Today’s big news story is ‘Learner Drivers to be allowed on Motorways!’
It’s not actually a new story at all, its been bouncing around for years but they have finally got around to publishing a consultation on it.
Link to the consultation document below:
And you can respond online http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/2HUID/
My personal thoughts are that the Government Policy on reducing red tape, is that to introduce a new regulation you first have to remove an existing one. As there’s going to be hardly any take up as it’s not a test requirement, this is a fairly minimum regulation to remove/alter without much impact.
The first page of the consultation document actually sets out where Government policy should be focused to have the greatest effect in reducing KSI’s involving young drivers:
“120 young car drivers died in 2015, of these 80% occurred on rural roads, 16% on urban roads and just 4% on motorways.”
(the bold is my doing)
It also includes some official figures on Pass Plus revealing what we’ve all long suspected – Only 3% of Drivers undertook Pass Plus Courses in 2015/2016.
I’ve discussed some of the post-test training available including Pass Plus before
The other two changes you’re likely to see coming along next year are:
A voluntary electronic logbook for learners to track progress and a voluntary scheme to publish publish ADI pass rates.
The first of which will no doubt generate complaints from ‘by the numbers’ instructor types, and the second from those who think the ADI has nothing to do with if a client passes or not.