Advanced Driving - a Skill for Life
Driving should be enjoyable and safe. The IAM's Skill for Life programme is intended to ensure both. Based on the principles of advanced driving pioneered and applied with great success by the Metropolitan Police, the programme aims not only to improve safety, but also to increase confidence and deliver a smooth drive.But this does not mean slow and boring. You and your passengers will enjoy your driving more.
With this comes a variety of benefits. Advanced Driving skills not only make you safer but can save you money:
Directly -- by bringing you access to lower insurance premiums through the IAM Surety Insurance scheme for members or through discounts available for members at various national organisations (tyres, exhausts, car rentals, breakdown services and many more)
Indirectly -- though reduced fuel consumption and vehicle wear.
It also leads to less stressful driving and reduced accident risk.
To find out more detail of what's in the Skill for Life package, click here to visit the IAM website.
Still think this isn't for you? Look at how the Skill for Life programme can help someone like you:
Click on a photo to read more:
If you are already convinced, let us take you directly to the IAM website where you can purchase the Skill for Life pack.
For younger and more senior drivers who you don't want to commit to this particular programme, the IAM also offers two alternatives in the new Momentum scheme, for drivers under 26 years old, and Drive Check 55. Details of both these programmes are available on the IAM website.
Alice
"I was delighted with the Skill for Life programme. The Observers put me at ease as soon as we got in the car and were very polite in pointing out areas where my driving could improve. They taught me about reading the road and after five runs they suggested I take the Advanced Driving Test. I passed!!!!! Now I enjoy driving much more and feel much safer on the road"
Ben
"I'd had a couple of close calls after passing my driving test and my girl-friend clearly wasn't happy driving with me. Skill for Life taught me about roadcraft. Nobody patronised me because I was a young driver or lectured me. I had to think for myself about how I needed to change. The results were terrific. Now my car is the one everyone wants to go in. Good job I enjoy drinking coke!"
Cathy
"I'd been driving for several years but it wasn't until I started doing the school run that I realised how much more I needed to be aware of what was happening around me on the road; people everywhere, running from behind parked cars and other Mums manoeuvring whilst talking to their child in the back seat. I was scared I was going to have an accident. Skill for Life taught me not only how to handle my own car better but how to anticipate risks and drive in a way that should avoid them. I feel much safer now and can enjoy picking up Billy from school and hearing what he's been doing all day. And I even feel I can enjoy motorway driving which they didn't teach me for my 'L' test."
Derek
"There isn't much I don't know about driving. 20 years on the road clocking up 50,000 miles a year between business meetings and never a serious scratch…… until that one. The guy several cars ahead swerved and the rest of us just ran in to the back of each other. Wrote off my precious BMW. The company insisted I did an advanced driving course. Best thing they ever did for me. If I'd been reading the road then as I do now, I should have avoided the crash and saved my no claims bonus. And since I took the course I get far less stressed while driving and I've even reduced my fuel bill. Oh, and the wife says she'll go out with me as well."
Elspeth
"I don't do a lot of driving. Just getting to committee meetings and the occasional ladies lunch. I've always driven very carefully and fairly slowly so that I wasn't not in any danger but I was horrified at the way others rushed past me whenever they could. I always drove myself because I couldn't stand the ways my friends drove so quickly. Then one day the club secretary told me that she'd had comments from other members about my driving and suggested I might think about an advanced driving course. The leaflet she gave me looked surprisingly interesting and when I started the programme I quickly realised how much it could help me. I think I took a bit longer than many people to get to the test standard but no-one get annoyed with me and all the Observers were very encouraging. Now I have an extra ten minutes at home for a coffee before I leave for my meetings."
Frank
"I took my 'L' test nearly 50 years ago and I've driven regularly ever since. Now I'm retired I've started driving for one of the voluntary organisations, making deliveries and helping other people to get around. The organisation was very keen that I should show that my driving skills were up to date and pointed me towards the IAM Advance Driving test. I got an excellent book to read, which showed me a number of techniques which would improve my driving and the Observed Runs which I did with the local Advanced Motorists group helped me put these into practice. Cars may go much faster than when I passed my 'L' test and I may be a bit slower but what I learned from Skill for Life means that I am confident I can maintain my unblemished record for many years to come."
