UN Global Road Safety Week - en - UN Road Safety Week

The 6th United Nations Global Road Safety Week takes place from 17-23 May 2021 with the theme #StreetsforLife, #Love30.
Held every two years, UN Global Road Safety Week provides an opportunity to bring together individuals, governments, NGOs, and other organisations from around the world to increase awareness of road safety and stimulate change to reduce the number of road deaths.
The 6th Week is focusing on speed management as a key aspect of ensuring a safe transport system. The Week promotes 30 km/h (20 mph) speed limits as the norm for cities worldwide in places where people mix with traffic.
In support of UN Global Road Safety Week, eDriving is partnering with Global Road Safety Partnership to host a webinar, “Speeding and High-Risk Behaviors: Steering Drivers to Safer Actions”. Visit eDriving’s new Speeding Resource Center to register for the free webinar.

UN Global Road Safety Week - en - UN Road Safety Week

Dear Road Safety Professional,
Ordinarily, we at FirstCar would be busy making last minute preparations for our annual pilgrimage to the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall to welcome many of you along to our Young Driver Focus conference. However, with the last 12-months being like no other sadly we’ve had to skip both this and last year’s Young Driver Focus event, now reschedules for 25th May 2022.
With so much great work going on in the important young driver road safety sector, we at FirstCar didn’t want to wait until next year to share this knowledge. That’s why with the help of our very kind supporters; GEM Motoring Assist, the RAC Foundation and Westcotec; we have produced the Young Driver Focus 2021 report, which is free for you all to read.
We’ve connected with over a dozen experts across both the public and private sector, all of whom work tirelessly and feel passionately about helping to reduce casualties within the young driver sector. They happily share their learnings, knowledge, and insight. In our ‘Road Safety Showcase’ we hear from various local authorities throughout the UK on how they approach the subject of tackling young driver road safety. 
We’d appreciate any feedback you may have by emailing me – james@firstcar.co.uk. We hope to see as many of you in person at Young Driver Focus 2022, and for those who have yet to book you can do so by clicking here.

https://issuu.com/firstcar/docs/young_driver_focus_2021_magazine/26​

James Evans
Founder, FirstCar

​An interesting and engaging webinar. I found it fascinating the difference between the USA and ourselves.
Maybe there is something to learn from listening how others work.
Whether that’s what to do or what not to do or what you could change.
I hope you enjoy this.

Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency


Dear Graham Hooper,
I’m really pleased we were able to confirm this week that driving lessons and theory tests will restart on 12 April in England and Wales and driving tests will restart on 22 April.
Last week we were also able to confirm that in Scotland driving lessons could potentially restart on 26 April and driving tests on 6 May. These restart dates are subject to Scottish Government confirmation, based on the prevalence of the virus.
The UK government, Scottish Government and Welsh Government are all cautiously easing lockdown restrictions. We also need to take a cautious approach to restarting our services to help keep everyone safe and reduce the risk of future test suspensions.
The health and safety of you, your pupils and our driving examiners continues to be our top priority, so I wanted to take this opportunity to explain what we are doing to help keep you all safe and share our plans for helping you and your pupils prepare for tests.

Restarting lessonsFollowing the announcement earlier this week I imagine many of you are excited to start teaching again, and your pupils will be eager to restart their lessons to get ready for their test.
There’s a 10-day delay between the restart of lessons and tests to give you the opportunity to see your pupils and assess if they ready for their test. If they are not prepared, they can rearrange their test for another date for free on the change your driving test service on GOV.​UK.

Hands, face, space, fresh airIn Scotland, it’s the law for instructors and pupils to wear a face covering during a lesson and when they arrive at the test centre.
While it’s not the law in England and Wales, I cannot emphasise enough the importance of you and your pupil wearing face coverings during lessons, unless you have a good reason not to.
This applies even if you’ve had the first dose or both doses of COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to reduce the chance of you suffering from COVID-19 disease. You may still get COVID-19 despite having a vaccination, but this should be less severe.
The NHS does not yet know how much it will reduce the risk of you passing on the virus. You’re also more likely to be teaching pupils in the age groups where the data shows infection rates are some of the highest.
So remember, to protect yourself and your family, friends, pupils and driving examiners, you must still:

• wear a face covering
• wash your hands carefully and frequently
• open windows to let fresh air in

It is vital we all do everything we can to reduce the spread of coronavirus.

