Grumbles from the Gearbox
May 4th to you.
May Early News from AADI.
This is the copy of a letter sent by our Membership Secretary to the Secretary of State, the DVSA and his MP asking what ADIs need to do to be safe to take pupils out in the current climate. Our members and others have been asking questions and all we/they get are platitudes. I can understand the dangers of litigation and giving false hopes out, I really can. The DVSA has access to all the experts at the DoT, HMG et al that we do not have and it would have been nice top get good, honest guidance. Even a simple, 'We honestly don't know but we shall get back to you asap' and provide regular updates.
Dear Mr. Shapps,
I am writing to you as a very concerned Driving Instructor seeking some guidance on how we should protect ourselves as Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs) within the current situation.
As a profession, we have no means of income since the shutdown and greatly appreciate what you are trying to do for us as self-employed people. Sadly we have a huge problem with the social distancing requirements.
HMG and all the Govt, spokespersons including your good self, on daily briefings and elsewhere, insist that the 2.0metre spacing is required for the safety of the nation and to protect the NHS.
If this 2.0m distancing is to remain then any ADIs who are teaching will be doing so against your guidelines and in breach of the law, as I understand it. Should the separation be reduced to just 1.0m (as is rife with speculation at the present) we shall still be in breach of the law and open to both prosecution and persecution from the public and our peers. Should this happen and we are prosecuted then the DVSA would possibly remove the offending ADI from the register and they would then lose their source of income completely. ADIs would need the social distancing to be removed to enable us to work properly which would put us at greater risk of catching COVID19 and even worse spreading it widely as carriers. Please can you advise on this as we are unable to get a definitive answer on it from the DVSA?
If we are given the Ok. to return to work and the social distancing, therefore does not apply to us, can you also please advise on what we shall need to wear in terms of PPE and to what extent do we need to clean and sanitise our cars between lessons or before driving tests for your examiners who are HMG employees as a part of the DoT to be safe. Again we are receiving no definitive guidance from the DVSA who should be our lifeline on these issues but merely tell us to check out the HMG guidelines which give no reference to our industry of 40,000 ADIs plus trainees.
Do we need to wear:
a) Full face masks with eye protection, or will a general face mask for nasal and mouth coverage suffice.
b) Will our pupils need to wear facemasks of some sort.
c) Gloves - will we, and/or, our pupils be required to wear some form of gloves and how should they be disposed of? This disposal question will of course cover the facemask question above.
d) To what extent should we go to clean/sanitise our cars before and after each pupil sits in the car. When our pupils become nervous they can perspire very heavily and it is not unusual for the seat back and base to be damp after a lesson and more frequently after a test, particularly in the summer months of May-early September. Would these bodily fluids be considered a risk factor and do we need to take this into account. Could your experts advise on this item please as nobody seems to know the answer at the DVSA.
e) Also what level of cleanliness/sanitation would you require the car to be brought up to for your examiners to sit in our cars. (We do not wish to cause a concern between you and your employees and their unions.) We generally have a good rapport with the examiners and consider them as our friends/colleagues so we need to consider them too.
f) The DVSA fought to get ADIs to sit in the back of the car for the driving test to observe what happens. Will the law be changed to prevent ADIs sitting in the back of the car on a driving test should they wish to observe their pupil on the test, or the pupil wishes us to be in the car due to a nervous disposition.
g) Will your examiners have to adhere to the same levels of protection and sanitation as we will be expected to achieve.
h) Will the driving test centres be adequately cleaned to other HMG site standards to ensure the safety of the public who attend them allowing for separation and cleanliness.
NB: If I go the HMG guidelines it advises that upholstered seats should be at the least steam cleaned and if not, then disposed of. We cannot do this, it would make the cost of lessons astronomical.
Thank you for taking the time to read this as I know you are under an awful lot of pressure at the moment, I greatly appreciate it and I look forward to hearing back from you in the near future.
Kind Regards
Don Harris.ADI
Think Safety-Drive Safely.
cc: Gareth Llewellyn. CEO DVSA.
