Hi there smart drivers. Rick with Smart Drive Test
talking to you today about mentoring a
new driver. In other words, helping a new
driver to pass his or her road test. And
what you're going to be doing is not
teaching them how to drive.
Rather the skills, knowledge, and abilities
that are needed by a new driver to pass
a road test are somewhat different than
what it is for learning how to drive. And
actually they'll learn how to drive after
they get their license. So give them some
room for that - let them practice the
skills and knowledge that they need for
the purposes of a road test. I'll give you an
example of that. Some years ago when I
was a truck driver
I had a mate of mine who wanted to
become a truck driver. And I was a truck
driver at the time and I said, "well I can
help you do that.
I just rented a truck- I never went to
driving school." So he went and rented a
truck at considerable expense to him. We
spent the weekend training.
I thought he was more or less ready for
the road test because, you know, he was
fairly good at shifting and could get the
vehicle up and down the road and whatnot.
Unfortunately at that time in Ontario, Canada
when you made a left-hand turn, you had
to turn into the left-hand lane. Authorities have
dispensed with that since this time
because they figured out that getting a
big 75-foot vehicle around a left-hand
turn, into the left hand lane is somewhat
complicated. And it's just easier to get
the vehicle over the right-hand lane
because you've got to get over there
anyway and therefore you're not an impediment to other
traffic. Anyway, he failed on that point
and I felt pretty bad about it because
he'd spent fair bit of money and a fair
bit of time and energy trying to get his
license. But the reality was, at that
juncture in my life, I was a truck driver, I
wasn't a driving instructor. And new
students going for a road test,
regardless of class, there's a very specific
skillset that they need in order to pass
that road test. And actually, since the
1990s, that road test has become even more complicated with
the graduated licensing program. So what
I'm going to do today is going to talk
to you about that and we'll talk to you
about the biggest skill that you're
going to teach new drivers. And I'll
reveal that at the end of the video.
Stick around, we'll be right back with that
information.
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Hi there smart drivers, welcome back. Rick with Smart
Drive Test talking to you today about
mentoring a new driver for the purposes
of helping him her prepare for a road
test and to learn how to drive. Now just
before we get started there are two free guides
over my website.
One of them is "Learning to Drive: A Guide for Mentors."
It will give you a description of the
task that you're taking on and give you
some things that you can consider and
places that you can find information and
learn about the task that you are, in
fact, taking on. As well, over there is "Tuning
Up for New Drivers." It's the manual put
out by the Insurance Corporation of
British Columbia. It's the authority
responsible for licensing here in the
province of British Columbia, Canada. Both of
those are free, both those can be found
over my website. Check down in the
description box there and you can find
the link. Head over there, sign up for my
email and I will send you those two
manuals for free to help you with the task
of mentoring a new driver in his or her
preparation for a road test and learning
how to drive. I would like to thank all
the family members, and all the friends who
volunteered to help a new driver prepare
for his or her license. It's a commitment
of time and it's also a commitment to
learning, because you're going to have to
learn some new skills to help them out
to prepare for the purposes of passing a
road test.
You are not teaching them how to drive!
If you can get rid of that idea in your
head, it's going to be a lot easier and a
lot less frustrating for you when
they're driving the speed limit and the
traffic flow is tearing past you or
they're going into the lane and turning
and being cautious because they need to
do all this stuff to prepare for the
road test. So just know that,
that helping them to prepare for a road
test is going to be a little bit
different than what you might expect
initially.
First thing you need to know about new
drivers is that all new drivers are enrolled
into a graduated licensing program. In
North America, Australia, Britain - all over
the world we've implemented these
graduating licensing programs that
impose restrictions on new drivers. The
Graduated Licensing Program is
essentially two stages: 1) it's the learner
stage; 2) and the novice stage. And the parts
you're going to be involved in is the
learner stage. Because in the learner
stage, which is usually a year, they have
to be accompanied by an experienced
driver. Usually that a accompanying driver has
to be 25 years or older and have to 2 to 5
years of driving experience before they
can accompany a learning driver. As well,
the learning driver has other
restrictions as well.
No blood alcohol in their system. They
cannot use electronic devices in the
vehicle, either handheld or hands-free. As
well,
passengers in the vehicle are often
restricted to one other person, other
than the accompanying driver. And that
passenger in the
vehicle has to be immediate family: mom,
dad, a sibling or grandparents. It cannot
be anybody outside of that immediate
family. As well, new drivers are restricted to
when they can drive. It's usually only
during the day. Most new drivers cannot
drive between midnight and 5am. And
finally, in some places, I know in Ontario, Canada
they cannot drive on major highways
unless they're accompanied by an actual
licensed driving instructor. So the 401,
the 403, the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Highway). In Ontario, they cannot
drive on those and some of the US states
will be the same. that new drivers cannot drive on the
interstates unless accompanied by an
actual licensed driving instructor. So
that's the GLP program, and that's what
you're up against.