Good practice guidance for instructorsWe previously shared our guidance for driving examiners with the driving instructors’ National Associations Strategic Partnership (NASP) and they have published good practice guidance for instructors on their website.
It’s important that you review this before returning to work and check you have all the measures in place to keep you and your pupils safe.
You can read this here: http://deanm17.sg-host.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/NASP-Guidelines-on-driver-trainers-safely-returning-to-work-2nd-July-2020.pdf

Restarting testsAs I mentioned above, to help protect you, your pupils and our examiners, we are being cautious as we restart our services.
Our plan is to restart at 6 tests per examiner per day in England, Wales and Scotland and our examiners will continue to direct candidates back to the test centre at the point they fail their test to reduce the amount of time spent in the vehicle.
We have shared our guidance for driving examiners with Public Health England, Scottish and Welsh Government and they are still happy with the control measures we have implemented.

Waiting roomsI know many of you were frustrated last year that we were not able to give you access to waiting rooms at driving test centres due to health and safety reasons.
Over the last year, we have worked hard to put measures in place to reopen as many waiting rooms as possible.
I’m pleased to let you know 223 waiting rooms will be open when we restart driving tests on 22 April in England and Wales and on 6 May in Scotland.
The full list of available waiting rooms and the rules on using them have been published on GOV.​UK. You can view this here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/driving-test-centre-waiting-rooms-during-coronavirus
We are still working to reopen more test centres, and we’ll update you again on this when we are in a position to do so.

Vehicle cleanliness and ventilationTo help protect you and your pupils, NASP has recommended in the good practice guidance for instructors that you:

• explain to your pupils that the windows will be down as much as possible during the lesson to let fresh air in (ventilation)
• tell them to wrap up warm as it might be cooler in the car than usual

Our examiners will be checking that vehicles used for driving tests are clean inside and you’ve let fresh air in before a test.
When bringing a pupil for their test, you must clean the inside of your car and make sure at least one window is open on each side before your pupil’s test starts.
You can read the full guidance on GOV.​UK at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-driving-tests-and-theory-tests

Helping you and your pupils prepare for tests and standard checksNow we’ve confirmed the restart of driving tests and standards checks in England and Wales, I want to explain what we are doing to help you and your pupils prepare for tests and checks to try to help everyone pass first time.

The top 10 reasons for failing a car driving testThe driving test pass rate was 45.9% between April 2019 and March 2020. Many people who failed their test made at least one of the top 10 common mistakes.
Before tests restart on 22 April, we will promote the latest top 10 reasons for failing a car driving test and give you and your pupils tips on how these can be avoided. This will help you to identify pupils who may need more support and practice.
It’s important that your pupils take their test only when both you and your pupil are confident they can pass. This will help them to avoid a lengthy wait for a retest and help us by not adding to the backlog of tests.

Helping you prepare for standards checksOur ADI team is planning to change the way we administer and prioritise standards checks.
We are not changing the assessment but do want to give you more help and support.
This includes a pre-engagement call ahead of your appointment.
During the call, we’ll offer you professional development support and help you identify areas for self-development as well as what actions you may need to take to meet the current standard.
We’ll tell you more about these changes in the coming weeks. They are designed to reflect the great work you already do and offer support where needed.

Keeping you updatedThere are challenging times ahead for all of us. By working together, we can help to reduce the backlog, help your industry recover and help people stay safe on Britain’s roads.
I’ll write to you again once we are in a position to share our full recovery plan and explain how you can get involved and give us feedback.
I also urge you to keep up to date with the NASP website and seek advice from a NASP member national association if you have any queries, questions or concerns about restarting training
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
I hope that you, your family and your friends remain safe and well.
Yours faithfully,
Loveday Ryder
Chief Executive
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency

Change of DBS check contractor
From today (1 April), the company which performs DBS checks as part of your ADI registration application is rebranding.
GB Group has merged with another company to become First Advantage.
What this means for youYou can still apply for a DBS check in the usual way through https://www.gov.uk/adi-criminal-record-disclosure
You may notice that the application webpage looks different, or that the company name has changed, as a result of the merger.
Nothing else will change for you.

