Get In Gear > About Get in Gear

After passing their driving test, many young drivers will regard their driver training as being complete. This is because there is not a continuation in learning culture in the UK, so people become conditioned to the concept of the standard driving test being the ultimate goal in terms of driver training.

New drivers will sometimes complete the DSA Pass Plus, scheme but usually it isn’t attaining a higher level of driving skill that is the motive, but to exploit the spin–offs the Pass Plus scheme will offer, such as discount car insurance.

However, with more and more motor insurance providers backing away from the Pass Plus scheme, the programme it is having to rest more and more upon its established brand name.

The Content of The Pass Plus Scheme

The Pass Plus scheme is a post–test driving course and consists of six driver training modules, these being,

Town driving

All weather driving

Rural road driving

Night driving

Dual carriageway driving

Motorway driver training

If the Pass Plus scheme was offered with no other incentive, other than being a further driver training course, how would it appeal? Let’s look at each module, and in particular, at what young drivers of Bucks will hope to gain from the basic Pass Plus scheme.

Pass Plus Modules in Detail

Town Driving – The module will have to be a repeat of those factors covered during normal learner driving lessons, as town driving, for most, will be the type of road driving environment that covers 95% of the learner driver training time.

All Weather Driving – This module of Pass Plus will be almost impossible to manage, as driving instructors book driving lessons well in advanced with their pupils. Therefore, if that Pass Plus driving lesson coincides with a wet day, or when there is fog, it will be more by luck than by judgement if that pupil will experience driver training under those conditions.

Rural Road Driver Training – As far as the rural road section of Pass Plus is concerned, the people of Bucks are very fortunate, as the Buckinghamshire County Council area is very well off for rural roads. It is therefore likely, save for those taking their initial driver training in places such as High Wycombe, that some of the driving lessons will already have covered driver training on rural roads.

Night Driving Lessons – These are easy to provide during the winter months, when the clocks are on Greenwich Mean Time. However, a night driving lesson for the Pass Plus course in July isn’t going to happen. Learner drivers are not going to wait until the end of summer to take their Pass Plus course to get some night time driving completed. Nor is the driving instructor going to be working at 11.00pm to get this Pass Plus module fitted in.

Dual Carriageway Driving – In most cases this will have been covered already in learner driving lessons. Aylesbury in Bucks, for example, has dual carriageways all around the town as part of the ring road system. The Bucks town of High Wycombe also has urban dual carriageways. Therefore, the learner will probably have covered dual carriageway driving as part of their learner driving lessons, no matter where they live in Bucks.

Motorway Driving – When you look at the six modules of Pass Plus it is only the motorway driving module that a new driver will regard as having any credibility. Again, the new driver’s of Bucks are fortunate in there is easy access to a motorway with the M1, M40 and M25 running through different areas of Buckinghamshire.

As said earlier, where driving cars is concerned we do not have a continuation of learning culture in this country. Therefore, if there is no other incentive to complete Pass Plus, other than the post–test driver training it offers, few will have interest in the course. However, for those who wish to complete the Pass Plus driving course, the Buckinghamshire County Council region does have all the road environments close to hand to facilitate this.

Pass Plus Providers not Required to Take Additional Driver Training

Another factor with the Pass Plus scheme is the driving instructor does not have to receive any additional training to deliver the programme. Therefore, the standard learner training skills are all that is in place, and with which he or she can use for Pass Plus training. That is why the rural roads, town driving and dual carriageway driving modules are unlikely to contain anything different to that covered during learner driving lessons.

Night driving and all weather driving are areas that will usually be covered during learner driving lessons, but only if the conditions are present at the time of learning to drive.

The Bucks Get in Gear Driving Course

Delivers Driver Training
Where Young People Usually Crash Their Cars

The Bucks young driver training programme, Get in Gear, is proving to be a great success. Not only do young drivers in the Buckinghamshire County Council region have a useful alternative to Pass Plus, but little within the Get in Gear driving course will have been covered during standard driving lessons. The content of Get in Gear builds on learner driving lesson content, and also, much of what is covered is not be experienced with the Pass Plus driver training.

The Get in Gear driving instructors have received advance driver training, so they have additional skills to train the young drivers of Bucks to a more advanced level. They deliver a course content carefully crafted to include elements of driving to combat the most common causes of road collisions among young drivers. It also provides skills that young people will see as being effective as well as useful, to advanced the techniques given during learner driver training.

The Pass Plus Scheme & Get in Gear Give Six–Hours of Training

With 6–hours of learning time, which is the same as Pass Plus, young drivers on the Get in Gear driving course will receive 2–hours of classroom input, 2–hours rural road driver training and 2–hours of motorway driving tuition.

During the theory module, the students are not preached to, but spend the time interacting with each other, challenging their own beliefs, as well as those of each other. Issues such as anti–social driver behaviour, alcohol and drug abuse are considered, as well as mobile phone use and how to deal with unruly passenger behaviour, as may be exhibited by their friends.

During the practical driver training sessions, the aim is for the student to understand the principles of independent driving on a variety of roads and traffic conditions. They will also understand how different moods, times of the day and weather conditions may impact on their driving performance.

The driver trainer will link the theory to the practical driving aspects by bringing in lifestyle choices they will make and the relationship this will have upon their driver risk profile. The training routes encourage drivers to understand the necessity to develop improved observation, eye scanning, anticipation and planning, as well as hazard awareness and hazard prioritisation. How to read the road and the processes required for safe overtaking will also be covered.

Get in Gear is an Alternative to Pass Plus

The Get in Gear driving course aims to help new drivers become safer drivers. By increasing awareness of all the factors that affect their driving performance, the course sets out to make them more aware of their personal risk profile, what affects it and how they can reduce their risks through safer driving and better choices.

As said before, the geography of the Bucks County is ideal for the practical driver training elements of the Get in Gear driving course. With those delivering the driver training being highly trained, young drivers of Bucks have available to them a post–test driver training course that will stand on its own merits. Get in Gear is fun to do, has obvious value in its content and is everything that Pass Plus has promised to be, but gives more.

Driver Training with Get in Gear is available to 17 –24–year olds, who have passed their test within the past 12–months, over the following areas of Bucks.

Amersham – Aston Clinton – Aylesbury – Beaconsfield – Bledlow – Bletchley – Bourne End – Burnham – Buckingham – Chalfont St. Giles – Chalfont St. Peter – Cheddington – Chesham – Grendon Underwood – Denham – Edlesborough – Gerrards Cross – Great Missenden – Haddenham – High Wycombe – Ivinghoe – Little Chalfont – Long Crendon – Marlow – Monks Risborough – Pitstone – Princes Risborough – Saunderton – Stokenchurch – Stony Stratford – Waddesdon – Wendover – Whitchurch – Wing – Winslow – Wooburn Green.