Anyone done the IAM advanced driving test?

Yes I did it.

Haven’t tried to get money off the insurance.

Worth doing as it makes you think about how you drive again.

I did motorbike one, was really helpful.

Not to test standard but as a company car driver in the past we all had to do a course of IAM instructor 'lessons' / observed drives every few years. I found them incredibly useful, challenged some of my thoughts (in both directions, was I over cautious at times / missed chances to 'make progress' etc.) and would recommend.

Did it many years ago when I was 20.

Well worth it in terms of driving well (safety and progress) and personal satisfaction both with the achievement and journeys.

I think it made some minor insurance different at one point, but I've not tried a quote without it for years.

There have been a few controversies among members (membership is optional) in the decades since I did it, so things might be a bit different nowadays but probably still sound overall. There was something one year and swathes of people cancelled their membership, I don't remember what it was. It's been things like position on electronic driving aids, support for perceived "anti-car" measures, and attitudes towards speeding.

I did it years ago and it was very useful in terms of helping me focus on things while driving that I might have ignore, and also avoiding getting into situations by better reading of what other drivers might do. I repeated a few lessons about 15 years later and found nothing much had changed but it was a nice refresher.

Does nothing for your insurance costs in my experience and traffic cops don't seem to hold it in much regard.

TiRed of this parish referred to it recently on a thread which I can't recall - and am too lazy to search for.
He is, I think, a current member and is probably well-placed to give you an informed view.

missed chances to ‘make progress’ etc.

Anyone who thinks that "making progress" is a good thing is a complete bellend.

Anyone who thinks that “making progress” is a good thing is a complete bellend.

You can fail your driving test for "not making progress". Just saying.

You can fail your driving test for “not making progress”.

That doesn't make it right

That doesn’t make it right

Of course it does, when conditions allow 🤷‍♀️

Anyone who thinks that “making progress” is a good thing is a complete bellend.

Anyone that thinks that anyone who thinks that “making progress” is a good thing is a complete bellend hasn't understood what it really means.

For example, proper use of speed and gears approaching junctions or roundabouts, in order to save fuel, avoid braking, etc.......

Why is that being a bellend?

I know on here 'making progress' has become a euphemism for driving as fast as possible. I'm more inclined to agree with your assessment there.

Examples of making progress:

Instead of running up to the give way line at a roundabout and stop until other cars pass, look ahead and slow down early, so you arrive at the give way line doing 20mph after they've passed. Saves fuel too.

Confidently using lanes other than the leftmost at junctions and roundabout, when there are multiple lanes available for the same exit. Don't get bogged down with everyone else and lorries etc.

Using the outer lanes on the motorway to avoid getting caught up or trapped in the chaos of vehicles moving in and out of lanes 1 and 2, and around junctions. Not getting needlessly hindered by traffic.

Anticipating others pulling out into your lane on the motorway (e.g. by spotting gaps closing between them and the vehicle in front of them), so you can be ready or preemptively pull out (or back off) rather than braking behind them when they do.

Overtaking safely, deciding when not to overtake, being comfortable with aborting an in-progress overtake safely. Being intentional about what you're doing.

Equally, demonstrating restraint. Being especially cautious when the situation requires it, rather than driving slowly and nervously everywhere just because you're incapable and nervous.

The skills they teach - useful.

Cash benefit to insurance - irrelevant

Reduced likelihood of being involved in an incident - useful.

Risk of exposure to people with superiority complex - high, but not impossible to work around.

Some groups can be very cliquey. There always seems to be someone wanting a pointless discussion about a hypothetical situation with insufficient consideration of variables expecting a binary answer - see above about making progress.

Having said that, it's a better option that passing your test at 17 and then doing nothing more to improve your driving while thinking everyone else in the road is a moron.

As for "making progress", I was told that I would have failed my test had I not overtaken a hovis lorry on a country B road. The point was, I needed to demonstrate that I could. The real skill is in knowing when, where and whether you should.

We went through a year of IAM instruction with work (‘quite’ a long time ago now), and I thought, even at the time, that it was absolutely excellent. Most of colleagues thought the guys doing it were absolute roasters, but just for a second if you looked past how the message was being delivered, to appreciate and absorb the message itself, jeez there was good stuff in there.

