Advanced Motoring Assessment

That will help mate.

The airforce taught me to drive, can you point that landrover around the airfield son ?

Good off you go then, heres your licence.

Its suprising how things change, my brothers an L test instructor, the hoops the present day kids have to "jump" through are much tougher.

You must be a fair driver James, two one and a half hour sessions.

Have you done the defensive driving stuff in the past ?

It was a new concept to me, before this I regarded myself as going into battle !

Also are you doing it in a manual ?

Fair enough Jon

It took me years to actually do it, something I was "always" going to do, just never did.

I will follow this up for you Stephen

I was, and still am dissapointed at the snobbish attitude shown by The IAM on this subject, and I say that as one of their observers.

I have 3 points and apparently I could have been refused, (although unlikely at 3, they normally get excited if you have seven or more ).

As far as I'm concerned, and I have to say the people in my group I have spoken too about this tend to agree, as long as a court deems you fit to drive on the day of the test, you should be allowed to take it, but alas that doesnt seem to be the case.

To me it should be assesssed on attitude,you have only one offence, but nine points, and you are clearly showing "good" attitude by still wanting to do the test.

I have read the thread you posted, now compare this to see our "unjust" legal system.

A senior high ranking police officer from Manchester ( he is in charge of road safety for that area, and is constantly shoving that stupid "speed kills" message down people throats ), was caught on the new M6 toll road driving at 104 mph. Now all credit to the police and/or scamera partnership that got him to court rather than letting him go with the secret handshake.

He had the nerve to stand up in court and say he considered he was driving safetly, he got six points and a £450 fine, and would still be eligble to take the advanced test under the rules that stopped you, on top of this he is probably one of our examiners.

I think Killian posted the link to the news story on this.

Stephen, I have pmed you to get your personal details, so I can try and get you sorted.

I will do my best I assure you.

I now have the criteria for taking an IAM test, this information came from my regional chap, unfortunately I have to wait until I have permission from IAM HQ to post it on here.

Secrets and politics.......dont you just love it ? !

Ok Stephen

I have already contacted the IAM.

They are looking into it for me, although I'm an observer I'm fairly new, and only passed the test myself last year.

I have spoken to the Scottish people tonight, there are rules governing what points etc you can have on your licence before they will allow you to take a test, IAM HQ are going to send them to me, and I will put them on here, this sort of thing is dealt with before a candidate gets to me.

If you are facing a ban, you cannot take the test for 12 months AFTER you get your licence back is the worst case, so they tell me.

I'll go and read the link, and get back to you.

see here for the whole sorry debacle....  its not big and it's not clever

im "frink" in these posts...

http://www.traffic-answers.com/forum/index.php?board=7;action=display;threadid=74

i couldn't take my test because they said i was waiting for a court date - meaning if it went unfavourably then it would look bad for the group.   but the chairman of the group did write a nice letter that was given to the court, it did help.  i was always upfront, at the first meeting (the one where they try and encourage people to sign up, although i already had joined via the net, there was a bit on the enrolment form that asked if you had any points on your licence or pending convictions - i could have kept shtum but decided to ask their advice, there was much chin-scratching and hmming, culminating in them saying that IAM head office will be consulted and ill get word back in a week or two.  i attended all the meetings and the supervised drives, and a few more drives after that with a local observer, then the chairman to get up to standard - but disappointingly, they couldnt put me forward for test for that reason - i said "well i joined directly, not through elgin group... therefore i could put in for the test myself?"  "doesnt matter, theyve been notified..." damn!  after it was all over he called and asked me how it went, but he was meant to get back to me to see if they would approve me being tested - guess what?  never did.   im not knocking them too much as the guy took time to write a very supportive letter as stated already

I've completed an IAM advanced driving course up to the required standard but I was unfairly barred from taking my test.

It highlights the sheer snobbery of the whole organisation and really emphasises their holier-than-thou attitude - let's just say that it wouldn't look good for them  if a driver could be reported for a serious driving offence to join a course and pass the IAM test whilst waiting to see if they are going to be prosecuted for such.  In this country I always believed that a person was innocent until proven guilty.

The IAM don't want people who have "fallen off the wagon" so to speak, they only want the people who are angels to start with - it's not driver improvement, it's maintenance of standards.

Oh yes, and the idea of fumbling for gearchanges whilst crawling up to a hazard after wearing your pads and discs out instead of using more sensible and controlled engine braking caused a lot of long and heated arguments in our IAM group, especially when they state that "engine braking should be reserved for steep hill descents and icy conditions"  erm, why would that be?  because the car is more stable and under control?

Well done James

A couple of runs then ready for the test ???

Your better than me then, I had 5 runs, pre test check, 2 runs, then test.

I took my first candidate out yesterday for her first run, the assesmant jobby.

So start for real next week, she didnt burst into tears, or knee me in the vitals ( the wife was suggesting one of the two would happen as I'm generally regarded as having missed my call for the diplomatic corps ! ).

errrrrrrr I thought you were doing the skid pan stuff, thats why you wanted the list !!!!!

Or are you just keeping an eye on me ????? lol