October 18, 2019
MPs investigate road pricing to replace fuel tax

MPs are to investigate if drivers should be charged on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Experts believe ministers must think about road pricing as motoring taxes are likely to decline as people stop using conventionally-fuelled vehicles.

Road pricing covers a range of measures including tolls, congestion charges, HGV levies, workplace parking levies, and low emission and clean air zones.

Lilian Greenwood, who chairs the Transport Committee, said: “It’s been almost 10 years since the last real discussion of national road pricing. In that time, we have become much more aware of the dangers of air pollution and congestion.

“We cannot ignore the looming fiscal black hole. We need to ask how we will pay for roads in the future and in answering that question we have an opportunity for a much wider debate about our use of road space, cutting carbon emissions, tackling congestion, modal shift and how we prioritise active travel.

“Tackling the climate emergency is essential but this is about more than what we must do to meet that challenge. It’s also about our health and the sort of towns and cities we want to live in.”

AA president Edmund King, responding to the Transport Committee’s announcement, said: “We do need a national debate about how we pay for our road infrastructure to bridge the taxation gap between falling fuel duty revenue and the electric vehicle revolution.

“However, the British public will never vote for national road pricing so we need greater imagination to sell the public something that they actually want.”

Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: “For the Treasury, the beauty of fuel duty is its ease of collection and difficulty of evasion.

“Whatever replaces the existing system is bound to raise new challenges and complexities, will take time and effort to establish, and could potentially be difficult to explain to the public.”

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May 2, 2019
Looking for a new career?

 

Becoming a driving instructor is a very rewarding choice of career- It gives you the freedom to be your own boss, working times and days to suit your life, it also helps you become an important figure in the lives of inexperienced drivers, helping them to gain their independence on our roads. At Britannia we all remember our first driving instructors!

Here at Britannia Driving School we continually work hard to introduce new pupils to all our driving instructors, we give them the edge over the competition. We are different to other driving schools as most of Britannia’s income is spent on the following.

 

MARKETING: Google, Yellow pages, car livery, internet sites, direct marketing, Offering freephone lines for both landlines and mobile phones, and of course mostly by personal recommendation!

BRITANNIA’S WEBSITE: Our website is a field leader, attracting over 2 million users annually. Major keywords like “driving schools” will take you to a list of search results on search engines and Britannia Driving School will appear at the top from around 153 million driving school results.

BRITANNIA DRIVING SCHOOL OFFICE: Our office is open five days a week to driving instructors and the public. The Britannia telesales staff are highly trained and very motivated, their selling skills will keep you topped up with pupils all year round.

INTERNET DIARY: Pupils are given allocation to instructors according to postal codes and diary requirements and added to our bespoke internet diary. We have a message board to help instructors communicate directly with the office team and vice versa, the diary can be updated and reached by smart phone or computer alike globally.

PRE-PAYMENT: Unlike other schools Britannia has a pre-payment system which eliminates last minute cancellations by pupils.

SUPPORT: Help and advice is always readily available in the office for face to face advice or a phone call away, whether you need help with teaching, book keeping or accounts.

WHY CHOOSE BRITANNIA DRIVING SCHOOL?

Britannia will provide instant access to large marketing base, as well as a largely beneficial association with one of the most trusted brands in driving tuition in Great London. Our brand name attracts substantial number of quality pupils, which helps instructors to minimise cancellations and retain pupils.

INTERESTED: Why Not give our friendly office staff a call, chat online or send an email you will be invited for a non-obligation friendly chat and a coffee, all your questions will be answered and you will be assessed on your suitability to becoming a driving instructor.

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January 11, 2016
New Online ADI Registration

From 14 January 2016, driving instructors will need to give there Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate number when they apply online to renew their ADI registration or start the qualifying process.

The DVSA’s online registration will no longer accept applications or renewals without this information.

The certificate must be no more than 6 months old, provided by DVSA’s contractor, GB Group, and be specifically for DVSA purposes.

The online registration system won’t accept a certificate that has been provided by another contractor or has been produced for another role.

Instructors should apply for the DBS certificate in good time as some police forces take up to 4 months to finish their checks.

DVSA’s registration team will continue to send out reminders 6 months before ADI’s registrations expire. To avoid any delay, please make sure that DVSA has your current postal address.

For more information or advice on the new online ADI Registration contact Britannia’s ADI trainer, Simon on 020 8543 8050.

What are your thoughts on this article? Send your views to Britannia Driving School by using the comments link below.

 

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November 26, 2015
Further Examiner Strikes

Some driving examiners are planning to take strike action at various times from Tuesday 1st December until Friday 4th December 2015.

Some driving examiners who are members of the Public and Commercial Service (PCS) union are planning to take strike action.

PCS has planned action at various times from Tuesday 1st December until Friday 4th December 2015.

DVSA is doing all it can to make sure that tests go ahead as planned. Not all examiners are union members, and many test centres are expected to be operating as normal.

