Pass Plus is a training scheme for new drivers. You can get more details about the what and why of Pass Plus by following the link on the left. As an incentive you can get significant insurance discounts from participating insurers. All instructors design their own course covering the six required modules. Here I am going to explain my course, that I have designed to give you maximum experience in the real world and maximum driving pleasure. I also introduce you to some advanced driving techniques you don't get before your test!
There are six required modules: Town Driving, All weather, Night Driving, Dual Carriageways, Rural and Motorway; a minimum of six hours training is required to complete the course. Town Driving and All Weather have to be done in that order but the rest can be done in any order. There is no test; I do a continuous assessment. On successful completion of the course I send a training report to the pass plus unit of the DSA and usually within 8 to 10 days they send you the certificate. You use that to get your insurance discount.
I prefer to integrate the modules and I have designed my course to give you real driving experience. After all, once you have your licence you will probably drive to places you've never been before, on unfamiliar roads and through unfamiliar towns and villages. So right from the start I get you used to this - you do all the navigating! You have to read the direction signs and make the decisions at all junctions and roundabouts.
We do the training in 2x2½hr plus 1hr night or 2x3hr sessions in the summer with night covered as theory only; this gives us time to go way beyond Milton Keynes and outside your comfort zone! Welcome to the real world!
We start off on the first session going to Bedford. You navigate. Bedford has features you don't get in Milton Keynes, such as a one way system throughout the city. It also has numerous traffic lights and junction boxes that are completely different to the majority of traffic lights in MK. We take a break whilst in Bedford and cover all weather driving in theory, topics such as fog, heavy rain, bright sunshine, snow and ice! When we've finished with Bedford you navigate to Northampton. We pull up in the service station of the M1 at junction 15a where we take another short break and discuss the features of motorways. Then it's off down the M1 to Junction 14 as an intro to Motorways. Then home. Some dual carriageway is covered in this session, some in the night session and some in the rural session.
In the winter we get to do night driving in a 1hr evening session; in the summer we cover it in theory only.
In the final 2½ or 3hr session we pull it all together with a 100mile round trip focused on rural and motorway. Basically, starting at Stony Stratford, you navigate to Winslow then pick up the A413 to Denham via Aylesbury, Great Missenden and the Chalfonts. Then we pick up the M40, M25 and M1 back to Milton Keynes. We do this at the weekend; the motorways are generally busy but free moving; traffic volumes are high but not stationary. This is my favourite session. I really enjoy it and generally so do the drivers I take on this route. It is quite intensive and requires a lot of concentration on your part. At the end of it, people generally have real confidence in their abilities and feel they've been somewhere! They are pleased they've coped with some of the busiest motorway sections in the UK and if the weather is good the rural section is picturesque.