I was surprised at the making progress thing, and they absolutely supported ‘spirited driving’ and ‘road craft’.

But it was the safety aspect that was burned into my brain, and I can think of a number of remarkably potentially hideous situations that were averted. It’s like you developed a new spidey-sense. Mostly - the danger is usually from behind, and making eye contact with other drivers in various scenarios.

The content was fantastic, gave me a totally different appreciation. This post has made want to do it again as a refresh. Forget insurance benefits, just life benefits!

When we first learn to pedal a bike we don't have the skills to ride safely down steep off-road terrain. Some people never do progress and feel confident to do anything other than wobble round on wide, flat paths.

Advanced driving gives us a method to move safely from those basic skills we are taught, that allow us to pilot a vehicle without crashing into other road users.

It certainly makes your journey a lot smoother and safer.

I'd also say that much like riding a bike, some people are just natural learners and won't need advanced training. Most of us though could benefit from a day with Jedi and some IAM coaching. How many times in a journey do you question someone's bizarre road positioning or why they stopped when the coast was clearly safe to keep moving?

Risk of exposure to people with superiority complex – high, but not impossible to work around.

Some groups can be very cliquey. There always seems to be someone wanting a pointless discussion about a hypothetical situation with insufficient consideration of variables expecting a binary answer

So it's STW for cars. Thanks, got it.

Mate of mine was an IAM examiner, he preferred and has moved to ROSPA and is an examiner there

So it’s STW for cars. Thanks, got it.

The truth hurts...

I went to a motorbike IAM club once with a view to joining and doing the test. Three of them turned on crutches following bike accidents. I didn’t go back 🤣🤣

get a copy of Roadcraft. I still have my dads from the 1950’s. It’s all still valid today

As for “making progress”, I was told that I would have failed my test had I not overtaken a hovis lorry on a country B road. The point was, I needed to demonstrate that I could. The real skill is in knowing when, where and whether you should.

I had quite lengthy discussions with my instructor who was (I think like many I think) an ex cop about the subject. He was fine with me saying "here's where I would overtake if I wanted/ needed to" and describe the sequence of events. He was also fine with me pulling over to get a coffee instead of sitting in a queue of traffic, and he was sometimes insistent on me demonstrating that I could overtake.

As others have said the real benefit is for me was the lessons in judging traffc flow etc etc, it gives you the skills to use the road to your advantage. I've never used it to claim insurance benefit, and I went to precisely one meeting, and it was indeed full of the sort of people you'd have thought would attend such meetings. There were many Rovers and some string backed gloves.

Yes (but not officially) in the sense my dad was an IAM car observer, and still is a motorcycle observer.
I got drilled by him as a learner (30 years ago 😋) and whenever I drive with him these days he still gives me positive tips.

We went on an IAM car track day last year, that was useful (and fun in his Ralliart Mitsubishi Colt).

So I get no insurance reduction, but it definitely has improved my driving.

I echo the comments about 'making progress ' above. It's not about driving fast and overtaking, it's about road position and awareness to keep you progressing as smoothly as possible.

I got drilled by him as a learner (30 years ago 😋) and whenever I drive with him these days he still gives me positive tips.

Anyone who wants to give me unsolicited advice on my driving is unlikely to be invited to be a passenger again.  My father in law has lost three of the people who would normally give him a lift home from the pub because he’s unable to sit quietly in the back without a running commentary.

get a copy of Roadcraft. I still have my dads from the 1950’s. It’s all still valid today

System of car control has changed. Similar but less prescriptive with fewer features now

Lots more psychology and modern safety systems included too, like headrests 🙂

But the basic principles don't really change 👍

Anyone who wants to give me unsolicited advice on my driving is unlikely to be invited to be a passenger again.

😆

True, but he's actually very reserved, not a running commentary (I'd tell him to do one if it was 😁).

It does help that he's actually trained to be an IAM observer, not just being a busy body.

Thanks all - sounds like it's worthwhile.

My father in law has lost three of the people who would normally give him a lift home from the pub because he’s unable to sit quietly in the back without a running commentary.

