Tips for Accompanying Drivers and Learners

elbee

Before I start, I have to say that I think accompanying drivers are great to take the time to help learners get practice. I think anyone learning appreciates that!

But that said, I've had a couple of accompanying drivers since I started learning and some make better companions than others. I thought it might be interesting to start a thread about this where people could post their experiences of being/having an accompanying driver and what worked or didn't work for them.

My big tip is that if you need to tell the learner to do something (brake, slow down, change gear, stop, go) start with they key word! My mother used to say things like 'And now you can start to brake. . .' I would start braking as soon as I heard the word 'brake', which would be too late, since she meant for me to start braking on the word 'And.'

This led to several screaming matches where she insisted I braked too late and I insisted I couldn't respond to instructions I hadn't yet got - obviously this only happened in situations where braking was one of several things I had to do and I wasn't sure what to do first, and when I was VERY new to the whole process and wasn't sure how early was too early for starting to brake.

Anyone else have any experiences they'd like to share?

chin_grin

Don't point to where you want the person to go!

I know that sounds stupid but I've seen it so many times with 'teachers' (not school cars) with Learner Drivers.

When you point you're taking the attention away from the road to your finger and you're thinking back inside the car instead of proactively thinking outside it to react to hazards and thinking ahead.

So, my tip would be not to point. In a very longwinded way.

ADIDriving

Elbee: Good post.
Chin Grin: Fair point (parden the pun). But some times it is needed.

A good tip would also be to tell the learner why they are braking. So instead of saying 'break now', say (well in advance) 'See the red lights up ahead'. I may throw in more later.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Sparkie93

ive been getting lessons for the past few weeks now i have done about 7 or 8 lessons and im not sure about driving between lessons my dads car is a seven seater so im not sure about driving it
lol would it be safe for me to drive it ?:)

ADIDriving

Sparkie93 wrote: »

ive been getting lessons for the past few weeks now i have done about 7 or 8 lessons and im not sure about driving between lessons my dads car is a seven seater so im not sure about driving it
lol would it be safe for me to drive it ?:)

Tell your driving instructor that you want to take a your next lesson in your Dad's car. This can be very productive, as you get to 'learn' to drive a different vehicle and will end up understanding driving more. The bigger car is going to be harder to drive so take your time to get used to the car.