Driving Standards Agency

But how low is that bar in some cases? But you know, Tom, we'll just kind of wrap this up a little bit, but we touched on this a little bit before we started recording actually, the idea, the code of conduct is changing.

So the DVSA is changing that.

There are a lot of organizations out there, such as the ADI and JC, such as My Learner Driver, The Honest Truth, there's Uh, annoyingly, a small number, admittedly, of people on social media talking good stuff.

Is it just the case, do you think, of trying to get this message out in as many avenues as possible, that if your instructor is driving around in circles for an hour, not stopping to reflect, providing no additional resources and, you know, that kind of stuff, it's not the best way?

I'm a big fan of sort of the concept of peer-led reviews, where perhaps as instructors we work together to review each other's progress to make sure that we're all doing what we should be doing in light of regular standards checks.

But equally, we could apply that into social media and a peer-led review of those videos if that's something that people would engage in just to make sure that there is some, you know, somebody looking as such to make sure things are on track.

I don't know who can do that, but Certainly with the new DVSA, what they bought out this week, I can't remember the word for it, but yeah, code of practice, that's the one.

But with the new code of practice, it's been named in that social media content must be correct.

Mm-hmm.

And then joined DVSA in 2004.

Uh, sorry, I didn't join DVSA.

Correction, it was DSA back then.

Ooh.

Yeah, so Driving Standards Agency, as, as they were then.

Um, and then that was the case until 2017, I think, when they moved over to DVSA-

Okay

I spoke to Donald McDonald, who's one of the leads for the DFT around this, and checked with him and he said, no, this is, if you

get them type-approved, And you can do that either at your local DVSA, which is what Pedderboy are doing, or you can get...

I believe it's called ministerial approval, which means...

So companies like Whisper, they'll get them...

A lot of that is... is generally based, not necessarily, I mean, on motorway driving.

So, for example, the DVSA hazard perception test that we know was brought in in 2002 doesn't do clips that are filmed, or they're not filmed, CGI now, but it doesn't present hazard clips that are based on the motorway.

It typically is sort of your standard non-motorway driving, urban, suburban, and a bit of rural driving where they present hazards, and actually there isn't anything... that sort of shows the types of hazards that a road user might encounter whilst on the motorway, which when you're learning to drive, it's one of the things I know that learner drivers can now go on the motorway, but it is one of those things that perhaps potentially they get a bit of anxiety about.

So that was sort as always being a gas in the back of our minds.

And that target was supposed to be seven weeks by the end of last year.

That's DVSA,

but that's all

right.

This is about young people.

Why are fewer young people learning to drive? Did you avoid learning to drive and then regret it later? When I was 16, I could think of nothing else every day but my 17th birthday when I could take my driving test.

Well, today's 16-year-olds probably have to wait about seven months to take their driving test, thanks to the DVLA or is it DVSA, whichever one.

I asked all of the young people in our office today, which of you can drive? Not a single one of them said yes.