Now let me just talk a little bit
about social driving because I talked a
fair bit about social driving and what I
call social driving, is after you get
your license - within three months, most of
us are all doing social driving. And some
of the traits of social driving: not
stopping at stop signs. We come to a what
we call a rolling stop, which is actually,
we never actually stop at the stop
sign.
We don't stop at the correct position at
stop signs and actually there's three
stopp[ing positions at a STOP signed intersections and
they're not at the sign itself. That has
nothing to do with that. There's a video
here on the channel - check that out for
correct stopping position at a STOP signed
intersection. New drivers have to drive
the posted speed limit or the traffic
flow, whichever is less. And we know that as
people who drive all the time, we do not
drive the posted speed limit. We know
that there's a tolerance within how fast
you can drive on the road. So most of us
are driving five or ten kilometers an
hour above the posted speed limit or
five or ten miles per hour above the
posted speed limit. So know that as a new
driver they have to drive the posted
speed limit. And when they go around the
corner a multi-lane roads, they have to
stay in the lane. So if they're in the
right hand lane, they have to stay in the
right-hand lane - they can't deviate into
that left hand lane. If you drift over to the
other lane for the purposes of road
test, you are going to lose major points.
Driving over painted islands - you can't
drive over painted islands for the
purposes of road test; however, as social
drivers we all do it.
We stop too close to traffic in front
of us on a road test. You can't do that
on a road test. When you're stopped in
traffic you have to stop so that you can
see the tires of the vehicle in front of
you making clear contact with the
pavement. These are just some of the
hallmarks of social driving. For the
purposes of a road test all of the rules
have to be obeyed.
The new driver has to drive the posted speed
limit; they have to stop completely at
STOP signed intersections; they have to
stop at the right place; when they make a
right hand turn, they have to move from
the right-hand lane into the other
right-hand lane completely, and have the
vehicle straighten out. You signal,
shoulder check and move to the other
lane. For the purpose of the road test
there's four major components: speed and
space management; and observation and
communication with other traffic. Those
are the four major components of any
license test.
And those can be open to some degree of
discretion on the part of the driving
examiner. So when you're working with the
new driver and hopefully they've done
some driving lessons, because it always
helps to do some driving lessons. And that
way they can get some information from
people who teach new people how to drive
and pass a road test all the time. That's
what driving instructors do for a living.
When you volunteer to help somebody
learn how to drive to practice for the
purposes of the road test, you need to
budget in extra time and oftentimes your are
going to have to budget in thirty to
fifty percent more time. As experienced
drivers--those of us who have a fair bit
of experience driving--we're just going
to jump in our vehicle and go somewhere.
And we're really not going to give it a
lot of thought because we have so much
experience driving. We know the vehicle,
we know where we're going, we know the roads,
those types of things. For new drivers,
you're going to have to budget time in
for them to learn and budget in time to
teach them. Because there needs to be
time for that as well. Because that is
now part and parcel of their driving. You
can't just rush them, because if you rush
them they're going to get flustered and
when they get flustered they're going to
make mistakes that potentially could
risk a crash. So build in time for the
learning process and build in time for
teaching. And as well, if they're in a
different vehicle than what they usually
are when they're driving, you're going to
have to build in time for them to get
accustomed that new vehicle as well. Now
just think of any time that you're
learning a new skill - it's broken down
into its component parts. And for new drivers
there's a lot going on, and when you get to
complex intersections, the level of
multitasking is incredible, especially
for a new driver. And they're trying to
figure out where they need to stop, where
they need to position the vehicle, and
trying to determine the gap. They're trying to
determine when it's safe to go. So
there's a lot of stuff going on. So when
you're making left-hand turns
try not to make comments to them because
they're not listening to you. They're
focused, they're zoned in on what they're
doing, so you need to give room and space
for them to learn and for them to
concentrate. So what is your job?
First of all, you need to budget time.
There needs to be time for learning,
their needs to be time for teaching ,and
know that you're going to need thirty to
fifty percent more time for teaching and learning. The other thing
you need to do is, if that the student
goes around the corner too fast,
don't just simply say to them, "slow
down!" Because the student has no concept
of how to slow down - you need to get them
specific information about how to do
things. For example, if they're going
around on a right-hand turn, you need to
tell them to travel at 10 to 15
kilometers an hour or 8 to 12 miles
per hour to go around on the right-hand
turn. When you give them specifics like
that, it's a lot easier for them to learn
the skills and actually get the vehicle
to the appropriate speed to go around
the corner. On left-hand turns,
they can do anywhere from 15 to 25
kilometers an hour depending on how big
the intersection, which is
approximately 10 to 20 miles per hour
for those of you in the United States. So
that's the other thing that you need to
do. So for those of you mentoring a new
driver,
there maybe some learning on your
part in order to help the new driver prepare for
their test. And the final skill that you
need to teach a new driver practicing
for a road test is self-confidence. You need
to boost their self-confidence. It's hard
when somebody is examining what you're doing
and their skill level is not high.