What are your thoughts on this article? Send your views to Britannia Driving School by using the comments link below:

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November 19, 2015
UPDATE: Driving Examiner Strikes

There is the potential for strike action by some driving examiners on Thursday 19th and Friday 20th November 2015. The DVSA wants all instructors and their pupils to turn up for their driving test despite this.

DVSA is doing all it can to make sure that tests go ahead as planned and recommends that you turn up for your test. You’ll get details of your new appointment within 5 to 10 working days.

You can claim out-of-pocket expenses if your test is cancelled, but you must have turned up for you test to do this. If you don’t turn up for your test, you’ll have to rebook your own test and you won’t be able to claim out of pocket expenses.

What are your thoughts on this article? Send your views to Britannia Driving School by using the comments link below:

 

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November 18, 2015
Your Reaction Age

A new test has been developed that tests your reaction age. The online game gives you a driving age from 18 to ‘a very, very old person’ based on your ability to perform an emergency stop.

The game was created by London-based start-up Justpark.com, which matches drivers with spare car parking spaces.

It places a player behind a virtual steering wheel as they begin to drive down a road. They are asked to strike a key on their keyboard as quickly as possible to perform an ‘emergency stop’ when a red stop sign appears on the screen. The driving age is then swiftly displayed on the screen.

The results are based on the results of a survey of 2,000 people aged 18 and over who were asked to play the game. The reaction time was plotted against their age. The predicted age is the age that most closely matched the age of people with that reaction time.

The company behind the game found left-handed people had better reactions times than their right-handed peers, and men were very marginally faster on the ‘brakes’ than women. Drivers who get behind the wheel at least once a week reacted more swiftly than less regular motorists, while heavy drivers who consume between 31 and 40 units of alcohol a week had slower reaction times than occasional drinkers. People who reported drinking between one and five coffees or teas a day were more alert during the test than those who avoided caffeine.

You can try out the test here.

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November 12, 2015
Driving Examiners To Strike

Driving test examiners have voted to go on strike in a row over working hours. The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said its members had walkouts by 91% and other forms of industrial action by 96% in a turnout of 64%.

The union represents 1,600 DVSA staff at 360 sites across the UK, including driving examiners and officers who carry out vehicle and traffic safety checks. The row is over new working patterns which the union say will lead to longer shifts.

The union said it will now consider possible dates for industrial action.

Britannia Driving School will advise pupils who may be affected by this as more details are announced.

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October 29, 2015
Convicted AA Instructor Picked Children Up From School Gates

It was reported in MailOnline recently that a paedophile driving instructor filmed himself sexually abusing children in the back of his AA car after picking them up from the school gates.

The former AA instructor, Matthew Ottley, lured two children into his vehicle after befriending the at the school gates. He would then drive them to a remote country lane and abuse them, according to the article published last week. Ottley pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual activity with a child and arranging or facilitating child prostitution or pornography at Maidstone Crown Court. He was also charged with two counts relating to filming the episodes over a four-day period last November.

Ottley was released on bail until sentencing next month. According to the CPS, a further three counts of abuse would remain on file after Ottley denied the charges.

According to MailOnline, Ottley’s own driving school (I Drive Safely)’s website boasts of nearly 20 years professional driving experience with ‘a 100% pass rate’ and say they specialised in ‘helping particularly nervous pupils.’

What are your thoughts on this article? Send your views to Britannia Driving School by using the comments link below:

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October 7, 2015
Test Waiting Times

The DVSA has apologised for the increase in waiting times for driving tests. Certain areas have seen a substantial increase in waiting times for tests and a number of driving instructors have complained to the DVSA.

The DVSA said that were three reasons for the increase:

The economic recovery – more people are taking driving lessons again

More examiners retiring

There has been a surge in people in their 20s taking tests, after leaving it longer to learn to drive

There were 407,000 car driving test between January and March 2015, a 5.2% increase on the same period last year with demand increasing. The DVSA said that it had forecasted the increase in demand and also knew that there were a number of examiners retiring and began recruitment in October 2014, with further campaigns in March and October this year.

Various options have been considered to deal with the increase in demand such as the involvement of the private sector and examiners taking a photograph of the driver as soon as they have passed, so their licence can be processed quickly.

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September 17, 2015
Britain’s Best Young Driver

Car mad Robbie Robertshaw has been named one of Britain’s best young drivers – three years before he can officially take to the highway.

The 14-year-old proved himself a wiz at the annual Young Driver Challenge, where tests included navigating tight chicanes, an obstacle course and, that most dreaded of all motoring tasks, parallel parking.

He came second in the competition’s 14-16 category despite the fact everyone else was quite a lot taller than him. It was a proud moment for the former go-karter as his love for cars, wheels and motoring dates back more than a decade.

Robbie has dreams of owning his own bus company, which is how he fell into driving in the first place. His dad, 44-year-old railways project manager, said that they were looking for a bus driving experience for his 11th birthday. They couldn’t find one but came across Young Driver so bought him a driving lesson.

What are your thoughts on this article? Send your views to Britannia Driving School by using the comments link below:

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