeper thinking and understanding

2) Use a Learning Contract, and only accept new business from people who read, understand, and accept your methods of training. It’s ok to lose business from people who are only interested in passing the driving test. By not filling that space in your diary, you are keeping it free for a learner (and parents) who are focused on the bigger picture around learning to drive.

There are plenty of resources online that will tell you how to create a good coaching contract, and contracting is a foundational part of the Bright Coaching Professional Diploma.

3) Practice explaining why your methods are better than traditional methods. If you are dealing with a phone enquiry, you should be able to control the conversation in the following ways:

Example One:

Parent: How many lessons will it take to get Stewart ready for test.

ADI: Well, that’s not how I work. I offer a training course that prepares young people to pass the test, but also for all the things that they will encounter afterwards that we know cause crashes.

Parent: OK, I just want to get them to test.

ADI: I understand that, but it means I’m not the right instructor for your child.

Example Two:

Parent: How many lessons will it take to get Stewart ready for test.

ADI: Well, that’s not how I work. I offer a training course that prepares young people to pass the test, but also for all the things that they will encounter afterwards that we know cause crashes.

Parent: What do you mean?

ADI: I teach young people the skills and knowledge they require to move a car and to drive it around the place – that’s all they need to pass a test – but the more important work is based on their behaviour. I use coaching to raise their levels of personal responsibility, to help them understand the higher levels of risk they face as young drivers with their friends in the car. By teaching them to set their own goals and reflect on their own performance, we create safer drivers who are better at understanding their own limitations.

If this language seems a bit daunting, don’t worry. Find someone to help you. A trainer or a coach, for example. If you’re worried about having a conversation with someone in this way, write it all down – create a short guide for potential clients that you can send them.

By doing this work, you are improving your ability to communicate. And improvement is supposed to be difficult.

If you have any questions about communication or Learning Contracts, please reach out. We’re always happy to help.

© Stewart Lochrie

Brightcoaching.net

You might well be wondering what a man who lived more than 2000 years ago can offer to driving instructors. My answer to that is quite a lot.

As driving instructors, part of our tasks is that of persuasion. This art of persuasion can be called rhetoric. We can tell some to do something and more than likely for the purposes of passing a driving test they will.

But what about beyond the test. We, our friends and our families will be sharing the road with our pupils and the pupils of other instructors. This should mean that we are aiming beyond the test. Dare I say it, but ‘safe driving for life’.

For Aristotle the rhetorical means of doing this was made up of three things:

• Ethos
• Pathos
• Logos

Ethos

For ‘Ethos’ Aristotle says to be able to persuade people we need to establish credibility. We should do this in a number of ways:

• Good sense
• Good morals
• Good will

Good Sense

This is our technical knowledge, it’s knowing what we are talking about. If you start to look at how a Part 3 or a Standards Check is marked you will see that this is most important.

There is a whole competency that covers that. ‘Was the technical information given comprehensive, appropriate and accurate.’ But have a read through and see which other competencies could be covered by that.

Our pupils are getting information from other sources besides yourself. Friends or family. This could be someone working with the law, a car mechanic or something to do with the road.

If you have said the only time you can cross a solid white line is to overtake a bicycle doing less than 10 mph, a read of HC rule 129 will tell you otherwise. My point here being that your credibility could be compromised. In this case that could be your pupils dad being a traffic policeman or a road maintenance worker who both would know different.

Are you able to explain to your pupil in simple terms that are understandable to the pupil. This is a good knowledge of both subject and pupil.

Good Morals

This is covered in a number of ways. Firstly the DVSA will subject you to a DBS and some other checks to make sure that you are a fit and proper person. But when doing the job are you trustworthy. What’s your attitude to others.

Let’s look at the Part 3 and Standards Check again. ‘Did the trainer maintain an appropriate non-discriminatory manner throughout the session’. If a member of your pupils family is a taxi driver, comments about taxi drivers could undermine your standing with that pupil.

Are you prepared to give an answer to any questions regardless, on the basis of your superior knowledge. Or do you check what you are not sure of.

Are cyclists vermin or do they have a right to the road. Your pupils’ mums may ride her bicycle to work each day. Would that mean that your pupil’s mum is vermin as well.

Good will

Do you want the best for your pupil. They will sense when you do and be aware of when you put your interests over their interests.

