Following a period of dry weather that many have experienced recently, you can be sure that when it rains driver get caught out by the changed road conditions. Rubber from tyres and oil products adhere to the surface of the road, which when wet can be literally lethal, 95% of all accidents involve some degree of skidding.

Bill Plant has introduced a new Skid Control training package so whether you are a new driver having recently passed your test with Bill Plant driving school, or have driven for many years, the skid training scheme can only be of benefit to you when it comes to dealing with that unexpected incident which may be just around the next corner. We know that every day nine people die in road crashes in the UK, the roads account for the most deaths of young people between the ages of 15 to 24years of age; company drivers suffer an average of 150 deaths and serious injuries each week when driving on business.

The Bill Plant School of Motoring offers a unique opportunity for both men and women to become driving instructors and to operate in an area close to where they live, in a high earning self employed capacity. By becoming a Bill Plant franchisee, you will be in a job where the benefit of all your hard work and commitment stops with you and of course your pupil! You have the benefit of a new and well maintained car; you secure a better work and life balance which will result in you being happier all round.

No qualifications are needed to enroll on the course, except of course the need for a full driving licence. At the Bill Plant Driving Instructor Training course you will be offered a full “pay as you go” scheme whilst training for the parts 1, 2 & 3 of the Driving Standards agency tests, necessary to become a fully Approved Driving Instructor. Bill Plant will tailor the courses around your present employment which means that you can continue to earn during this period without losing income. Make the first move and contact us for the first step toward the job satisfaction of teaching people a valuable skill for life.

Whether you are taking the car out for the first time since passing your theoretical and practical driving test, or you have been driving for some time, there are some practical tips that will keep you and other road users safe.

Check your speedometer regularly, especially when coming off high speed roads, modern cars are so powerful and comfortable they give drivers little sensation of their speed, so many drivers find themselves exceeding the speed limit without realising it. Check the speed limits, too many drivers who have been caught speeding, complain that they thought the road had a higher speed limit. A good suggestion would be to use third gear when in a thirty mph limit.

What has been known is that exceeding the speed limit makes little difference to your arrival time. The time it takes to complete a journey is determined much more by your average speed during the whole journey, rather than the maximum speed you achieve for part of it, better to be late “than dead on time”.

When driving instructor Toseef Cheema moved to Luton he thought he’d be happier running his own private driving school.
 
Toseef, a former IT engineer, had built up a busy Bill Plant franchise in Leeds and hoped to continue successfully in business on his own when he moved 180 miles away to Bedfordshire.
 
‘I wanted to work for myself.   Self employment worked best for me, providing I could earn enough money,’ says Toseef, a 30-year-old father of two.  ‘The trouble was after four or so months it just wasn’t working. I was worrying about finding more pupils instead of concentrating on helping pupils learn better.’
 
Desperate, Toseef got in touch with Bill Plant, signed a franchise agreement and within a fortnight had a full diary and was turning away potential pupils.
 
 He says; ‘I didn’t know Luton at all.   But hundreds of people go on the internet and find Bill Plant’s site.  The lessons are good value and their enquiries filtered down to me.
 
‘It’s the cheapest franchise on the market. Best of all I remain totally in control of what I do.   I fit the driving lessons around what else I want to do in my life.  It’s like working privately without all the hassle.  I don’t have any worries about where the work is coming from.’
 
‘When I officially started with Bill Plant, I asked for a few more pupils. They gave me 15 students in two weeks.  I was fully booked up.  It was unbelievable. “

You will have worked hard when taking your driving lessons and the all important practical driving test awaits you. We strongly recommend that  when you pass the test a Pass Plus course be considered which will make you an even better driver as well as giving the benefit of lower insurance premiums, so don’t spoil it all by collecting penalty points by being caught exceeding the statutory speed limits.

Modern cars are so powerful and comfortable they give drivers little sensation of their speed, and many drivers find themselves exceeding the speed limit without realising it. None more so than when coming off a high speed road such as a motorway when dropping down to 40 or 30 mph can feel like going at snails pace. Remember to check your speedometer regularly and do not rely on a feeling of speed which can be very misleading. Speed limits are set as a maximum for safety reasons, they are not targets.

As more and more people are taking to the roads, driving practices and principles have had to change to keep up with the times.  Over the last ten years alone everything from the speed limit, to the volume of traffic, to road signs, has had to change to keep up to date.  The classroom and driving instruction people take in order to get their driver’s license has even changed to incorporate the increased flow of traffic and what could be perceived as potentially hazardous driving conditions.

