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www.learnertuition.com
The
NEWLY
QUALIFIED
DRIVER
Website Site updated 1 May 2009 17:40
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HOME PASSPLUS Buy a session on-line EXPERIENCED DRIVERS- CLICK HERE TO GO TO OUR SISTER SITE? CONTACT US |
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DISCOUNTED PROFESSIONAL DRIVER TRAINING COURSES FOR THE NEW DRIVER |
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ADI TRAINING - please ring for details | |
| PLEASE NOTE - WE NO LONGER OFFER PRE-TEST INSTRUCTION DUE TO OUR COMMITMENTS WITH DRIVER DEVELOPMENT COURSES | |
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WHAT WE OFFER OK, you're now on the road and ready to really learn to drive; you've passed your test and may have been driving for a while. Whatever standard you are currently at we teach intensively to get you to a higher driving standard - way over what you learned to pass your test: And if you've just got a car with more performance, a bigger engine, a little more challenging than that Micra you learned in, then you really need to take one of our courses. Our courses are all one 2 one, giving you a much greater appreciation of what driving is all about. Want to drive with skill and confidence? just like a police traffic officer (the ones in the Volvos and unmarked cars not the Astras), or maybe are just itching to understand what makes Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel so good? Talk to us, we've taught police, instructors and top race drivers alike. That means we know a bit...... "A pleasure to meet you and thanks for a great day of tuition! I'm thoroughly knackered mentally but have learnt lots!!" - 1 day road course in the Police officer's own Renault Megane R26 April 09 Thinking of becoming an instructor yourself? If you are interested in being an ADI and wanting to teach to a high standard contact us. We could save you money and enable you to become a top instructor - if that's what your aim is. WHY US?
When you do your development
course with us you get a full on tuition. Apart from a quick break in the
morning and afternoon, and a short
lunch-stop
you will be driving, not sitting by
the side of the road having a long chat with an instructor. And, if you
use our vehicle, you'll get to enjoy a new If you have difficulty with any aspect of developing your drive we drive you as we talk it through, then get you to try again. Until it's right: Actions speak louder than words, so they say. You get very high quality tuition with regular demonstration commentary drives to show you what standard you are aiming for. One intensive day with us will develop your driving significantly. For this reason one of the country's top performance insurers gives a genuine discount for completing one of our advanced driving days. HOW WE DIFFER FROM YOUR "Learner" INSTRUCTION We will drive you; demonstrate to you the best styles and practices; and these will stay with you for life. For example how to manage space around you - make things happen at a rate you are happy with; how to do a gearchange that is quick but smooth and explain why it may not be the way you were shown by your learner instructor - because many of them don't understand; how to control a meet with an oncoming vehicle so that you decide who goes. Lots of things that improve the drive and reduce the stress. We'll open your eyes to what makes a passenger feel comfortable with you, and uncomfortable too. Very instructive, often amusing but with a serious message and one that stays. We put you in control of the car and in control of the traffic. We show you how not to be surprised by any developing scenario. Defensive and personal development driving - manage the drive. |
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Passplus courses locally in Appleton, Warrington, Manchester, Widnes, Cheshire and the North West with learnertuition. Now available across the UK |
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Intensive driving courses? |
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You can choose to take a one, two or three day intensive defensive driving course with us. With days together or staggered. |
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For the one day course you will have already gained some confidence behind the wheel. The one day course introduces the idea of controlling space around you. Without this ability you cannot develop your driving for higher speed scenarios. We will introduce you to new techniques for gearchanges, steering and also braking. You will be introduced to procedures for safe overtakes (something rarely covered before test), motorway entry, exit and lane procedure. In addition we are looking to develop a composed flow along faster A roads and also a managed town drive. Debrief and then a full written report on the day's session. Cost: from £225.00 - click here to purchase this course |
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For the 2 day course : This includes all elements of the one day course but introduces advanced observation techniques and commentary drive, with an introduction to styles and techniques employed within Police Class 1 training. We also introduce techniques used by racing drivers, albeit at legal road speeds. One of the main problems of learning for the driving test is that virtually no pupil is taught how to assess or actually drive around a corner, so that when the speeds are taken up, problems of vehicle balance start to become apparent. We teach you the fundamentals of driving balance. Cost: from £425 - click here to purchase this course |
