BIG TOM Driving School continues to offer our Intensive Driving Course in Grantham 01476 850050 and this blog is aimed at the pupils (and their parents) who are simply looking for the latest news about the courses and information about learning to drive.
On the BIG TOM Intensive Driving Course in Grantham our customers are asked to think of all aspects of road safety including the responsibilities that come with having your full driving licence. Car insurance, willingness to check tyres, eco driving, identifying fatigue, managing in-car distractions are some examples that are covered on our courses, because our experience shows that if learner drivers are not encouraged to raise their awareness of these things, unfortunately they can pass under the radar, and then they are not making informed decisions. Take car insurance as just one example. Latest figures from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau estimate there are 300,000 young uninsured drivers in the UK. The figure is ever increasing as the average cost for 18-20 year old car insurance is now £972 per year. The consequences of this fact are far reaching for everyone not least the drivers. In our courses, customers are encouraged to consider their attitude to driving around without insurance, the possible outcomes, identify the influencing factors that consciously and unconsciously affect their future behaviour. Take a look at this video.
How quickly can you respond for an emergency stop? Thankfully, these situations don’t crop up too often in normal day to day driving, but on the BIG TOM Intensive Driving Course in Grantham our customers are encouraged to discover how responsive they are, and some of the factors that might affect their response times. You see, we are all different, and attempting to check response times of getting on the brake pedal in an emergency in the same way that one might check eyesight by looking at a registration plate at a certain distance is not very sensible. A drivers response time to stop the car in an emergency can be affected by many factors, and having an appreciation of them and how much they affect stopping distances does open the mind about thinking of emergency stops in a more realistic manner than just how quickly you apply brakes when a driving instructor raises their hand and says “STOP”. It’s an eye opener believe us – and as weird as it might sound, it’s actually very beneficial to raise awareness of your own personal strengths and weaknesses when driving. Take this short test for a bit of fun on the subject, the programme predicted my age within just 2 years, so pretty accurate for me!
According to latest RAC research a staggering 81% of company car drivers admit to regularly breaking the 70mph speed limit, this compares to what is still an eye watering 69% of private motorists. On the Intensive Driving Course in Grantham it is a sad fact that our customers will regularly witness excessive speeding by drivers on a range of roads from driving around Grantham town centre, to the rural roads leading to the villages on the outskirts of Grantham, and including the A1. Understanding what our individual beliefs are about speeding, and appreciating how factors like peer pressure, conditioning from role models, and busy schedules can affect those beliefs is an important thought process to go through. Evidence shows that rarely do we intentionally choose to speed, and with the best of intentions or perceptions of the speeds we THINK we drive at, often the reality can be different. One question is why we choose to not let technology assist us in this regard. Despite the overwhelming evidence that places a direct link between loss of control of a vehicle and excessive speed, there still appears to be divided opinion about the use of “Intelligent Speed Adaption” technology. Here at BIG TOM we welcome such technology as we recognise that human behaviour by its very nature is complex, sometimes unpredictable and often unintentional . But feel free to take a look at this technology used by Ford and let us know your opinion on managing speed while driving.
BIG TOM Driving School Intensive Driving Course in Grantham Book now: 01476 850050
