This article was written by David Parry who is a fully qualified driving instructor working in the Huddersfield area.
The first thing you need to consider is, “How to learn?” It seems a simple question, but not as daft as you think. You need to decide if you want to teach yourself. Pretty difficult because that is against the law because you need to have a full licence holder as your passenger whenever you are driving as a learner. So …. have you got a friend or relative who is prepared, or brave enough, to sit with you? If you have, then you need to make sure that you are covered by insurance. Because driving without insurance is also against the law. You might have your own car, but most people do not. So is the person who is going to teach you the owner of a car, and is that person’s insurance policy good enough to include you, the learner. You need to check, before, you take the car onto the public roads. If not then you can only drive on private roads, and there are not many, if any, of those in Huddersfield. I am a driving instructor and I don’t know any private roads to practice on. So most learners turn to Mum and Dad. If you can persuade them to add you to their insurance as a named driver, then they can take you out for practice.
But Mum or Dad will probably not teach you correctly because;
it will be years since they learnt to drive themselves,
will have developed bad habits,
will be nervous,
will not be able to stop the car if you are going to fast,
will probably shout at you.
you will most likely fall out with Mum or Dad and they will then;
not let you practice in their car anymore.
So the best bet is to take driving lessons from a professional driving instructor.
There are lots of driving instructors to choose from. But how do you choose? Here are some tips.
If you have a friend who has recently passed, or had some driving lessons, ask them.
Was the driving instructor any good?
Did he or she turn up on time?
Polite?
Clean?
Easy to understand?
Did the instructor drag the lessons out?
How much was the lesson price?
What was the car like?
Where did the lessons start and finish?
Driving Instructors come in different shapes, sizes, sex, age, experience etc. They are either fully qualified as an ADI, which is Approved Driving Instructor, or they will be a trainee, TDI which is Trainee Driving Instructor. An ADI will have a green licence in the windscreen, a trainee should have a pink triangular licence in the windscreen, though it is not uncommon for trainees to hide the fact that they are still training, so they hide the licence, which is actually illegal. ALWAYS ask to see an instructor’s licence. If he can’t or won’t show you the licence, don’t use him, he is breaking the law! Most driving instructors do their training with one of the large driving schools, so you are more likely to get lumbered with a trainee if you go to a large school. The exception to that is the AA who only employ fully qualified instructors. Also if you go to a large school, there is a chance that the school will send different instructors to you without notice, so you will lose vital continuity in your learning because the new instructor will not know your strengths and weaknesses. So choosing a private instructor has some advantages, such as having a good track record and pass rate from giving driving lessons in Huddersfield, but also some disadvantages such as what happens to your lessons if your instructor is ill or goes on holiday?
Look out for another article written by David Parry in which he gives some tips about taking the driving test in Huddersfield.