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For the 3 day course We cover all elements of the above courses but on day 3 we put you on a track, to introduce high speed car control. Cost: £755.00 - click here to purchase this course |
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If you are not sure which course will suit you please ring and we can discuss the best option for you. We teach all over the country and come to you. REQUIREMENTS for all driving courses. Full licence, eyesight to test standard. Willingness to learn and work hard! A valid driving licence is required for all courses. This will be checked (both parts) at the beginning so please bring with you. failure to bring your licence will prohibit instruction. This is the responsibility of the client in all cases. Eyesight check - read a number plate at 20.5m |
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USEFUL LEARNER and NOVICE DRIVER ADVICE- this advice is priceless to any learner or newly qualified driver |
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Driving test advice. Tips to help pass your test, and then keep you safe on the roads CONCENTRATE, OBSERVE, ANTICIPATE and then SPACE and TIME - this is the basic advice that always serves you well How to drive a junction - when you set off across a junction do a quick check left-right BEFORE CROSSING. Does the examiner's confidence a world of good. Oh, and saves your life when the idiot jumps the lights. Critical if you're first off from the lights. Don't look into the junction when you are next to it - it's too late then. My routine - pupil looks into each road and says the word "happy" before crossing. Learn to vocalise your observations. Link things together. Engage First gear check mirrors for bikes, second gear observe the junction. Don't steer and change gear; do one or the other. Link an observe to a gear selection. Look into the roundabout, select the appropriate gear to continue/stop. Roundabout. Always approach planning to stop at the line but constantly observing/scanning so that you can go when the opportunity arrives. "Slow until you can go, when it's clear take the right gear." This way you will not be caught out or sail into the junction. New road, new observation. Observe far, middle, near and rear. Treat every turn as a new road. The next 20 seconds can fail you. The next 5 can KILL you. So CONCENTRATE. See a light think. Indicator or brake light. Do I need to slow? Green light, think about stopping, Red, think stop but prepare for a go. As soon as you see a light in front of you step off the gas, ASSESS, then decide what needs doing. Try and let a situation resolve before you get there, perhaps coming off the gas early and loose a little speed early. Dodgy situation? Cover the brake. Always cover the brake when approaching lights on a downhill road. Car keeps on moving and you're ready for a stop. Examiner notices things like this and it makes them feel COMFORTABLE. They don't pass SCARY drivers. Would you? Pedestrian crossing. Look for red stop light on the right; means it's a puffin. Won't change 'till the people are off the crossing. There's no flashing amber on a puffin so don't move off until the green. No red light on right: Pelican; takes 7 seconds to change. Slow the car early and ready for the change. When a person's on the crossing they have priority whether red or green. Look out for bikes on the pavement near a crossing. Always scan the pavement for potential crossers. ALWAYS have space in front of you, especially at junctions. You should always be able to see a group of cars in front of you, then a space, then you. Think of them as the Play and you as the Audience. NEVER get involved in the play. This is my single best piece of advice! We teach you to manage this space all the time in your drive. It makes a HUGE difference to your stress levels. Manoeuvres - these are failed for accuracy or (more often) observation. Make sure you observe BEFORE you start - imagine there's a kid waiting to run behind your car. Then, do at least three observes during the manoeuvre. The examiner will always spot something before you. If you want some advice on a part of the test ask me. The bigger the vehicle in front of you the greater the space - if it's a bus or a bin wagon EXPECT it to stop. It's not rocket science! ALWAYS stop with a car length in front of you. You must be able to see TYRES and TARMAC. That way, if you miss a side turning you still have space for the car. Slowing down. Forget the gears. Only grab a gear when you know you can go. That way you grab the right gear. Right turn, grab the gear as you look into the road. Then you won't cut the corner and get a steering or a major fault . Get the gear at the end of your braking. Try and come off the clutch at the same time as you come off the brake. This works REALLY well, especially downhill turns: May not be the advanced driver system but the brake pedal keeps the car controlled. You'll feel the difference. Questions on learning to drive sent to the website Smoothing out gear-changes - This is hardly ever taught, never explained and little understood. Move your hand to the gear-lever first. Try to move the gear and depress the clutch at the same time. The longer the revs have to fall before the next gear comes in, the more jerky the gear-change. Come straight off the clutch going up gears so as the revs fall they match the next gear; Changing down - blend it in going down. If you get the gear at the end of your braking the revs have to rise less so there's virtually no jerk. Remember if the engine has to speed up, as you're not touching the gas, the energy has to come out of the car - hence the lurch.
