Manual driving lessons and intensive courses in Sevenoaks

Powerful BBC documentary that is a must for all young drivers to see.

I completed one of our van familiarisation courses on Monday. A blue chip company with staff in central London. I gave a laptop presentation to 4 new staff who were about to be unleashed in vehicles 2 or 3 times bigger than they had ever driven before. One of them had not driven since she had passed 3 or 4 years beforehand and another drove a Lupo! I then took them out in pairs for morning and afternoon sessions As it turned out 2 were reasonably competent and with practice will be good van drivers. The others caused many 'wheel grabbing' occasions and I probably saved more lives in a day than an ER nurse would save in a month. It is probably criminally negligent for a company to put their employees into a van without assessment and training. If we can help please call on 01303 279755

The Big Red L Company is pretty impressed by the very nice people at Pass Smart. They have great technical expertise and have created the best driving instructor directory ever. For all driving instructors I suggest you sign up for free now. After a few revisions of their website they are now even better placed to help both pupils find their perfect local ADI.

TEENAGER Rheece Lowden shows off his new driving licence – despite never passing his test. The 19-year-old from Sunderland was sent the full licence in the post after a mistake by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA). Rheece was due to take his driving test last month, but cancelled it online. But he still received the official paper and plastic authorisation just days later. “I couldn’t believe it when it arrived,” he said. “I don’t know how it could have happened. Not only did I cancel it, I’ve never been anywhere near a test centre since.” Rheece, who is unemployed, said he hoped passing his test would improve his job prospects, and spent hundreds of pounds on lessons. He added: “I’ve waited so long to sit my test. I’ve spent the best part of £1,000 on lessons. I’ve been learning, on and off, for the past two years or so. “I’ve failed my test twice, but I was really confident that this time round I was going to pass. “Although the bad weather has caused me a few problems and the snow has held me up a bit, it was going well until all this blew up.” Now the learner driver is demanding that the DVLA take responsibility for the mistake. “I’ve never been given an apology,” he said. “When I went to try to re-book the test, I was told I couldn’t because I was already a registered driver with a full licence. “Not only have I lost the £62 that it cost to book the test, I’m also going to be charged £20 for a new provisional licence because the last one was automatically made invalid when they had me down as a qualified driver. “I don’t know where to go from here. “The DVLA have asked me to send the licence back, but I’m refusing to until they take some responsibility for what they’ve done. “They are going to charge me for the mistakes they have made.” The mistake was put down to the Driving Standards Agency. A spokesman said: “The integrity of the driving test is paramount, and our procedures are designed to ensure that full driving licences are only issued to drivers who have taken and passed the appropriate tests. “This was an isolated incident and we are grateful to the customer who drew it to our attention. “We took immediate action to avoid any repeat and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Now as ADI's pupils often go missing, they forget, they hide, they get the wrong time, the wrong pick up point and so forth but not many disappear in the middle of a lesson. Approaching traffic lights on Cheriton Road, Folkestone, pupil slows down and stops at the Red light (somewhat sharply). I suggest she prepares as they don't take too long and maybe as I begin my observations something catches my eye to my left. The traffic lights change and I look right to check pupil is responding. But shes not there! In fact she was there but had pulled the lever on the left hand edge of her seat, which released the back of the seat and caused her to end up horizontal, with legs flailing somewhere under the steering wheel. I perform an act of resurrection and get some strange looks from pedestrians waiting to cross and the usual horn from the traffic behind. Ho hum!