They're new to the vehicle, they're new
to the whole thing, and there's so much
going on. There's so much pressure on new
drivers to get a license, that you need
to help them with their self-confidence
and help them build that and help them
how to learn. And I will just really
encourage yo uto never ever lose your cool
and start yelling at your son or
daughter or your spouse because that
just completely undermines their
self-confidence. And it takes so much
time to get that back. And that's why if
I feel that a student is not ready to
pass a road test,
regardless of class, I will not send them
on a road test. Because it's better to do
two or three more lessons gto et them up to
where they need to be to pass a road
test and have a really good chance of
passing a road test, rather than send
them for road test. Because all you're
doing is, you're spending the next three
or four lessons trying to rebuild their
self-confidence.
So I implore
upon you - please, please, no matter
what goes wrong - try and remain calm and
don't yell. I know that sometimes it
can be--you know--you're grabbing onto
that "Ohhhhh crap" handle there on
your side of the vehicle, but please do
not lose your cool. If you feel like
you're going to lose your cool, just get
them to pull over, stop, go for a walk,
smoke cigarette, get a cup of coffee. Do
something - take a break, but please don't
yell at them in the vehicle because it's
compounded in the vehicle. You're this
far away from that person sitting right
there beside you and when you lose your
cool it just exacerbates the whole
situation. And coming back and rebuilding
that self-confidence for a new driver is
really hard.
One last point that I'd like to make for
new drivers and their mentors - give new
drivers as much exposure as you can.
Don't just let them drive the
convenience store, to the grocery store and
back and again every now and again. They
need to have as much exposure to driving
as they possibly can. What I repeat again
and again and again:
practice, practice, practice. And the more
exposure they get to driving in bad
weather,
heavy traffic, moderate traffic, light
traffic, turning at complex intersections,
driving in fog, driving at night, driving
on freeways! The more experience a new
drivers gets, the better drivers they are going
to be overall. And the faster they're
going to learn, because I have a strong
professional theory that the reason that
new drivers are at such high risk of
being involved in crash is because they
do not have a hazard perception ability.
The hazard perception--your ability to
detect hazards and know that something
is going to be dangerous on the roadway--
comes from experience. And we only get
that by driving. For example, students
going past buses, urban transit buses,
for example, they have to move out into
the other lane to get around the bus
because it stopped at a bus stop. And
there's a bicycle coming from the other
direction and there's a car coming as well.
The car has to get around the bicycle
and it's going to deviate over into your
path. A lot of new drivers are not going
to recognize that dynamic situation as
being dangerous because they've probably
passed the bus before--
sometimes previously--and nothing ever
happened or that bicycle wasn't there
that was going to force the oncoming
traffic to move over closer to their
side of the roadway. So hazard perception--
they need as much experience to build
their hazard perception lexicon--for lack
of a better word--this dictionary of
things that potentially could change in
the driving environment that are going
to potentially cause a dangerous
situations. Because many times the
situation is going to be innocuous, it's
going to be completely harmless and in
another situation, with different traffic,
and different road users on the road,
it can be dangerous. And we come back to
the driving task. And there's a video
here on the channel about the driving
task and the six aspects of the driving
tasks that are constantly changing: 1) the
driver; 2) the vehicle; 3) the road; 4) traffic;
5) light; 6) and weather. Those things are
constantly in flux for new drivers and
the more exposure that you can get them
to those different aspects of driving
the better drivers are going to be. So
give new drivers as much opportunity to
drive and as much exposure to different
driving environments that you possibly
can because in the long run you're going
to help them out and help them to become
better drivers. Question for my smart
drivers: have you mentored a new driver
in his or her preparation for a road
test and learning how to drive?
What was the most challenging aspect of
mentoring a new driver? Leave a comment
down in the comment section there. All
of that helps out the new mentors and new
drivers who are preparing for a road
test. As well be sure to head over to my
website and sign up for my email and get
your free guide on mentoring a new
drivers. Lots of great information in
there and some driving instruction
techniques that you can implement to
help the new driver learn how to drive
and prepare for a road test. As well, the
manual put out by ICBC--the insurance
Corporation of British Columbia--is also
available. It's a step-by-step manual of
the techniques, skills, and knowledge that
a new driver has to have in preparation
for passing a road test. Both of those are
available on my website and both of them
are free and you canfind the link down in the
description box there.
I'm Rick with Smart Drive Test. Thanks
very much for watching. If you like what
you see here share, subscribe, leave a
comment
down in the comment section. As well, hit
that thumbs up button. If you're working
towards a license or starting a career
as a truck or bus driver check out all
the videos here on the channel - lots of
great information here. As well, head over
website for more great information over
there and online courses that you can
purchase. Thanks again for watching. Good
luck on your road test. And remember, pick
the best answer not necessarily the
right answer.
have a great day. Bye now.
Have a great day. Bye now.
I did it woooohooooo [JUMPING AND CELEBRATING] I did it! I finally got
it. Take 472,685 - wooohooo done!
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