With insurance companies getting tougher with drivers who have points on their licence from hand-held mobile phone offences has to be an excellent development. The insurer Allianz believes that you are a more dangerous driver if you have points from using a hand held ‘phone than for a routine speeding offence, described by them as a “dangerous and needless act”.

If you are one of those who persist with this dangerous practice, you can expect fine, points on their licence, in addition to an increase in the insurance premium when you renew.  Amazingly 185,000 drivers were caught using hand held phones in 2007 but in spite of the increase in the penalties now a doubled fine, from £30 to £60, with three penalty points, the offence continues. There has never been a better time to invest in a Bluetooth hands-free kit, which are widely available at less than £30 which is less than half the cost of the fine if you are caught.

Remember that hands free conversations are still a distraction and you should always tell callers that you are driving, and find somewhere legal, safe and convenient to pull over. Drive safely.

The chief medical officer Liam Donaldson has called for teenage drivers to be banned from drinking any alcohol at all when taking to the wheel of a motor vehicle, a zero limit. Even when they have consumed within the present limit the teenager is twice as likely as an older driver to be involved in an accident.

Many younger drivers are asking why they should be treated differently to older drivers and we believe that the answer is quite simple. Not only are older drivers more careful due to their experience, but they are much more tolerant to alcohol than a younger person.

At Bill Plant we train our learner drivers to the highest standard at all our UK wide driving schools, and as part of our tuition we have always considered that driving a motor vehicle and alcohol are two things that do not mix, Mr Donaldson’s views may be controversial, but they could save lives.

Using your mobile phone whilst driving is an offence which collects a fine and three penalty points; at the Bill Plant Driving School we believe that doing so makes the user more dangerous than those who might collect points for being caught by camera a few MPH over the speed limit. The major insurer Allianz wholehearted agrees with us, describing the act as a dangerous and needless act, that they as an insurer intend to penalise, by increasing their premiums.

It is now more than a year since the tougher penalties for hand-held mobile phone use were introduced, but amazingly the Department for Transport report that 185,000 drivers were caught using hand held phones in 2007. Hands free or Bluetooth systems have to be the way forward, when you can tell the caller that you are driving and will find a safe place to pull over and call back without putting yourself and other road users at risk.

Whether your view on parking restrictions that are evident in every town and city is that they help the flow of traffic, or that they are revenue raisers for government, they are here to stay and they are becoming more restrictive in the way that there administered.

As of now, tickets for parking illegally can be issued in an entirely new way. No longer has the parking attendant to hand you the ticket, or fix this to the windscreen of your car. CCTV cameras are now being used to spot those drivers who stop on a yellow line, and this could be for literally just a few minutes. Photographs are taken and a ticket is sent in the post to the registered owner of the vehicle. Obviously you should avoid illegally parking your car, your Qualified Driving Instructor will have fully briefed you about this, and checking the online Highway Code will give guidance also. Avoid that ticket!

It is worth reminding anyone who is connected with a company, which has vehicles and drivers, that they are now subject to the Corporate Manslaughter Bill which became law on the 6th April 2008. Fleet operators and others, if they have not already done so, should familiarise themselves will the risks associated when operating vehicles as part of their business.

Bill Plant, which is one of the UK’s leading Occupational Road Risk Management and Driver Training specialists, can provide up to the minute training and advice on the risks that are involved, not only in the field of Occupational Road Risk Management and Consultancy but also driver training to a very high standard. By taking part in this Fleetcraft Training, your company will see lower fleet operating costs, a reduction in accident rates as well as improved fuel economy. Reduce your costs and road risk by contacting us now, for your Corporate Driver Training.

It is a sad truth that following on from our successful driving test, the longer we drive the more inclined we are to ignore all but the most basic of road signs. Even a “Stop” in large capitals painted on the road is often ignored; at the very best it will be treated as a give way sign.

Many believe that we are suffering from “signage overload” as there are an increasing number of instructions, many of which are unofficial, appearing on our roads. This often means that because of all the signs at eye level, we often ignore, or are unaware of the relevance of road markings, even when we see them.

We cannot stress enough the value of continuing to re-read the Highway Code, which can also be accessed online at Bill Plant School of Motoring. Road signs are there for a purposed and for our and others safety, simply put, the more paint that is on the road surface, the greater the potential danger.

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?

Driver’s records have gone missing. The details of many UK driver’s had gone missing in the US which was only announced yesterday. This comes not long after the Government announced that various Tax data had gone missing.

The driver  data that was missing contains the names, addresses and ‘phone numbers of people who were taking the driving theory test.

We are being reassured by The Information Commissioner, that fraudsters profiting from this lost data was low and that no personal financial information was involved in the loss. We understand that the details of every British learner taking the theory part of the test between September 2003 and April 2007 were on the computer hard drive that has gone missing, current learner drivers are not at risk.

The transport secretary Ruth Kelly detailed the fact that data of up to three million candidates for the driving theory test had gone missing.It appears that the data which was contained on a hard drive was found in a non-secure area. So not where it was supposed to be. The fact that such driver details were misplaced is alarming.

Thinking of taking a UK drive?

Driving standards in the UK are of course very different from abroad. Such areas as risk reduction for drivers are not always covered. We have mentioned before intense pass style courses which often claim to deliver efficient driver improvement or qualified drivers at such a fast pace that people fail to learn to drive.

Before you think about a UK Drive, consider this:

You will need a provisional license this is a legal requirement before commencing any driving in the UK.

Bill Plant knows that the best way to learn to drive is by carefully training with both male and female driving instructors who are local to your own area.

The government are currently considering plans to enforce even tougher penalties on drivers who are caught speeding and are way over the speed limits.

The usual culprits are those typically found doing over 40 mph in a 30mph zone, it is now looking like drivers doing these excessive speeds could face up to six points on their driving license.

If we think about this carefully, just two offenses in one year could result in a driving ban. The levels of speeding motorists should be cut says the transport minister Jim Fitzpatrick.

The other indication is that drivers who are only slightly over the speed limit could find a more lenient approach from the government.

Here at Bill Plant we know that speeding is dangerous and teach all of our drivers to be aware of their speed at all times. We understand that the government want to enforce speed limits for a reason, to protect other road users and for pedestrians.

We expect the Department of Transport to be in consultation over the forthcoming weeks and their conclusions aired sometime in the new year.

A fine is also expected to be given to those drivers who are  well in excess of the speed limits imposed.  There are many driving lessons to be learned and it seems the government is intent on making their road safety campaign very clear.