In this blog to customers Tom Ingram (Owner of BIG TOM Driving School) discusses the advantages of the BIG TOM intensive driving course compared to the historical “pay as you go” driving lessons.
“Yesterday a customer on his BIG TOM course who lives at Holbeach Drove, drove up to Boston via the Spalding bypass. Experience of driving on roads like that is vital because it teaches pupils that although these faster moving roads might on the face of it, appear hazard free, there are in fact very hazardous sections where vehicles are joining it from the left and right. He drove around Boston doing manoeuvres at random places and then across to Grantham on the A52. He spent time driving on more hilly roads than Boston could ever offer therefore refining clutch control skills. Then he drove down to Corby Glen and practised reading the severity of rural road bends – another vital skill to have in your armoury as it is those kinds of roads that cause accidents with serious injury or even fatality. And then he made his way over to Holbeach Drove on a series of “class B” roads which brought up the importance of looking out for potholes, uneven road surface and agricultural vehicles. He stopped when and where he wanted and as part of the course fee had drinks bought for him to relax and reflect on what he had just been doing.
Whilst it would not be impossible to arrange driving sessions on a “pay as you go” basis to cover these objectives, you can imagine, it would take some organising and the fact is, most people simply don’t. As a consequence, you begin to see how customers on the BIG TOM course are being given the opportunity to gain vital experience that would otherwise not be available. From a practical point of view, the essential point to recognise is that once you get to these locations further afield, you then have time to practise driving in those different conditions for as long as you need to, without having the time pressure to be turning back home again. This is why pupils get so much out of their experience on the course and we receive as much positive feedback as we do.
Having said the above, it is also reassuring to customers to know that should they require any further sessions after their course, they are given a full 30 day period in which they are given priority access to more training time. It is an accelerated learning programme and the responsibility rests with pupils who need more training to make full use of that prioritised period. Customers often tell me, it can be powerfully beneficial to reinforce or increase learning in that 30 day period.One of the other benefits of the course is the flexibility it has within it to be able to respond with driving test dates according to the need of the customer. The blogs here show plenty of examples where customers pass their driving test either within their 5 day course or very soon after. But equally, if a customer does our course and then wants to have the freedom to choose how to finish off their training they can simply request a driving test booking for some date in the future which they can then manage independently. In this way, customers are not in any way “pressured” by the thought of timescales relating to driving tests. In my experience, it really does pay dividends when a pupil engages in the responsibility to ensure they feel safe, confident and competent on the roads. By enabling a pupil to manage their driving test booking which has been provided to them, it really complements the self-evaluation skills that are introduced to them on their BIG TOM course. Pupils are able to recognise first hand, that there is a direct relationship between the extent of their training they choose to receive and how the managing of test bookings encourages development of the responsibility for safety on the public roads. Especially for the younger pupils this kind of responsibility and accountability may not be skills they are overly familiar with prior to starting their driving training, but it is precisely awareness of these strengths and weaknesses that creates safe drivers for the future.”