There is a new PDI who when taking his first pupil to test asks for some advice from the three more experienced ADI’s he meets in the waiting room.

The first one has been instructing for a while now and is lucky to be alive. The roads are full of morons and retards. His pupils are barely literate and hardly talk. None of them know left from right, their mums deal with him all the time because the little darlings have no social skills. You the reader will probably have seen some of his stuff on social media.

The second one he talks to is doing very nicely thank you. He’s one of the most expensive in the area. At £40+ an hour and over 40 hours a week he’s living the dream. Because of his brilliant pass rate he’s always fully booked with a six month waiting list. The job is basically easy and he could do it standing on his head. He has it pretty well weighed off and got a 50 on his standards check, the examiner told him as a matter of principle he doesn’t give 51’s. The game has been good to him.

The third one is changing people’s lives by helping them achieve their goals. She is helping them get jobs and make things better for their families. The roads are a safer place because of the way she teaches. Even if she stops one person from having an accident, all her work will have been worthwhile. There is always something new to learn and it’s time well spent if she attends instructor meetings. She sees herself as adding value to people’s lives. For her it’s the best job in the world.

Which one of the three has the most credibility with their pupils. I know which one I like the most.

All of the above go to make up what Aristotle called Ethos. This is a greek word meaning “character” that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterise a community, nation, or ideology. It’s what we are as driving instructors.

Pathos

The next thing Aristotle talks about is ‘Pathos’. This is a reference to emotions or the needs of both the speaker and the people being spoken to, in our case the pupil.

This is seeing the pupils’ world the way that they see it, and to put your message across in their terms. Hopefully by now you are starting to see a competency from either the Part 3 or Standards Check.

I personally like ‘Was the teaching style suited to the pupil’s learning style and ability’. Are you reaching your students in a meaningful way.

Facts can be rather dull and a bit like dried biscuits. They need something to make you want to eat them. Our emotions and how we articulate them with the way we offer our facts to our pupils will make a difference.

A danger with emotions is overdoing it. I recently picked up a pupil from another instructor because she got tired of hearing how if she didn’t do something she might die. You can blow your credibility (ethos). Notice how this is starting to seem like how on a Part 3 or Standards Check one thing impacts on another.

Sometimes with stuff, while you can’t change it, you can change your attitude towards it. It’s all about thinking and we want to produce thinking drivers. This is a conversation between people who have a connection.

Logos

This is the logic and reasoning of what we do. We have something today and need to say it clearly. This is the purpose of your lesson.

Have a read of the Part 3 or Standards Check marking sheet and see how many competencies that can cover.

Writing as someone who will happily use a dozen long words when one short one will do, this is very relevant. I talked before about vivid description and how we want something to stick with a pupil. As instructors we are brilliant at this sort of thing. Lots of us use ‘BBC’ for ‘brake before clutch’ . It’s simple and to the point.

Your pupils’ questions will help you with this. You might have understood something but have you understood it in your pupils’ terms. Can you resolve it in your pupils’ terms. We looked before at reflection and how using this will increase our knowledge of what we do and how we do it.

What Does Aristotle Tell Us

We need to be credible and know our subject and think deeply about it.

There is an emotional content to what we do. We have to connect with the pupil in a meaningful way.

There should be a simple clear message, simply put. If we can’t justify what we say, how can we say it.

Notice all the above impact on one another just like a Part 3 or a Standards Check.

© Liam Greaney

driving-pro.com

Terms and conditions (T&Cs) are a legal agreement that outlines the rights and responsibilities of a service provider and its users. They are also known as business terms, terms of sale, or terms of service. This includes both you and your pupil.

That much is clear but for whose benefit are they. Are they to allow you to take legal action against a pupil or are they to protect you from legal action from a pupil.

So the first question might be if your pupil did not turn up or cancelled a two hour lesson inside your notice period for whatever reason could you use your T&C’s to enforce payment.

You might say that your T&C’s require 24 or 48 hours notice and it is your living and you would be absolutely correct. The pupil might then turn and say “I’ve never cancelled before, I’ve spent over £1 000 with you and work called me on that day for an emergency, what else could I do”.

Now there are a number of different ways of handling that situation. Some instructors will insist on payment regardless. If the pupil has paid money up front they will be able to take it and quite possibly still keep the pupil.