Get a criminal record check to continue being a driving instructor - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

DetailsThis guide is for approved driving instructors (ADIs), motorcycle trainers, and lorry and bus (vocational) trainers. It explains:

• how local restrictions and national lockdowns are affecting driving lessons and motorcycle training
• how driving tests are affected by COVID-19
• how ADI qualification and registration is affected by COVID-19
• how you should work safely during the COVID-19 pandemic
• what financial support is available for businesses and the self-employed

Download the guide

​When taking training as ADIs or PDIs there are a few resources that are recommended by the DVSAIt often helps to know that your training is based on tried and tested information. Practical Teaching Skills for Driving Instructors is listed by the DVSA as recommended reading. Co-author, Susan McCormack, is co-Managing Director of Tri-Coaching Partnership so you can be assured that our training material is in alignment with the DVSA.
Susan is also responsible for writing our Train the Trainer course, which is designed so you can deliver practical structured training to a PDI. If you are already delivering driving instructor training, or want to dip your toe in the water, find out more about our product, the Train the Trainer course here.

​The 18 points outlined in Shapp’s plan are:

• Abolishing the confusing “dynamic hard shoulder” smart motorways, where the hard shoulder operates only part-time and is a live running lane the rest of the time
• Substantially speeding up the deployment of “stopped vehicle detection” technology across the entire “all lane running” smart motorway network, so stopped vehicles can be detected and the lanes closed more quickly. Highways England is to accelerate its plans and install the technology within the next 36 months, setting a clear public timetable for the first time
• Faster attendance by more Highways England traffic officer patrols on smart motorways where the existing spacing between places to stop in an emergency is more than one mile, with the aim of reducing the attendance time from an average of 17 minutes to 10 minutes
• Reducing the distance between places to stop in an emergency to three quarters of a mile where feasible so that on future schemes motorists should typically reach one every 45 seconds at 60mph. The maximum spacing will be 1 mile
• Installing 10 additional emergency areas on the existing M25 smart motorways on the section of smart motorway with a higher rate of live lane stops and where places to stop in an emergency are furthest apart
• Considering a national programme to install more emergency areas where places to stop in an emergency are more than one mile apart
• Investigating M6 Bromford viaduct and the M1 at Luton, Sheffield and Wakefield where there is evidence of clusters of incidents. Where an intervention is considered likely to make a difference, we will look to make changes at these locations
• Making emergency areas more visible – all emergency areas will have a bright orange road surface, dotted lines on the surfacing showing where to stop, better and more frequent signs on approach and signs inside giving information on what to do in an emergency. These will be installed by the end of spring 2020
• More traffic signs giving the distance to the next place to stop in an emergency, so you will almost always be able to see a sign. Typically, these will be between approximately 330 and 440 yards apart
• More communication with drivers. We recognise that we could do more therefore we are committing to an additional £5m on national targeted communications campaigns to further increase awareness and understanding of smart motorways, how they work and how to use them confidently
• Displaying ‘report of obstruction’ messages automatically on electronic signs, triggered by the stopped vehicle detection system, to warn drivers of a stopped vehicle ahead, this is currently being trialled on the M25 and then a further trial on the M3
• Places to stop in an emergency shown on your satnav by working with satnav providers to ensure the locations are shown on the screen, when needed
• Making it easier to call for help if broken down by working with car manufacturers to improve awareness of the use of the eCall ‘SOS’ button in newer cars to call for help
• We have changed the law to enable automatic detection of ‘red X’ violations and enforcement using cameras and we will be expanding the upgrade of smart motorway cameras (HADECS) to identify more of those who currently ignore the ‘red X’. The penalty is 3 points on the driver’s licence and a £100 fine, or the driver can be referred to an awareness course
• An update of the Highway Code to provide more guidance
• Closer working with the recovery industry on training and procedures
• Reviewing existing emergency areas where the width is less than the current 15 foot wide standard. If feasible and appropriate we will widen to this standard
• A review of the use of red flashing lights to commence immediately. We have listened to the calls for recovery vehicles to be allowed to use red flashing lights. We will commence work immediately on a review.