How to supervise Learners
Sitting in with Learner Drivers
This is a sticky situation in many families, but if finances, time, and patience will allow, it can be an excellent aid to learning alongside lessons with an ADI (Approved Driving Instructor).
Lets start with the basics:
Before you attempt to supervise a learner, you need to make sure that you are allowed to. A supervising driver must:
Be over 21 years of age
Have held a full driving licence for at least 3 years
Have a strong nerve and lots of patience!
And the car in which you are supervising must:
Be insured for the learner (not necessarily for the supervisor, but you can’t take over if you’re not insured)
Display L-plates (or D-plates in Wales) in a conspicuous position to the front and rear (not in the windows!)
It is also a very good idea to purchase one of the small suction cup mirrors (like instructors use) for the supervising driver - these shouldn’t cost more than £10, and are available from Halfords and the like.
Before you start driving anywhere, ask questions of each other. Find out where you will feel comfortable practicing, for the learner this should be somewhere very easy at first, so that the car can be easily controlled and the supervising driver can get used to being sat in the passenger seat. You will both be nervous, but keep calm, if anything becomes a real worry for either learner or supervisor, pull over and discuss it. Otherwise things can go downhill fast!
One strange question we get asked is whether the supervisor needs to be sat in the front - well we haven’t yet found any law to state this but if you are not capable of taking control of the steering wheel, gearstick (into neutral) and hand-brake in the event of an emergency, then you may be liable to prosecution. So - sit in the passenger seat!
I often have customers tell me that ‘I went out with my mum but we just wound up shouting at each other’. This is a common situation, often from nerves.
The learner must remember that the supervisor is used to being in control, and handing over responsibility is not easy.
The supervising driver must remember that the learner will often take time to pick up new skills, often skills that they will have forgotten they even learnt! For example, how do you set off uphill? Can you remember exactly what you do, or do you just do it!
We haven’t got time to go into huge detail here, but below are some top tips:
Supervising:
Get used to looking much further ahead
Spot problems that will mean a change of speed or direction
If you see them early enough, you should point out the actual problem, then describe what your learner will need to do about it. eg: ‘there’s a bus at the stop up ahead, we’ll need to slow a bit and watch out for it pulling out’.
Think carefully about exactly what you do when you drive - many of your responses may have become automatic with time and experience. If you can understand exactly what you do yourself, you will be able to describe it easily.
If you feel nervous, try to be specific with your instructions. Your learner will be nervous too, so just saying ‘WATCH OUT’ may not help, say exactly what you want them to do, eg: ‘brake now, and steer yourself to the left’. And once you have got through a worrying situation, don’t try to carry on, find a place to stop and take deep breaths and discuss what happened and how to avoid it next time.
Once your learner is doing things right, reduce the amount you say to them. If they are quite good at getting up through the gears, but maybe a bit slower than you are, tell them you feel they should be changing up earlier, but don’t tell them when to do each and every gear change. They will try to get quicker, but need to be allowed to do this in their own time.
And don’t worry about any bad habits you may have. These are easily fixed by any good driving instructor, but remember, if an instructor has said that something should be done, then they are probably right. Driving has changed since you learnt, and recommended methods of driving have changed. The most common example of this is that we no longer change down through the gears. If reducing speed, we now teach to brake down to the required speed (say from 50 mph in 5th down to 15 mph for an open roundabout), then choose the required gear for the new speed (straight from 5th to 2nd).
If you feel that anything an instructor has said is wrong, then speak to the instructor, you will probably find that the reasoning behind it may have been lost, but remember that instructors are highly trained, and keep up with all modern methods, maybe you can learn something from this process too!
Learning:
Remember that the person supervising you is not a driving instructor, so may not be as specific with instructions
Remember that they have no dual controls, you need to take full responsibility for the car and your passenger.
Have patience with your supervisor, as they may find some things that you do wrong frustrating at first, but by working together you can get a huge sense of achievement.
Your supervisor is an experienced driver, and though you are being taught by your instructor to be technically good at what you do, you do not have as much experience of the road, conditions, and how other road users may act as your supervisor does. Listen to their advice.
If something they suggest contradicts what your instructor has said, listen carefully and discuss the differences. If you cannot find common ground, discuss it with your instructor on your next lesson, and encourage your supervisor to meet your instructor - a quick conversation can help both of them to improve your driving.
Private practice can help a huge amount with learner drivers, and is an excellent way to develop experience of different conditions and situations. Use it wisely though, and don’t try to overextend yourselves! Try to avoid stress, this should be a learning time, not a screaming time! And above all, keep safe.
All content © Tim Manwaring