What is an Advanced Driving Course?

Advanced driving courses are not about going back to driving lessons, and they are not about getting told off for all you have forgotten since your test either. They are about learning higher grade driving skills that will help you to become better equipped to deal with the hazards associated with driving on the road. That is how we at Ride Drive view the situation anyway.

The term Advanced Driving is one that perhaps most people have heard used before, but many would struggle to explain its meaning. Driving is an easy word to work with, as everyone knows what that is, but what is advanced driving? What does that term mean?

In the case of car drivers, advanced driving actually describes a level that is beyond that of the standard required to pass the ordinary driving test. If only it were as straight forward as that, because once you have accepted the statement you then find there are varying levels of advanced driving, which tends to be measured according to who it is delivering the training.

The Roadcraft Driving System

The recognised driving system of advanced driving comes from a publication called Roadcraft, first printed in 1955 as a police driver’s training manual. Where driver training within the emergency services is concerned, the Roadcraft driving system still provides the backbone of courses as much now as it did at the time it was written for the purpose.

This relatively small manual has contributed to making the advanced driver training, especially of Road Policing Officers, the finest and most highly regarded anywhere in the world.

In more modern times, training in advanced driving began to attract the interest of sections of the public, motoring enthusiasts who formed memberships of driving clubs and associations. These used the Roadcraft system, which came as no great surprise as these groups were predominantly populated by ex–police advanced drivers.

We like to think at Ride Drive that our interpretation and implementation of Roadcraft is more full-on and robust, whereas others use it in a more diluted form. But then, we at Ride Drive are used to using the Roadcraft in more extreme circumstances, as we spent careers using it in anger.

Having Explained the Term Advanced Driving,
What Does Defensive Driving Mean?

This is a term that is bandied about more and more these days, but the chances are those who speak it don’t know what it really means themselves. Whilst many people think defensive driving something different to advanced driving they would be hard pushed to explain it.

The advanced driving system, as per Roadcraft, teaches the art of driving defensively, hence the term, Defensive Driving. Therefore, if advanced driving is the heading, defensive driving is the system the heading addresses.

The defensive strategy is to create distance between the vehicle and areas of actual or potential danger and therefore always being in a position not to be close enough to anything that is likely to cause harm. It is like the snooker player, always working 3 or 4 shots ahead, or the rock climber, planning hand-holds well before reaching them.

Therefore, defensive driving is the processes employed during advanced driver training to monitor and respond to danger according to the intensity of that danger.

Driver Training Worlds Apart from Standard Level

When looking at the standard of input as delivered by the Ride Drive team compared against DSA basic driver training, it will quickly be realised there is no comparison. In fact, the two are light years apart. However, you will not be able to appreciate this until you have completed a course.

It is always a delight to have customer embark upon a Ride Drive course who has only ever experienced standard DSA training. As they are introduced to a whole new world on the road the difference they find is as profound as that of finding how a world they thought they knew so well as being flat, was all along actually round.

Elements such as how to read a road, how to search far into the distance and then to identify actual and potential danger, assess it and develop a strategy to deal with it – all before getting anywhere near to it, provides the method by which to make safe progress on the road.

This is proactive driving, where the driver becomes actively involved with the road and with the car, a stark difference to the standard method of reactive driving, as seen within the untrained driver.

Safety Can Never be Completely Assured

For every journey a driver will understand there can never be a guarantee they will arrive at their destination without incident. However, through developing driving skills in the use of a superior grade driving system, the risk of incident will be significantly reduced.

Driving is an activity that most people think they do very well, but that is because they have no perception of what it is like to drive to a higher grade. Even the worst drivers feel comfortable in what they do, because they enjoy the comfort of habit. It will only be the completion of Advanced Driving Courses, and submitting to that training experience, will it demonstrate by how much there is a difference.

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This page was last updated
Saturday, 29-Jan-2011

What is an Advanced Driving Course?