The pupil could react very badly to that and give you a very bad review and bad mouth you everywhere.

An alternative way to deal with that is just to rebook the pupil for another time with a gentle reminder that it is your living and if you are not working you are not being paid. Most of us choose this way and if the pupil is a serial canceller, just get rid of them. A two or three strikes and you’re out sort of policy, but make sure you don’t tell them that they get a couple of free cancels or they will probably use them.

A general rule of thumb is that the stricter you are with charging for cancellations the greater your turnover of pupils will be. The more easy going you are with cancellations the more you will have. Choose a way that is comfortable for you.

Now let us look at what happens if we try to enforce payment. Quite often this will lead to you being ghosted by the pupil. You could try phoning and pestering but all they will do is block your calls. You could go round and ask but you would have to be very careful and I would strongly advise against that for all sorts of reasons.

Possibly you are thinking of claiming through the courts, after all your terms and conditions say that your lesson was chargeable if they did not give the required notice.

To do this you would have to go through the court and you could do this online, click here to learn more. Anything under £300 will cost £35 plus all your time in doing this. For these sums of money it is not worthwhile.

What might be worthwhile is the threat of doing this. This threat of taking someone to court will probably only work if they have never been through the process before and are worried what a CCJ might do to their future credit ratings.

A CCJ is a County Court Judgement meaning that the court has said that you owe someone money. This can create problems for people if they are trying to rent or obtain credit or a mobile phone for example. To learn more follow this link.

Remember at all times that your claimable costs are controlled so the threat of a small claim but large costs in making it will not work. Some people will do anything to make sure there is no black mark against their name and others will not care.

If someone has one CCJ against them it does not matter if they get another apart from how long it sticks to their name. Some people actually take pride in not paying ”King of the bump” or the like. If you decided to pursue the legal route you now come up against two responses.

They do nothing and you get judgement by default which is quite common but then you still have the problem of getting your original lesson fee plus your costs (£35) back. And you are in effect back to square one. You might have come across the “King of the Bump” here.

The second response will cause you even greater problems and this is that they decide to contest it.

They will submit a response denying your claim. Remember that they could be saying all sorts of things and possibly counter claiming. What would you do if they counter-claimed for all the lessons that they had plus loss of earning and then questioned your timekeeping and professional standards?

Now they have contested it, you and they will now both have to complete a Direct Questionnaire limited to 120 lines for stating your case which will be shared with both the court and each other. It will drag out for a long time as the courts are very busy and if you have not reached a settlement before the court date you will have to pay another fee to get your case heard.

If you got to the stage of going to court any documentation either side relies on would be shared with both the court and the other side. This can be your T&C’s and whatever records you might have.

If they are counter-claiming you could find yourself and your teaching and business practices being examined by a judge. The bottom line is don’t go to court. You never know how it could end up and you could find yourself badly out of pocket.

Now the second question is can T&C’s protect you against a pupil and the answer to this one is yes.

For the most part these will be about keeping to agreed lesson dates and times your car and its none availability for Driving Tests due to mechanical breakdown or your professional opinion about the pupils’ suitability for the test.

For all the reasons mentioned above it is very difficult for anyone to sue you. If the amount is under £3 000 (lesson fees and loss of earnings) the courts fee for starting the process is £115 and so long as you are contesting the claim it will cost them another £181 to get you into court.

At all times if anyone should try to take you to the County Court for money it’s called Money Claim Online you should respond appropriately or judgement against you will be by default.

Your protection is going to be your T&C’s, any learning agreement you might have with the learner and your training records. Learner agreements are different to T&C’s and we will cover that later in another blog.

© Liam Greaney

driving-pro.com

We will start with being a sole independent driving school/instructor. You grow your business by increasing the amount of earnings you can make. The most obvious thing would be to increase the number of hours you work, but this in most cases will tire you out and this would lead to a lowering of your standards of teaching.

Learning people to drive is a demanding task if done well. If you plan to do 12 hours of lessons per day, expect the last lesson not to be as good as the first lesson and your health and well being will suffer. I know this because I have done it, so I know how it feels!

Ok, how do we earn more money? Simple charge more for lessons! Well, it’s not as easy as that. So, we need to put more thought into that. To charge more you need to be worth it. The first thing to do is to be the best instructor you can be.