Mr. Huw Merriman.MP Bexhill and Battle. Chair of Transport Committee
DVSA News Release
DVSA
Temporary changes to car and vocational driving tests
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency sent this bulletin at 30-04-2020 04:44 PM BST
Temporary changes to the car and vocational driving test
From tomorrow (1 May 2020) DVSA is making a temporary change to car and vocational emergency driving tests, to help reduce the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
What will change
Our examiners will end emergency tests early if a candidates commits:
a serious or dangerous fault
a total of 16 driver faults
This is to help reduce the amount of time the candidate and examiner spend in the vehicle, when the candidate has failed their test.
In these circumstances, the examiner will instruct the candidate to drive back to the test centre instead of continuing for the full time, before they tell the candidate they have failed.
Motorcycle module 2 tests will not be affected by this change.
Updated standard operating procedure
We've updated our emergency driving test standard operating procedure to include these changes.
Download coronavirus (COVID-19): conducting driving tests for key workers standard operating procedure
...........................
This in the notice received by all in the driver training industry on Friday last week and caused quite a bit of a stir I can tell you.
AADI Questions the news release
Over the years many ADIs have asked at presentations and in free conversation with our colleagues and friends from the 'dark side', the examers, if the candid has failed why do you not finish the test and bring them back early. Pupils also ask, if I fail in the first 10 minutes will I be brought back early.
We have to give the same answer that we have been given for decades and that is you have paid for the test and unless you are a danger to the public the test will continue to the end. That's the rules and that is how it is.
Now the DVSA want to introduce emergency tests as they are called in the column on the left and are now quite happy to change all the rules and get our pupils to drive the car back to the test centre!
Now, the Grumbler has 2 issues with this idea.
1. If the examiner is being asked, voluntarily of course, to conduct the test and the DVSA feel it is perfectly safe to put their employees in this position then why oh why do they need to rush back to the Dtc asap - so the examiner and candidate do not need to spend any unnecessary time together.
How the risk increases exponentially on the 16th driver error or first serious fault beats me, then what do I know.
I fully understand why the DVSA want the examiner to keep the result quiet as the the candidate could easily and immediately become unsafe to drive due to stress and the disappointment of the news, particularly if they feel badly done by. Afterall candidates have driven off with examiners in the car in temper on more than one occasion in the past. Or assaulted their examiner in the car.
cont:
So, the fact that ADIs would like to see their cars returning early if the candidate had clocked up a fail, or the candidate would like to return to centre if they felt that they had already blown it out of the water rather than go through the humiliation of having to carry on and pretend all was well with the world, nope we all have to go with the rules.
Even the poor examiner, who is sitting there watching this hapless soul breaking their heart behind the wheel trying to hold it all together (male and female) and wants the floor to open up beneath them, has to keep a smile on their face and say, carry on with what your instructor has told you and we will see at the end.
2. Normally, should the candidate do something that is so serious it is unsafe to carry on the examiner has to terminate the test, make sure the candidate and the car are in a safe position and walk back to the dtc. These days they are supposed to ask the candidate if they would like to walk back with them. Great company for a half hour stroll on a wet afternoon.
Now, from this week, because it is convenient for the DVSA, the examiner will cut the test short and guide the candidate back early. What has changed, oh yes I remember we have COVID19 with us, that's the difference.
If it is that dangerous, why is your employee the examiner in the car in the first place, because it is only a little dangerous until the candidate scores enough to go home early. Is this going to leave the system open to abuse with cars going around the block and back again so the examiner does not have to walk.
What happened to the fair test for all?
Nice fair system we now have!
The DVsA response to recent media criticism about the current test waiting times is to throw in the kitchen sink - but, is this the right solution?
Are the DvSA morally bankrupt?
Why bother, the job is not what it used to be?
Where on earth does the dvsa thinking come from, we know where it belongs?
The AADI is offering to help the dvsa with its poor public image to help clear up some confusing issues on the driving test for driving instructors and learners in the UK and make their lives easier.
AADI advising the dvsa, and they are at last listening.
Did the dvsa go too far opening new theory centres when tests are not available?
We are all Ambassadors for our chosen profession
Dear dvsa,
DVSA thanks for all the recent emails,... keeping us ADIs up to date. I should like to discuss with you a few of the points that you have raised.
"It is all our fault (the ADI) that the booking system is in chaos and our fault that candidates are not turning up for the test".
how the dvsa fails its customers on a daily basis
