Newslink September 2023

Area News
The Angus Driving Instructors’
Association held its annual ‘Sit
your L-test for charity’ day last
month. Brian Thomson reports
Anything the DVSA can do...
Some people asked, and some people got.
When are you doing another “sit you
driving test for charity” day, we were asked
by an adoring public a few months ago.
For the uninitiated, this is the day when a
band of hardy ADIs take full licence holders
(although we did have a slight difference this
year) out on a test route for them to show
they still have the skills to pass their L-test.
It started almost 10 years ago now, when
we felt that as an organisation we should try
and combat some of the driving issues our
students face every day on the roads. You all
know the type of thing: “watch that car not
signal”; “watch that car in the wrong lane”;
“watch that car that’s going to barge through
you” ... the things that happen every day in
every town and city and we live with it.
Planning for the day all starts weeks
ahead, arranging which instructors will be
there, who can help, who has what we need
for the day.
This was our seventh time of holding the
event, so most of the initial planning was
fairly straightforward, but we can’t have a
charity day without participation from
members of the public so it’s posters up,
going round coffee shops, hairdressers,
accountants, etc, trying to get them to come
along and even get a little ‘inter-firm’
competition going.
We all meet about an hour before the start
time to set up our gazebo as our
administrative shelter and set out our raffle
prizes that either came from local businesses
or public donations and the association
members.
Off we go
07.45 and things get started, cuppas had,
cars parked and ready to go (unless you
realise you don’t have fuel).
This year we only had four cars taking up to
24 victims participants out, each doing six
trips each. Now I’m sure some eagle-eyed
Newslink readers will have counted five cars
plus a random van on the main photo, but one
car belongs to our administrator who works
almost 40 miles away in Dundee so isn’t too
sure of the local roads, and one belongs to
Colin, a PDI who just wanted to see how this
worked and perhaps ride in the back of some
of the tests to help him understand what to
look for in his students. (again the
mathematicians have now got this down to
three cars but my one is out of camera shot)
So off we set. Tests were spaced five
minutes apart to prevent bunching, with
them all finishing off back at base with a
reverse bay park.
The tests themselves too, rather like the
real thing, 40-45 minutes, followed by a quick
debrief and a DL25. These went for collating
later on to give a pass rate for the day.
Here’s interesting; you know how the DVSA
really wants to improve the L-test pass rate,
but it stubbornly refuses to go above 50 per
cent? Well our pass rate this year was exactly
that, 50 per cent. So much for becoming
better drivers with all that experience!
We had some star drives, with rewards for
top performers. First place with zero
recorded driving faults was Sarah Gauld, while
in second place, with one recorded driving
fault, was Fiona Thomson. It was suggested
by the group that we have a wooden spoon
award next year with the winner of that
dubious honour invited back the following
year to redeem themselves.
We had a visit from our MSA Scottish
deputy chairman, Bryan Phillips, who made a
36 NEWSLINK n SEPTEMBER 2023