Marvelous training is given by you. Thank you for giving this good post. By taking our driver ed class, you will learn: the rules and laws of the road, the meaning of various traffic signs, the many responsibilities associated with driving, the main causes of accidents and how to potentially avoid them.

Thanks
Sofia.

The reason for highlighting the examples from Dr Christie’s work is that although I in no way doubt his qualifications, it is important to recognise the far reaching impact of his report and by whom the report was funded.

When these facts are considered, the negative sway of his argument draws a certain falsity to his conclusions and also contradicts the equal amount of data supporting the fact that well provisioned driver training can indeed make a difference to the mindset of a student, be they any age.

It seems in summary that the report takes the attitude that training is too hard to implement over the wider spectrum so is therefore not worthwhile, and that scare tactics, catchy slogans and pinky waving are thought to have a greater impact. It simply isn’t so.

If even half the money spent on the TACs advertising was distributed among schools for driver training I’m sure the impact would be further reaching – now if only I could have the chance to prove it.

But anyway, rant over, for now we’ll just wait and see what comes of our little initiative.

Kind regards Matt.

In my opinion advanced driver training programs provide drivers with the opportunity to know the limits of their cars and their personal abilities during various simulated conditions. They allow you to practice emergency accident avoidance through braking and direction changing. They teach you how to set up your seat and mirrors for maximum vision and control. They let you experience how long it takes to stop in an emergency and hence give credence to the notion of being proactive rather than reactive. Sure activities like skid pans are competitive and even fun, but these behaviours are not taught for reproduction on the road, rather to highlight limitations of car and driver.

Like Mr T, “I pity the fool” who calls advanced driving training counter-productive.

I encourage CarAdvice to contact us, as we would like to participate in their research and provide their members with discount incentives. Until then, TT Driver Training will offer a 5% discount on all of our driver training services to members who mention the CarAdvice driver training programs article.

That is good that you are approaching this with an open mind and considering different types of training, I would strongly encourage you to consider the CDTA courses if it is possible to get them. Orica use the courses as many of its employees regularly drive over 1500kms a week, often carrying dangerous goods, it makes drivers more aware of their responsibilities. Those responsibilities are of course essentially the same as those of every other road user, and that is to ensure EVERYONE can go home to their family without being hurt.

Yes Nathaniel was a little abrupt in his wording, however I draw your attention to Car Advice’s public criticism of the RACV’s report into driver training. As you should be aware, it is important to back up your statements, and I believe the report justifies its conclusions with statistically reliable sample data. I think perhaps you should more carefully consider your position before publishing work that brings into disrepute the work of a recognised expert in the field.

If you wish to have more information from the driver education program we use I would suggest visiting the Corporate Driver Training Australia website.

Can I add the following to the debate:

1. Advanced/Performance/skidpan training can create over-confidence, not Defensive driving. My company bans under 21’s from attending the “advanced” programs unless they have done a Defensive driving course first There is often a mis-use of terminology here and skidpan training is called Defensive driving (there are some training schools they don’t help the distiction by wrongly labelling their courses).

2. In every course, trainers see people who just don’t get it. Many participants are over-confident before attending. We sleep well at night because we did not create the monster and we definetly challenged their attitudes and added knowledge. But probably did not change their attitudes. How can 1 day undo 17 years of mis-information. Training therefore is not the answer..but it is part of the solution. You can lead the horse to water…….

3. The true measurement of training’s effectiveness should be knowledge gain, not crash involvement. On this scale driver training would prove a huge success. People leave with more knowledge than they came with.

4. Our company has trained 30,000 Year 12 students and each year 145 schools enrol students. Never has a teacher (a professional eductor in their own right) said our training was methodologically unsound or did not bring their students back each year since they thought our courses increased the confidence of participants.

5. If the behaviour scientists acknowledge that training can change attitude (ie. create overconfidence) then doesn’t this follow that training done correctly can change attitudes for the better. Why does research always claim that the training had a negative outcome, since if it can change attitudes it proves how valuable correct training can be in the road safety puzzle.

I could go on defending my business. But we are fully booked for the next 3 months (every day of every month in several locations). I think people are voting for themselves.

More information on our research can be found off our website (www.sdt.com.au)

I’m a high schools values education and personal development coordinator, and in my line of work I see that changing people’s attitudes is about as easy as building a rocket at the age of 2 (it takes years to completely change BASIC foundational attitudes). WHY? Mainly because people dont WANT to change. They are happier or ignorant in their attitudes, and dont want or dont know that they should do something about it.

(Ok, some boring research info)
Research conducted into the development of human behavior has shown that between birth and the age of approx 14, 90% of your world view/attitudes are soaked up from millions of sources. Then between 15-17ish they “question” much of what they see and have believed to be true. Between 17-20ish the “explore” other options and opinions. But by 20ish onward peoples attitudes etc are set and it’s much harder to change.

Unfortunately no matter what you guys can do, you’ll be working with most people over the age of 20 (I assume). I fully support what your doing (as I have stated) but unfortunately until education is put into schools (AKA Fennos’ point) it’s a band-aid on a bullet wound. (In fact maybe I should add this to what I do…)

But I know that you guys and other car enthusiast groups will ultimately make a difference. And from my opinion, if you through your efforts save ONE persons life, then GO HARD!

There’s so much more to say, but that will do…

By pushing you to go quicker in a controlled environment it displays how a car can fall into over or under-steer. Majority of the driving public have no-idea what these terms mean or how to avoid it. Being aware, not alarmed is how all drivers should be

The rest of the points he makes appear to be anecdotal.

“I don’t think fanging around a skid pan with some ex-race-driver type patting your back and over-boosting your confidence on the road is going to improve the current road situation”

No offence to anyone but, having a loud-mouth, self glorified person like Ian Luff. Barking at someone on a skid pan, talking of how good he is and how the person “is a good driver” is not going help many.

This is the reason why we need driver training!

Firstly, driver training should be implemented in every school as part of the cirriculum, starting with the theory while concentrating on driver behaviour and attitude the whole way through.

The road rules need to be retrained (as 80% of people will not pass a simple road rule test)which is proven every day here in Queensland (watch the mergers/tailgaters/RH lane hogs as a start) and EVERYBODY should be made aware of the changes (a simple way would be a list of ammended rules with your license renewal). Ignorance is no excuse (as any Copper will tell you) but it’d be nice to know in advance.

A good start Car advice (on your concept) but we need to review what is taught on these programs as well. I don’t think fanging around a skid pan with some ex-race-driver type patting your back and over-boosting your confidence on the road is going to improve the current road situation.

We need to train drivers how NOT to get into trouble rather than just get out of it.

In response to your concatenation, we simply cannot answer until we’ve studied the courses at length for ourselves. We’ll cover all your concerns once the courses have been attended in full and all outcomes investigated thoroughly.

Matt.

Im not totally against defensive driving. You may get into a situation where its not your fault and get into a skid/spin, such as when a car side swipes you or cuts you off. You need to know how to control a car when these events happen. To stop people being cocky about this, the way its approached by the trainers is crucial. Both defensive and real world driving should be used together to improve driving skills.

The new license tests are trying to improve real world driving as it is more focused on avoiding situations before they happen and being aware of your surrounding.

My 2c

You do not state what you mean by driver training. Is this a weekend, a week or several days over time?

May I suggest that it is accepted in our world that people with greater experience are generally better skilled at what they do than newcomers to the task?

And persons who exit training are more confident than when they enter and therefore willing to take risks backed by this learnt confidence?

Now to concatenate my points above:

How will a certain course of driver training shorten the amount of time that it takes to become competent while maintaining a level head on people who exit this training?