Any citizen wanting to get their driver’s license should make sure the driving school they are interested in using follows an approved syllabus and tests what the student has learned.  This instruction should cover eighteen different areas of learning that are required and will show that learners can handle themselves in each area before being allowed to take the practical test.

Today student drivers need to pass not only the written test and practical driving test, but they also have to pass what is known as a video-clip hazard perception test.  The student sits at a computer screen as if they were actually driving the automobile.  They are presented with fifteen hazards that they must identify, one per clip, with the exception of one clip which will have two hazards.  If the student passes all three of their tests, they will be rewarded with the issuance of a driver’s license and afforded the privileges of being able to drive an automobile without needing to be accompanied by another adult.

You can put it off no longer the time has come when the teenager in you’re family takes thier driving lessons, quite rightly so, they will need to be independent one day and not rely on you to ferry them around. But the way that they are being taught is to come under scrutiny this month as the Government is still rightly concerned about the number of young driver deaths on our roads. So what can you do as a parent when the time comes for them to take to the wheel? Professional bodies believe that there is no substitute for proper professional driving tuition.

You, as a hands on parent, can help by allowing them as much practice as you possibly can, but if you want to help your youngster learn to drive, you may need to go back for a refresher to driving school yourself as you have to realise that your driving style may be an effective one for you as an experienced driver, but not necessarily a direct fit with the syllabus that the ADI will be working to preparing your youngster for the test. Remember that your vehicle has to be suitable for practising in; your large automatic transmission car is entirely different from the friendly manual Vauxhall Corsa they will eventually take their practical driving test in.

Fatigue can affect drivers at any time of the day and it does not have to occur simply at night.  If you are tired you cannot concentrate and your reaction time becomes slower.  Fatigue is blamed for at least twenty percent of all motorway accidents.  More accidents occur between two and six in the morning, and two and four in the afternoon when the body is naturally wanting to rest.  You can be assured that if you are driving and beginning to get tired, you have the potential of falling asleep at the wheel.

If you begin to feel tired on a drive, find a safe place to pull over and park your automobile.  If you can, take a fifteen minute rest.  This will give you enough energy to make it to your destination safely.  If you do not have the time to take a quick rest, stop someplace where you can purchase a couple of cans of an energy drink.  The energy drink will help shake off the fatigue and give you about ninety minutes of usable energy once it has been absorbed into your body.

When you know you are going to be driving for an extended length of time, make sure you get enough sleep before leaving.  Try to avoid leaving in the evening after a full day of work, or in the morning when you have not had enough sleep.  Always make sure you stop at regular intervals for about ten minutes for every two hours of driving to ensure that you have a safe trip.

Like his racing greyhounds, Rob Tunmore took the fast track when he switched careers and trained to become a driving instructor with Bill Plant Ltd.
 
For  Rob, 51, passed all necessary training and exams to become a fully qualified Approved Driving Instructor in a record five weeks.
 
Rob, was a  fed up transport manager working 70 hours a week when he signed up to Bill Plant’s ADI intensive training program.
 
He said: ‘I wanted a different career with freedom to work my own hours and be my own boss.  It can take 18 months to become a fully approved driving instructor. Many people try to fit training around their existing jobs but I wanted to get started and qualify as soon as possible.
 
When he is not instructing learners, Rob, who has three grown up boys, enjoys watching his greyhounds race.
 
He says: ‘The Bill Plant intensive training package cost £2,900 and I cannot fault it in anyway. Thanks to Bill Plant I had all the necessary literature, instruction and support required to pass all stages of my test.
 
Rob is now running a successful Bill Plant driving school franchise in the Marlborough and Swindon areas in Wiltshire.
 
‘He says: ‘Owning greyhounds and training to be a driving instructor both require a great deal of hard work to get results.  Becoming a driving instructor has been a very steep learning curve and I get a real buzz from the interaction with the pupils.’

If you are a fleet driver for a company, you may have already taken an approved advanced motoring course.  If not, the course will teach you how to drive better through planning and the efficient use of the road to ensure safety as you travel.  The course builds upon your current driving skills and helps you prepare a driving plan to follow.  It will help you build confidence, improve your awareness of the road, and make driving more enjoyable as you improve both your performance and efficiency.

By managing your road space, you are setting clear lines for yourself regarding how far behind another person you are driving, whether you are following the speed limits, and if you can properly anticipate the need for a quick and sudden stop.  You will also be watching out for unexpected things other than a stopped car ahead of you, such as animals and children running into the road, or debris from a blown lorry tire or other vehicle.  If you need to swerve to avoid hitting these things, then you need to be able to better manage your road space.  Sometimes an accident can be avoided by simply swerving out of the way.  Also the use of the horn and headlights to make your presence known to avoid a collision is acceptable.