This means investing in quality and relevant continuous professional development (CPD). Pick courses or documents that you feel that will benefit you the most. Record all your CPD via a reflective log or an action plan. That way you can see how the development training has benefited you. Even better reflect after a number of months, as improvement has to be continuous.

If you work for yourself you can also be selective who you take on as a pupil or not. What I mean by that is that you want to meet your pupil’s expectations. It’s a principle called win/win or no deal. If a pupil inquires about lessons with you and they want to be safe and agree to take the correct number of lessons and will only attempt a practical driving test when you are happy to take them then it’s win/win (you both win).

However, if your pupil enquiry is for a test in a week’s time and only wants a 1-hour lesson and the use of your car, you can’t meet their expectations of passing regardless of how deluded they are in thinking they are going to pass! This is a no deal.

The better you are, the more recommendations you will get. If you can’t fit people into your diary, then charge more. At the moment you could say there is plenty of work out there at the moment, as I don’t have to improve because the work will always be there. But remember, if you are in demand and offer a quality product then you can charge more, and I don’t think the demand for lessons will always be as high as it is now.

Other ways of charging more per lesson is by offering more. This can be done by offering free access to a theory app, offering access to specialist websites like confident drivers who offer additional help to anxious drivers or offer downloadable lesson pre-reads or recap. Also use specialist apps that record lesson progress and reflective logs, etc. Or offer video reflections on a driving lesson, whilst parked and engine off of course.

Also, get a Facebook page, website and business cards as well. The more people know you and what you do the more inquiries you will get.
You could even think of training driving instructors, talk to Lynne about that.

Ok, the next way of growing your driving school would be recruiting more driving instructors. By far the most important principle is taking on the right person in the first place. Taking somebody on that you can trust to deliver quality lessons and offer integrity in all their business dealing is essential.

They represent you and your driving school. It might be tempting to take on anybody who is willing to pay for training and offer them loads of work, but are they delivering quality lessons, that’s going to build a positive reputation?

Also, you would need to offer them a fair and transparent franchise agreement that equally benefits you and the franchisee. Give them a reason why they should stop with you.

© Dave Allen

https://agradeinstructortraining.co.uk/

We are all a bit different from each other and the modern car will allow for that. What the car designers are looking for is geometric balance. This will allow as many people as possible to be able to use and hence buy their vehicles. How we are and the shape of our bodies not only shapes the car but how we drive.

The first thing that they will start from is the eye datum line. Or put another way where you look. From our seat we need a good view of the road ahead and of the instrument panel. Having established we can see enough to maintain safety and legality we now need free and easy access to the controls. This should be done in such a way to minimise tiredness.

It is not enough to make the car just for the average person. We want as many people as possible to be able to drive it. The cynics amongst you will not be surprised by this act of car manufacture generosity.

We now move into the territory of the cockpit drill. As driving instructors, we are all aware of the effect bad position will have on our pupils and their ability to drive safely. The first thing we want from our pupils is to be able to adjust your car properly.

Why we drive on the left.

The reason we drive on the left is because we are dominant on the right side. Something like 90% of the population is right handed. We traditionally keep left as this allows our stronger right arm to defend us.

This right sided dominance gives us Port and Starboard. Boats were loaded by men lifting with their strong right arms into the left-hand side of the vessel and this left-hand side became the port side. The vessel was steered to the jetty by a paddle or a steer board on the right-hand side using the stronger right arm giving us the starboard side. You still see people in small boats steering using an oar on the right-hand side.

So, the next question is why does most of the world drive on the right hand side if we are dominant to the right and should naturally drive or keep to the left. The answer to this is twofold and is shaped by politics and economics.

The political answer is thought to lie with Napoleon. As he conquered Europe, he decreed that his armies should pass in peace. This meant they moved over to the right and instead of passing with their sword arms being able to be offered to an enemy, they showed the weaker left arm to the people coming towards them.

The next part of the answer is economic. As factories, cities and the roads grew so the economy improved, and we wanted to carry bigger loads from A-B. With an old horse and cart, you could sit up top pretty much in the middle. And if anything was in front or coming toward you, with your dominant right eye you could judge very accurately how much room you had and so kept to the left.

