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Ten Tips On Choosing Your Irish Driving Instructor
By: Robin Piggott
First of all let’s examine why you would need a Driving Instructor in order to
learn how to drive. Sure everyone needs a teacher, advisor or instructor, don’t
they, when facing up to a new challenge? Or do they? Which comes first, the
Chicken or the Egg?
Would you go out and Order an expensive Steinway Piano, never having played a
note? Would you go to your local swimming pool and jump in the deep end if you
had never been in the water before?
Would you ring up your local light Aircraft Company and order a Cessna for next
day delivery and ask them to have it tanked up and ready to go?
How about booking a two week scuba Diving holiday in the Aegean when all your
experience to date is a deck chair on the beach at Torremolinos?
All of the above scenarios are about as inconceivable as you can possibly
imagine; yet thousands of Irish learner Drivers are doing the equivalent every
day of the week. Why so? Well it is a combination of the previously lax laws and
now that we do actually have some legislation heading us in roughly the right
direction, the inability of
the Garda to enforce them .Yes we have had a good deal of changes to our system
of Driving Tests and Licensing recently but Mandatory tuition has yet to be
enacted. When it is introduced, hopefully we will be on the slow uphill climb to
some degree of motoring competence instead of the current Motoring mayhem which
we currently enjoy.
Let’s now have a look at the type of Instructor you should be looking for.
1. Look through the Golden Pages and try to make a short list of those Driving
Schools with a Web Site. You could of course, do a quick search on Google using
various search terms. A School with a web site is one who takes their profession
seriously and who will provide quite a lot of free, but invaluable information.
Do not regard a web site as purely a smart way of attracting more pupils. Look
at it as a way of getting some valuable info, together with an inside peek at
who the Instructor might be, and how he or she does business.
2. Look for a school with qualified Instructors. Now in Ireland at present, but
not for long, anyone can call themselves a qualified Instructor, never having so
much as looked at an advanced Driving Course or taken any Examinations. We have
The Driving Instructor Register here which has been examining Driving Tutors on
a voluntary basis since 1996 .A good number of Driving Instructors have passed
these exams and will be able to impart an advanced level of tuition.
3. Don’t just ring up a Driving School and with your first sentence ask what
prices are your lessons. You are perfectly entitled to query prices, which will
be very much the same from all established Schools. Schools that have not been
established for long or who are desperate for business will be sometimes
somewhat cheaper. Any one that is
substantially less than the bunch should be avoided since this is not a
profession that is cheap to run and today you get what you pay for .Cheap
lessons are exactly that!
4. Ask the age of the Instructor and how long they have been driving. European
Driving School standards require that an Instructor must have been driving on a
full licence for at least three if not four years. Frankly, anyone with less
than ten years driving experience will not have the necessary skills to be a
worthwhile choice in my view .We are
talking here about teaching pupils skills for life and not a half-hearted few
lessons prior to the Driving Test, which sadly seems to be a favourite choice of
a good many Irish learner Drivers.
5. Ask what make and model the Driving School car is. There are many models in
use by Driving Schools and of course all Instructors tend to have their own
particular favourites. Diesel models are extremely economical for the Instructor
who lives in the country and who does a lot of mileage. Diesel models are on the
increase due to their improved performance over past years and their economy.
They also hold their value well and while a little more expensive to maintain
they go on for ever if looked after.
6. Ask the Instructor whether or not country road and high speed carriageway
Driving are include in the Teaching Syllabus. These form a large part of your
every day driving in Ireland and are very important skills to have right from
the start. Ask yourself the question...are you going to be spending the bulk of
your driving career, driving around your local area or into town and back; or
are you going to be visiting the Coast, going on Holiday to the far reaches of
the country or even Dublin. Of course you are; after all isn’t this why you are
buying a car in the first place? If you are only concerned with transporting
yourself within your local area it’s much cheaper, believe me, to hire a Taxi!
7. Ask your proposed Instructor does she or he give Motorway Tuition. While we
don’t have the same level of Motorways here in Ireland, as in the U.K or Europe,
we do have stretches between major cities and particularly in the Dublin area
and of course over the coming years there will be many more miles of Motorway I
am sure. These marvels of Engineering require a higher degree of skill and lots
of practise in your car before one can safely negotiate Dublin or abroad. This
is why Learner Drivers are not permitted on Motorways. We are lucky here in
Limerick, in that we have a new ring road carriageway, spanning about 20 miles
which is identical in layout and signage to a Motorway apart from the speed
limit and the colour of said signs. Perfect for legal high speed Motorway style
practise within five minutes or so drive from most parts of the City.
8. Most Driving Schools will usually book lessons at least a week ahead, so
don’t expect to ring up and get a lesson that day or even the next. Occasionally
if you are lucky, and the School has a vacant slot they will take you but it’s
the exception rather than the rule. If the School can’t take you for a week be
patient it will be well worth the wait.
9. A good Driving Instructor will ask you for a fair bit of information on the
phone in order to gauge your level of skill. He or she will ask questions that
may not seem relevant, when all you, as a pupil want to do is to get behind the
wheel .Believe me they will be; they will all be designed to build up your
driver profile and should not be construed as being nosy!
10. A Professional Instructor will take with a pinch of salt your efforts at
explaining just how well you can drive and how you only need a bit of practise
here and there at reversing or hill starts. Don’t be defensive, you are about to
learn one of the most important life building and life saving skills. A good
Instructor will not venture out in your own car, if you already have one, until
he or she has seen your capabilities or you have described in great detail your
experience. eg. one years driving and getting ready to sit the Driving Test.
This is the first in a series of “Ten Tips” to better and safer
Driving.
About the Author:
Robin Piggott has spent a lifetime behind the wheel and is passionate about his
Profession (and many other pursuits as well).The next generation of Drivers
needs to develop a passion for excellence if they are to stay safe and arrive
alive! Visit the Astral Driving School web site.
http://www.astralmotoring.ie
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