Crash Course

The forthcoming Government consultation paper on novice drivers has received a great deal of interest from road safety groups, but it could put one group of instructors out of business. The Editor visits a group of ADIs in Swindon who specialise in intensive training courses to find out why they think their teaching is undervalued

It's an old - and probably rather unfair - joke that suggests they call them crash courses for a good reason, but the ADIs who teach learners on intensive driver training courses could soon find themselves on a very real crash course with the Government if a policy suggested in a forthcoming consultation paper to adopt a minimum one-year learning period becomes reality.

The consultation paper, which is expected within the next couple of months, and which was trailed extensively in the national media towards the end of last year, was drawn up in response to increasingly worsening and worryingly disproportionate fatality figures among novice drivers. One of the key measures suggested in the document, and one which has gained probably the most media attention, was the proposal to increase the minimum unaccompanied driving age to 18, thereby effectively introducing a one-year minimum training period for young drivers.

Like many road safety organisations, the Driving Instructors Association came out in broad support of the proposals when they were announced, despite saying they didn't go far enough. Many DIA members expressed support for the recommendations too, particularly attracted to the proposal for logbook-based style of learning which would necessitate mandatory lessons with a professional ADI.

But one specialist group of ADIs were very much against the proposals. David Peers runs a website called learning2drive.co.uk which acts as an umbrella for a group of ADIs calling themselves the A Team, who for 20 years have specialised in intensive driving courses in the Swindon area, whereby candidates learn to drive and pass their test usually within one week.

Not long after the DIA published its support for the proposed changes to the driving syllabus, Mr Peers was on the phone to the Chief Executive to express his disappointment. Far from seeing intensive training as a practical expediency which compromises road safety, Mr Peers is passionately committed to the idea that it is in fact superior to the year or more's worth of one-hour lessons and private practice currently favoured by the Government. Accepting that this is an area of driver training that is under represented in the industry press, we took a trip to Swindon to meet up with Mr Peers, along with two of his A Team instructors, and three of their learners at various points in their intensive training courses, to find out why they think the Government is wrong.

Formats

In all courses, tuition is a undertaken on a one-to-one basis and the fee includes the cost of the practical test, which is typically taken in the last hour of the course. Shared tuition courses are also available at discounted rates. Students often take the courses on a residential basis and the company, while not providing accommodation itself, is able to provide contacts for a variety of accommodation in the area to suit most budgets, and will arrange to pick students up each morning from wherever they are staying.

The flexibility of the courses is a key to their popularity and a key reason why Mr Peers believes they are better tailored to the increasingly hectic needs of today's teenagers, not to mention the adult professionals who currently make up about 50 per cent of Learning 2 Drive's clientele, and for whom learning to drive and passing a test in a week is understandably more attractive than the Department for Transport's quoted typical learning time with a course of one-hour lessons and private practice of 14 months.

"We are in the dark ages with car training," says Mr Peers, "stuck with the mentality of hourly driving lessons since 1935. Police drivers, LGV and bus drivers, motorcyclists - even driving examiners - are all trained intensively. So why not car drivers?" But it's not just the practicality of the courses. Mr Peers also believes the teaching itself is more effective in this format.

"The one-hour format is limited. Primarily it teaches routes. We don't teach routes - we teach people to drive. With a one-hour lesson, the student spends most of each lesson trying to remember what he learnt the week before, whereas with an intensive format there's continuity of training and greater intensity. Everything stay's fresh in the mind. There's more opportunity to build skills and apply to them to a variety of driving situations until they become second nature, which is what good driving is all about."

Private practice

When I point out that the continuity of a course of one-hour lessons is usually provided by private practice undertaken with family and friends, Mr Peers is sceptical.

"The Government may talk about the typical learning model involving private practice, but most students don't do anywhere near enough. Some don't any at all." He cites a figure of between 75 to 80 per cent of pupils not taking private pratice between lessons, but is able to provide only anecdotal evidence to back the statistics up.

"How many fathers would trust their prize possession - their car - to their son or daughter to wreck? Besides which, most parents don't have the time and they're scared to do it anyway." Mr Peers claims a pass rate among his pupils of around 70 cent, far higher than those taught via a traditional course of lessons. He also claims that intensive courses turn out better - and therefore safer - drivers as a result, and criticizes the traditional approach to learning to drive as being too negative.

"The DSA doesn't look for good drivers. They just look for mistakes. It's all about faults." The pupils certainly seem to prefer the intensive training method. As demonstrated by their course structure, a large number of Learning 2 Drive's client's are those who have become dissatisfied with the one-hour driving format or who have failed to pass the test after a course of one-hour lessons. Emma Pearce, an 18-year-old student currently on the fourth day of an intensive course with Learning to Drive, agrees. "I much prefer the format," she says. "The learning is more concentrated. If you have problems it's easier to correct them." Like many intensive students, Emma is a student - an undergradate at Oxford studying Classics - and is fitting her lessons during the holidays. Originally she had been taking one-hour lessons but became frustrated with the pace of learning.

"I just didn't feel I was getting anywhere. I felt the teacher was dragging it out and we weren't getting onto manoeuvres fast enough." Ms Pearce is now reasonably confident about her practical test in a couple of days. Instructors enjoy the format too. We talked to two of the A Team, ADIs Paul Atkinson and John Walsh, both of whom said they preferred the enhanced learning opportunities offered by intensive courses.

"I only did hourly tuition for 17 years," says Mr Atkinson, "But when I tried intensive training I thought 'Wow! What a difference.' I'm a total convert now. You enjoy a much better rapport with the students. You enjoy the lessons more and as a result they do too, so the whole thing leads to a more healthy learning experience." I point out to Mr Peers the frequent criticism of intensive courses - the old adage that 'the faster you learn, the faster you forget', but he disagrees. "With most students, the intensity of the training they receive here prepares them better for going out onto the road unaccompanied straight after the test, where they can immediately start to put into practice all the skills they have learnt. By and large they are more confident drivers as a result."
But what if there's a break between the training and driving unaccompanied - a typical scenario with students taking the course in holiday time? "In that case, a refresher course is probably in order," he concedes.

Refresher courses

"Perhaps I'll think about Pass Plus," she says, somewhat unconvincingly. Talking to other pupils, I certainly get the impression they are convinced the intensive training format works. There is no doubting, either, the passionate commitment of the A Team instructors to the concept, and where teachers are that passionate about a teaching method one can only assume the teaching to be of a commensurately high standard.

But I am also reminded of my own intensive training experience. Three years ago, I learned to ride a motorbike over the course of a long weekend for the purposes of writing a feature for Driving Magazine. Contrary to my expectations, I enjoyed the training enormously and seriously considered buying a motorbike shortly afterwards. Unfortunately, like so many other things in life, I never actually got around to it, and have never ridden a motorbike since. The fact remains, however, I am now legally entitled to do so, despite struggling to remember even which hand controls the clutch, and which the throttle. Clearly there is no way I would consider getting back on a bike again without some refresher training. But I can't help thinking it should be of some concern to the road-going public that I am legally allowed to do just that.

You can find out more Learning 2 Drive by visiting its website at www.learning2drive.co.uk

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