John's Blog Posts

Lots of anniversaries are being celebrated around now. The MSA has just celebrated 80 years of service to the industry at the association’s recent very successful conference. We did not spent a huge amount of time looking back but, with half an eye on the past and always trying to learn the lessons history teaches us, the conference was all about the future.

In the wide-ranging coverage of the event in the April issue of Newslink you can get a great flavour of the event but why not make a note in your diary for next year’s conference date: Saturday, 12 March 2016.

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Every day is a learning day. I had a call today from, an MSA member who is having some problems with his ADI registration he is not currently working in the driver training field and he is struggling to fulfil the requirement to attend for a standards check.

During our conversation he said to me “I’m not that bothered about staying on the ADI register it is hardly the apotheosis of my life.”

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I’m probably being a bit harsh but I’m sure those council parking attendants get some satisfaction out of their jobs they always seem to be smiling when they’re issuing tickets.

I was shopping in Manchester city centre last year having paid and displayed in an on road parking bay. I was returning to my car when I saw the parking attended place the ticket on the windscreen. “I’m sorry I’m late back but its only two minutes don’t you have any discretion.” I said the attendant replied, with a smile “We allow drivers two minutes, you are three minutes late.” So that was that thirty quid lighter (half the fine because I paid quickly) and I have not been back to shop in the city centre since.

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The answer is very simple “close to home” is where most people drive most of the

time. Therefore most crashes happen close to home.

One survey showed that nearly a third of crashes happen less than a mile from home. Crashing into a parked car was the most common type of collision within a mile of a driver’s home. In this survey just 5% of crashes occurred 26 to 50 miles from home, and 6% at distances of more than 50 miles away.

Of the crashes closest to home, the most common cause after hitting parked vehicles was crashing while driving out of a minor road, followed by reversing into a vehicle and by hitting a wall.

Another study show that only 1% of accidents occur more than 50 miles from home. Most people drive close to their home, which is why

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It always seemed like common sense to me for learner drivers to keep a record of their progress towards a full driving licence. I guess it was because when I started as an Instructor with BSM we were all encouraged to make a record of our pupils’ progress that the learner kept.

I’m no psychologist, although I have listened to a few over the years, but the theory that someone has to think about a learned behaviour in order for that learning to transfer from the short term memory to the long – and become learned – seems to me to make a lot of sense.

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Towards the end of last year I was invited along with a number of others, to take part in the traditional ‘look back, looking forward’ review of the year.

Full details of what those responding replied are in the January issue of Newslink due to be delivered to MSA members in the next few days.

These are the questions and my responses.

1) Do you think the Standards Check has been a success – and depending on your answer, why?

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DVSA recently announced that they were preparing the L-test to take a ‘real world’ route and that the route will, in part, be defined by Satellite Navigation (sat nav).

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