Most new drivers, feeling uneasy at first behind the wheel, take solace in going for their first few drives with family or friends in the car with them, safe in the knowledge that if anything bad was to happen they would not be completely alone in the situation.

But what happens when you are finally forced to take to the roads in solitude?

The best advice we could give you would be to drive as if it were a test situation. Approach all junctions with caution, and take extra special care in your driving, especially at first. Make mental notes along the way to keep yourself alert, for example when you are preparing for a turn, remind yourself to indicate firstly, much in the same way as you would when on your lessons.

Revert back to your lessons for more guidance – “Mirror/Signal/Manoeuvre” should come immediately to mind. Keep your speed down for the most part – remember it is always better to be cautious than dangerous.

Hopefully in time you will become more and more confident in driving on your own – one day, you may even prefer it!

Safe driving from Britannia!

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Maria Adams was seen towing her friend sitting in a borrowed wheelchair outside Tesco in Roker, Sunderland. She has been handed a two-year driving ban.

Adams repeatedly drove up and down the car park with her friend holding on to a towel hanging out of the boot of her car. Witnessed by a number of shoppers, Adams would speed up before the man in the wheelchair let go and was sent whizzing along with the momentum. This prank, which was caught on security cameras, lasted several minutes.

At court, Adams admitted to dangerous driving. The court head that the friend did not require a wheelchair and had jumped in one owned by the store for customer use. She was disqualified from driving for two years, ordered to pay £1,369 prosecution costs and a £60 victim surcharge. She was also given a four-month curfew and a 12-month community order.

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For many of us, driving may not be a fun activity, particularly if your job involves being on the road a lot. Even a long commute will quickly lose it’s novelty aspect and you will begin to associate driving with being a necessary chore, rather than the enjoyable pastime than it should be regarded as.

For a lot of us, driving was much more fun in our younger years; The freedom of passing your driving test, and taking your friends out on long drives in the countryside, or picking your date up in your new motor may well have been an exciting period, however that can wear off as time goes by, and as you gradually get more used to being stuck in traffic and paying rising insurance costs, it is easy to see why driving a car can eventually lose it’s glamour.

However driving needn’t be a chore or a bore; many find driving a car a great stress relief (more so on Sunday afternoons than during Rush Hour!) and with a little thought, it can be as enjoyable as it used to be when you first got behind the wheel.

Do you have any ideas of how we can make driving more fun? Let us know in the comments below!

Safe driving from Britannia!

A survey has found that one in five motorists over the age of 50 believe they would fail their driving test if they had to retake it today. Due to the ageing population in Britain, there are more older drivers on the road as ever before with the average older driving having taken their test 40 years ago. Nearly half of those are over 70 and passed their test more than half a century ago when road safety was not of as paramount importance as it is today.

There have been various stories of older drivers driving without glasses when they need them, keeping both feet on the brake and gas pedals and even falling asleep on the wheel.

Last year, controversial research by Auto Trader suggested the majority of drivers want a compulsory retest when people reach pension age. However, official statistics from the Department of Transport show those over 70 are safer drivers than young drivers.

A poll found that 16% of 60-69-year-olds believe that people should be forced to stop driving at the age of 80 with many drivers taking themselves off the road voluntarily. However, many elderly drivers do remain on the road with a lower standard of driving than that required by the modern-day driving test.

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

Tonight is the night of Halloween, the scariest night of the year, where ghouls, ghosts and goblins come out of the shadows and fear and terror set in across the country, for one night only.

However if you are planning to be on the roads this Halloween, there needn’t be anything terrifying about your driving.

Driving at Halloween can be especially dangerous for multiple reasons. By now, the Autumnal weather has most probably set in across most streets, leaving heaps of dead leaves littered across the roads. Combined with the already wet road surfaces and the dark nights setting in earlier, this can make for particularly treacherous driving conditions.

Also be on your guard for children this Halloween. The age-old ritual of trick-or-treating can be a great experience for most youngsters, however it does require drivers to be extra vigilant on the roads as a high volume of children take to the streets tonight. Children are less visible than their adult counterparts at the best of times, and when they are wearing darkened costumed colours on these dark nights, they will become even harder to see.

Take care with your driving this Halloween, and hopefully the only scary thing about tonight will be the prospect of “bobbing for apples”.

Safe driving this Halloween from Britannia!

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P plates stands for Probationary driver which indicates that the driver is a newly qualified driver. Although P plates are not compulsory, it is strongly recommended that new drivers use them as they help to warn other road users that you are a new driver and to be more patient.

There have been discussions to introduce probationary periods for new drivers as in other countries such as Australia where new drivers must display P plates for a minimum of 24 months by law, observe extra speed limits and have zero alcohol.

Once you’ve passed your test, it’s recommended that you use P plates until you feel confident driving alone, within different situations as well as in a range of weather conditions too. Unfortunately, P plates are frowned upon by most newly qualified drivers as they seem ‘uncool’ and too similar to L plates. However, if this is the case, it is a good idea to keep a set in your car and use them if you are travelling on a motorway for the first time or an unfamiliar place.

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It has emerged that nine out of ten new vehicles are now sold without a full-size spare wheel. Less than half of cars (46%) only come with a repair kit which usually comprises of an air-pump and a self-sealent whilst 27% are fitted with a ‘space-saver’ tyre which cannot be used for long distances. Other alternatives include cars fitted with ‘run-flats’, tyres that are reinforced to allow the motorist to continue driving on a puncture for a limited time.

This has resulted in a significant rise in the number of wheel-related call-outs to breakdown organisations. To help solve the problem, the RAC has developed its own ‘universal spare wheel’ which fits eight out of ten cars and has been used more than 30,000 times since its launch in January.

According to the report, the worst manufacturers who don’t provide a spare tyre or a ‘space-saver’ are Volvo, Vauxhall, Porshe, Mini, Mazda, Dacia and BMW. On the other end of the scale, the best are the Alfa Romeo, SsangYong and Suzuki.

With puncture and other tyre-related breakdowns on the rise, in part due to poor road conditions, these cutbacks come at a huge cost to the consumer with some having to fork out more than £600 for a full-size spare.

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Worrying statistics have been revealed this week showing that almost 75% of parents believe that they would fail their driving test if they had to re-sit it – however over half of this amount would still be happy to teach a younger person to drive.

Also revealed was that almost half of those questioned have eaten when behind the wheel, almost 25% have used their mobile when driving, and one in ten have failed to stop at a red light.

Despite these worrying figures, many parents don’t see the problem with their bad habits, and most did not think that their activities behind the wheel would influence their children into bad driving habits – despite other recent reports.

What are your thoughts on this article? Sound off in the comments below!

Safe driving from Britannia!