But in the USA they started to carry bigger loads requiring two or more pairs or teams of horses or oxen to pull them. This gave rise to the term teamster and eventually the teamsters union.

As there was nowhere to sit on the wagon the driver would have sat on the rear nearside, which was the left animal nearest the loading side. You would have loaded with your stronger right arm to the nearer left hand side.

This gave the advantage of the teamster righthand (dominant) whip hand would have had access to those animals to control them. When you are sat at high and at the front it doesn’t make any difference which side of the road you are on. But if you are low and with a couple of horses in front of you to accurately judge passing you would have moved over to the right.

Speed Limits

As our vehicles moved from horse and cart to faster mechanically propelled ones and in much greater volumes we started to introduce a series of rules. These rules must work for us as people. So why are most maximum speed limits worldwide nearly always 70 mph (113 kph) or thereabouts.

Besides the physics of it that say the faster you go the more room you need to stop safely, what does 70 mph limit give us. The 100-meter stopping distance is also about as far as you can still see a person and know it is a person. This means we as people can react to another person and we would also know that they have seen us.

Hopefully they would be getting out of our way now or we would have a chance to stop without killing them. This ability to see a person at 100 meters gives us street lamps just under 100 meters apart. At nighttime if you are walking, you want to be able to have some idea of the person in front and their intentions.

The 30-mph speed limit given by the street lamp means that if your car hits a person they have just under 50% chance of death. Drop the speed down to 20 mph and that becomes 5%. This illustrates how our bodies react to impact from cars.

Car Safety

We have just talked about speed limits and seeing people and hopefully avoiding them. What about us, the driver. How are we kept safe if it’s all gone very badly wrong.

Besides the inside bits of the car being made softer to minimise damage to ourselves. We now all wear a seat belt. These belts are designed to work on your bones. Specifically, the diagonal should go across your collarbone and the lap part of it across your hip. The important thing is your bones are solid and will along with a properly fitted belt protect your internal organs.

Over the years cars have grown head restraints. Your head is a large lump of bone with a pointy bit at the back of our heads. This will rotate backwards unless contained by the head restraint. Not adjusted properly it could become a very real pain in the neck.

How you hold the wheel will have a very real effect. If you have adjusted your seat properly your arms will be slightly bent. They will be your shock absorbers. Having two hands on the wheel relatively high will stop you twisting violently if stopping very suddenly and unexpectedly.

Vision

We started this talking about the eye, and we will finish this talking about the eye. The eye itself sits in a socket which defines your field of vision. You can measure your own field of vision by extending your arms and sticking your thumbs out. Move your arms out to the side holding your head still. Stop at the point your thumbs start to disappear and this should give you a range of 180 degrees plus.

As most of us have two eyes which allows us a spare if anything to the other. This gives us a depth of vision as well. However, you can still drive an ordinary car with only one eye. Put your left hand over your left eye. Extend your arm and thumb to the point where it disappeared on the right. Now track its movement as you move right to left. Your view of your thumb to the left is now only limited by the size of your nose.

So, in an ordinary car even with only one eye you will be aware of the width of your vehicle. You cannot drive larger, wider vehicles unless you have some vision in your defective eye. This again is so you are aware of the width of this much wider vehicle.

Inside your eye you see with a series of receptors called rods and cones. The rods are much more numerous being typically about 120 million per eye and measure movement and contrast. They will be responsible for your peripheral vision and will have a limited response to colour which we will look at in a minute.

The cones of which there would only be 6-7 million measure colour. And because of their faster response to the brain, they give more detail. Because of this sensitivity the eye is in continual motion building up a picture of what is happening. This is what we want our learners to do.

These colours to which the cones respond are the red 64%, green 32% and blue 2% which are also the primary colours. This gives us red for danger, green for safety and blue for authority. Yellow being made up of red and green.

From this we now have the colours of the traffic lights and road signs. Our rods have no response to red light. This means at night with our eyes adapted to the dark. A red warning light is not going to wash away the rest of our vision. Because there is some response to blue from the rods, we become very aware of blue lights from the emergency services.

Eyes are sometimes described as windows to the soul. A professional eye examination can also be a window to good health. These checks can detect a range of conditions such as high blood pressure. They should be done at least every two years. When was yours last checked?

© Liam Greaney

driving-pro.com