Satellite navigation in motor vehicles is becoming more common place, particularly as the purchase price falls almost daily and more cars are fitted with these as standard. But incorrect use can be a cause of danger to the sat nav driver and to other road users as well.

Firstly, always have maps as a fall back, the satellite navigation equipment in not infallible so you should have some idea of your route before you set out, be sensible, it is a tool to help, not a substitute for common sense, also use the voice instruction do not try to read the screen like a map.

Insurers are offering sensible advice as well; these items are a must for thieves. You should remove the unit before leaving the vehicle; your insurance cover may be invalid if reasonable precautions have not been taken to reduce the risk of theft that also means that you should remove the holder from the screen or dash. Sensibly never programme your “home” details, if you do lose your sat nav thieves can use the information to target you.

Remember learning to drive does not stop as soon as you pass your driving test. You need to keep saftey in mind for the rest of your driving days.

Motoring and road safety groups have called on the government to introduce medical check-ups and assessments of vision and dementia for motorists aged over 70 years. Drivers of pensionable age are the fastest growing group but they are becoming controversial in some quarters, but just how dangerous are they. Last year drivers over 70 years of Age who were involved in accidents amounted to 11,000, against 54,337 for drivers under the age of 24 years, so are older drivers being targeted unfairly?

Driving is more complex and demanding than it used to be with more traffic on the roads and new technology such as in-car navigation systems.  Factors dictating road risk can be said to be; hazard perception, speed choice, driving violation and fatigue, so irrespective of age we should all allow plenty of time to complete our journey and planning our route in advance. We should all expect the unexpected, be alert and anticipate situations that may present themselves ahead.

There is even more reason to sign up with Bill Plant and become a driving instructor as we’re now offering a free corporate / fleet driver training course worth over £1000.

To qualify for the free fleet trainer’s course, you need to have successfully completed parts 1, 2 & 3 of the ADI training with the Bill Plant Instructor School, and also to have taken on the Bill Plant driving instructor franchise.

As a fleet instructor, you will be involved with going into companies and representing Bill Plant Fleetcraft. This means you will be taking company vehicle drivers, ranging from the MD of multi site companies to the person driving the delivery vehicles or staff transport. The job is to ensure that they are able to drive as safely as possible and that they have fulfilled the legal training requirements. This may also involve SAFED training, which is for safe and fuel efficient driving, meaning that companies can save substantial amounts on their annual fuel bills and drastically reduce accident rates.

The beauty of being a fleet trainer, is that currently less than 5% of the instructors in the UK have this qualification, and whilst it dovetails nicely with instructing learners, it allows you teach on a different level and have additional qualifications.

How many times do we see cars coming towards us with one of the headlights misaligned, usually the offside one, creating dangerous dazzle. Recent roadside checks have shown that a massive 88% of the fifty cars checked had one or more of its headlights out of alignment. Sometimes this can be as simple as extra passengers in the back of the car or some heavy items that have been put into the boot, this problem can be easily rectified in most modern cars by the in car height adjustment, but how many driver no that this exists, or can be bothered to do it?

Another problem is the motor vehicle that has one of the headlights which has failed, a situation that is illegal and can carry penalties if not rectified. All drivers should check that all their lights are working before driving at night and ensure that the aim of them is correct, adjustments can be carried out at most garages for a small fee, you car will fail its MOT inspection if the lights are not working properly.

You can hopefully now see the importance of the hazard preception test when you take your driving test.

Former head of oil giant Shell, writing on the BBC’s online news page has controversially suggested that we should be prevented from buying cars that will not achieve 35 MPG. Sir Mark Moody-Stuart believes that to address the climate challenge we need to reduce the carbon content of our energy by at least half and this somewhat draconian measure is one way of going about this.

When you learn to drive at the Bill Plant School of Motoring, it will be in one of our Vauxhall Corsa 1.3 CTDI dual drive cars. There would not be a problem with us meeting the suggestion posted by Sir Mark, as our cars return a combined fuel consumption of 61.4 MPG, with carbon emissions of just 124 grammes per Kilometre, according to a road test by the Exeter based “Express & Echo” newspaper. So how do you compare, and do you agree with this controversial suggestion?