Should
I go into a box junction if I'm turning right? - Short answer, yes. If
you're the first car and you can't make the right turn just because of
oncoming traffic enter the box and wait to turn right. If you're the
second car you can wait behind the first car - this is allowed. If you're
the third car it's usually best to wait behind the stop line at the
lights. When the first car moves check the lights and then place the car
behind the one left in the junction. Read Highway Code rule 174 carefully.
(Don't ever put the car where you really don't want it. e.g. over the
pedestrian crossing area of the traffic lights How do I improve my braking? Here's something that learner drivers struggle on and often fail their test for. Think of braking as having three parts. The first is the signal to the driver behind we are slowing for some reason. Check the mirror and lightly press the brake pedal. This lights up the brake lights, tells the following driver there's a need to slow down and it also tells the examiner you've seen the problem ahead. It also gets the car into a stable braking dynamic. The second is the loosing speed bit. Squeeze the pedal progressively harder increasing pressure and then reducing towards the end of the stop. The clutch usually goes down at the end of this phase, otherwise you loose some control and get a coasting fault on test. Try and brake as if you're stopping a metre or two before the stop line; then you can adjust your final stop point. . . . The third is the positioning the stop point with the end of the braking, This gives a lurch-free stop and allows you to stop the car accurately. Keep your hands on the wheel until you stop. Swap footbrake for handbrake at this point unless you are about to move off. Once you're stopped prepare for a move off. Observe, get your feet over clutch and gas. Watch the lights and keep an eye out for pedestrians and bikes.
How should I steer? Steering seems basically straightforward but is rarely learnt properly. The system described here is what is required when learning for test. There are other ways of steering a car but these can be learnt after your test. The following is for steering a left or right turn at lower speeds. 1. Try and hold the steering wheel at about the quarter to three position, arms slightly bent. 2. Turning left, with both hands on the wheel, raise the left hand on the wheel to the top and then pull first. Once the hand is level with the right hand, the right follows the left down to the bottom and takes over to push up, if necessary. Returning the wheel is just this in reverse. The trick is to keep the hands at the same level after the first initial pull down. Try to feed the wheel through the hands and not let either hand leave the wheel. 3. Don't apply gas until the steering is virtually straight, otherwise you will have to move your hands fast and untidily. Get the car basically straight. Only apply gas when you are happy you have looked up the road. 4. Don't do gear-changes when steering. You can practise feeding the wheel through your hands with a large round tray. Try and keep you hands on the tray and level all of the time. Put a mark at the top, turn it all the way around once and then return it back again. This is good practice for when you get back in the car. If it doesn't work at first try small shuffles of the wheel and then make them larger bites. Higher speed steering is quite a different approach. Rarely will the hands come off the wheel and the aim is to steer as little - and with as few corrections - as possible. If you find the car dancing all over the road the probable reason will be looking too close in front of the vehicle. If you take your eyes further down the road the car will start to smooth out: If going through a long corner try and look to the end of it. Basically, even when pretty inexperienced, a car will go where the driver is looking. Don't look where the car is pointing; look where you want to go to! Also, try and RELAX your hands and arms! Easier said than done sometimes but it makes a MASSIVE difference to the feel of the car.
If you have a question - email it and we'll answer it here. Good luck!
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the newly qualified driver - more skills, greater safety, less stress.
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If the second car doesn't move when the lights change you're left where
you don't want to be.)