Teaching friends and family to drive
Helping a friend or family member with driving practice would probably not be top of the list of your favourite pastimes, although your support could be vital to them in treading that road to success.
But what’s the best way of giving that helping hand? After all, poorly structured practice could do more harm than good!
It can be made a lot easier by following these tips to save time and money, and to ensure a calm and happy learning environment.
So, if you are the license holder ask yourself some questions…
1. Would you pass the driving test now?
If you don’t know the rules of the road very well, it would be a good idea to refresh your knowledge.
Many supervisors don’t and it’s led to many problems, including prosecutions.
2. How is your own and your Learners eyesight?
The distance requirement for the eyesight test using old style number plates is 20.5 metres or 20 metres if the new-style number plate is used. New-style number plates are easily identifiable starting with two letters eg AB 51 ABC.
3. Is your car suitable and insured?
The vehicle will need to be insured for the provisional driver and will need to be in a roadworthy condition.
You will require 2 regulation sized L PLates
The supervising individual will need to express some of the following qualities.
How you can help…
1. Be a role model.
There’s no point in breaking the speed limits and driving erratically to get to a training area, to then pass on a completely different style of driving to your sibling or friend. How would that look?
Therefore it would be best if you provided a more suitable, careful drive; demonstrating thinking and safe driving skills.
2. Be patient!
Many driving instructors experience problems stemming from the impatience of supervising family or friends. Teaching to drive is a skill that will require you to accept a learning individual will make mistakes. Think back to days when you learnt to drive, the mistakes you may have made, and the driving test you will have experienced.
There’s no point in shouting and screaming at your learner because they stalled at the traffic lights, if they can’t cope with traffic and traffic lights , maybe they’re not ready to be there. Try and tailor your supervision to areas and hazards that your Learner can deal with, then, when they become more skillful, move onto more difficult hazards.
Also choose a time of day when the roads are quieter, rush hour is no place for a learner.
3. Allow time to react!
The driver must have space to manoeuvre and time to react.
Most of us have heard of “the 2-second rule”. This can help the novice to compensate for inexperience and is invaluable in reducing risk in traffic.
A more effective rule however is “the 12-second visual lead time”. This helps the driver in anticipating more of the traffic movements. Look for potential hazards as far away as the point the vehicle will reach in twelve seconds. Within this distance, the driver should scan the scene, including the pavements and verges, and make adjustments to speed and position as necessary.
Remember, learning to drive is probably more stressful and difficult for the learner, than it is for the supervising individual!
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Tags: Driving Techniques, driving tips, instructor technical abilities, learning to drive, nervous, pass the driving test, supervising learner drivers
