Thank you for your support

A huge big thank you for all our members and the other the ADIs out there that gave us their support last year in taking on the dvsa for their poor attitude to the UK's ADIs, PDIs and trainers that work so hard to deliver the future drivers our nation needs to keep the system working and not just sit behind a desk and talk about it.

Us,  the trainers are the ones who put 'safe driving for life' into action, and not the dvsa who simply make the suggestions and then ASK US to deliver for them, let us not forget that fact! Without the ADI, the dvsa would not even have a reason to exist.

Having said all that, the dvsa must be given a 10/10 for the speed in which it responded to the PM's statement moving a huge chunk of the UK into Tier4  (T4) recently. A majority of us had received an email within hours of the PM speaking on TV and it went directly to our inboxes and not via chinese  whispers and a 3rd party.  This is what the ADI pays for in their registration fee and remember it was the dvsa itself who drove us into the digital age insisting we moved over to digital communication for efficiency and economy.

I am absolutely delighted that they have managed to catch up with us ADIs.

I am also delighted that the other major associations lent their support to our campaign as it must have been a shock to the dvsa when they turned on them.

PS. There has been, comparably,  a slight delay to bring us the news of the move into T5 and a national lockdown. But, in fairness, this was done within 24 hours, so again congratulations to the dvsa, please keep this up.

Social media.

At the AADI we fully support the principles of free speech, but we must remember that with this freedom comes responsibility which is sadly lacking these days.

We have the right to say what we like, yes, but we must also accept the responsibility that goes with that right, and yet I see so many out there putting disgraceful comments and using dreadful language on social media when we have one of the largest vocabularies in the world. Why is the use of f......, b.......c.... p..... so popular. Do these people not realise that the poor use of our own language to those outside of our industry on public forums does us all damage, lowering the value of our professionalism to that of the gutter in the eyes of the reader?  Add to this the vicious, vile and condescending attacks on colleagues that we witness, almost on a daily basis, are nothing short of disgraceful. Never mind being unprofessional.

If we add to this the comments by some ADIs on the Covid19 (C19) pandemic being a big con and publicity stunt by every government on the planet. The idea that there is a conspiracy to implant trackers into the virus and should be avoided at all costs, when they openly use the very same apps that they accuse of supporting the implanting these trackers to tell us all about it completely baffles me. They belong back in the days of the black and white films like 'Purple People Eaters'. Is it any wonder if they were to be contacted by the dvsa for endangering public health and eventually removed from the register.

Toilets!



Early in 2020 the AADI asked about the condition of the toilets at the nations test centres and the responses we got were really astonishing. The condition of some was shocking and in poor repair, some just needing a quick maintenance issue seen to. But, the absence of facilities for candidates to use the loo or for hand-washing was just not acceptable.

Little did we know then that the issue was going to take on a tangential route via the C19 pandemic. The AADI, took this up and again had to take the dvsa to task on the facilities available when our members, and every other ADI in the country, had the doors locked on them.  So many of our members wrote to their MP for support and some even ended up on tv to get the message out there. Thank you folks for all the work you did to help, much appreciated and why we love our members so much.

Following our campaign the dvsa has now opened a number of waiting rooms and toilets, in the region 75, which is a step in the right direction but way short of their full estate and this has to change. I did receive a confession from one person that around 25% of the dvsa property estate will never be able to offer this basic need to candidates. Why on earth are these centres still in operation???? How does a civilized society, and a government agency, think it is okay to not provide public toilets at an office their customers will be visiting, in possibly the most stressful time in their lives, this borders on inhuman and sadistic. 

We have a new CEO at the helm, let us see if she measures up to the problem, and if she understands the needs for toilets, or does she have a forty litre bladder and bowel combination like predecessors seem to have had?

Smart Motorways.

Barry Kenward, our President, has been at the forefront of this issue and led the AADI, along with many others, in the campaign against these dreadful, life threatening motorway designs. He has a superb presentation highlighting the dangers of these not-so- smart m/ways which really and truly brings home the dangers. Barry uses his 14 years on the front line as a traffic officer of his 24 years with the Hampshire Constabulary and as an examiner for ROSPA for 23 years. All of which he brought with him when he joined the ADI world.  He was fighting against this idea for our motorway network when the then Secretary of State for Transport, Mr Mike Penny, was misled into signing the consent for the construction of these Frankenstinian monsters.

All the Emergency services in the UK were against these horrors as they could see the death rates rising and pointed out that the 'Golden Hour' following an incident would be gone forever with human life being lost at a growing rate as the numbers of these motorways grew. They were right, as yet another life was lost last week on an unfinished section of the M27, this in the reduced Christmas holiday traffic just last week. 

In a 5 year period on one particular stretch there were 72 near misses, in the five years after, there have been 1,485. The Highways England operators are terrified of going to work and the turnover of staff is extremely high due to the stress and risk factor..

The death toll on these not-so-smart-motorways is now heading  ever upwards and upwards.

We will be continuing our campaign against these changes.

We are extremely grateful for your support in our efforts with this.

New Campaign for 2021

We see the need for a new change at the dvsa and one is the use of video recording on all tests.  The banning of audio recording has gone on long enough.

If a dvsa employee, or any other employee in the country causes an issue at work they have a right to defend themselves. They can collect the evidence and attend at a meeting to put their case forward.  If a member of the public makes a mistake, and are charged with an offence,  they have the right to gather evidence and defend themselves against the accuser.  The accuser is required by law (in all case mentioned here) to bring forward the evidence to support the claim of wrong doing and the onus is on the accuser to prove guilt.  This is a basic right in law that was even given to war criminals.

If a candidate wishes to challenge a test result, they have no evidence whatsoever, there may be a silent video recording but without sound it has no real value. Silent movies went out before even the Grumbler was born! This goes against our basic legal rights and I know of no other situation this is permitted to happen.  I have sat in the back on hundreds of tests and know that the candidate is usually in the wrong, but there are times when the candidate does have a case that is worth arguing, without evidence this is completely impossible to do.

On our check tests, the same applies. There is no evidence that we can offer in our defence against our accuser. All the dvsa has is a tick box that the examiner will have forgotten the value of the the clear reasons for within days. They will have moved on and covered several other tests and evaluations since. Worked in several other areas geographically and qualitatively since - given the broad range of their testing.  There must be a written report available to the defendant and a visual/aural evaluation available should it be necessary, otherwise surely this is a breach of law, civil and employment rights.

The dvsa have voiced recently that the examiners may be wearing body cams for protection, this can only be done if the candidates for all tests are offered the same protection.

The AADI is there for the ADI and PDIs of the UK, so please continue to give us your support.

As usual, if you see any errors please let us know and we shall correct them. Should you wish to comment, or raise a topic, drop us a line and if you have any questions about wanting to join The AADI then please use the contact us slip below or take a look at our membership page.

www.theaadi.co.uk