When you say 'lost' do you mean died in horrible road accidents? Maybe they should have listened to him more... 🤷‍♂️

It's funny how IAM instructors seem to be thought of (perhaps by themselves also) as driving gods. In just about any other professional sphere, teaching a subject is a fairly low-status job done by those who didn't make it at a higher level.

I worked with a fully paid up IAM road captain for many years and we often had interesting conversations at coffee time.

I'll never forget the day he got to work late after rear ending the car in front and writing his car off.

It’s funny how IAM instructors seem to be thought of (perhaps by themselves also) as driving gods. In just about any other professional sphere, teaching a subject is a fairly low-status job done by those who didn’t make it at a higher level.

Oi, I resemble that remark 😉

Not so sure about car IAM, but I know that motorbike IAM observers (not instructors, don't know why) are regularly assessed and will often lead groups on track days, etc.

I know my dad, has just been out to 2 in the last couple of weeks (Thruxton and Snetterton I think) and lead some medium pace groups.

He was also assessed recently - think it's every 2 years. He's 80(!) so doing pretty well imo 🤘

I still have my dads from the 1950’s. It’s all still valid today

Apart from there not being any motorways until about 1959.

But I guess the „system of car control“ is fundamentally unchanged.

Anyone who thinks that “making progress” is a good thing is a complete bellend.

Why else would you get in a car? Do you often pop out, sit there with the handbrake on for ten minutes and then go back indoors?

"Making progress" is about efficiency, not tearing up speed limits.

'it's a limit, not a target'

Confucius

Why else would you get in a car? Do you often pop out, sit there with the handbrake on for ten minutes and then go back indoors?

🤣🤣

Useful, hard, will make you think. Never gave me any discounted insurance. Useful skills though. Like looking at reflections to assess traffic. Positioning. Lots of things. The skills don’t leave you. But I haven’t done a recent reexamination.

There were many Rovers and some string backed gloves.

They'd probably love this guy's account: all he does is post clips of other people driving and then slag them off for being thickies etc.
https://instagram.com/jobbermeta?igshid=NjIwNzIyMDk2Mg==

Useful skills though. Like looking at reflections to assess traffic.

I was turning right on a dual carriageway the other day, my direct view was blocked by oncoming traffic waiting to do the same. I saw a space and manoeuvred, my girlfriend asks "how did you know it was clear, there's no way you could've seen the traffic?"

"No," I replied, "but I can see their shadows."

I find it quite astounding that people don't do this, information comes from all corners like reflections in shop windows. Can you rely on it in isolation, no, but it helps build up a picture of what's going on around you.

“Making progress” is about efficiency, not tearing up speed limits.

It's a sufficiently vague and/or euphemistic term to be used by anyone to mean whatever they want. I.e. you say 'making progress' to mean not waiting unnecessarily, someone else thinks it means razzing around as fast as possible.

If you mean 'driving efficiently' then say so. Because, taken literally, everyone who isn't stationary is making progress.

It’s a sufficiently vague and/or euphemistic term to be used by anyone to mean whatever they want.

It’s a sufficiently vague and/or euphemistic term to be used by anyone who needs a handy straw man argument. And it's one I'm frankly bored of because it's almost universally rolled out not by those who are actually "making progress" but by those who want to whine about something fictional.

It's not a world apart from "preachy vegans," you want to take a step back and look at who's actually doing all the bloody preaching.

Useful skills though. Like looking at reflections to assess traffic

James Bond disagrees

It's also used because that's the phrase the roadcraft system and IAM / ROSPA instructors use

I did a couple of drives with a instructor for a work thing and picked up a couple minor point but nothing much. However where I did learn a lot was doing a HGV course and test. To drive HGV smoothly, to time your driving with gaps , to position yourself for best viewing, to position yourself to take a lane when needed. Overtaking a bike in A slow acceleration lorry will teach you loads about timing overtaking and will make you appreciate how difficult this can be for drivers of large vehicles. Plus loads of tips on reading road users. So my opinion is to go learn to drive a lorry, you also have a useful extra bit to your license at the end of it.

The 'making good progress' comment and the 'describe what you would do to overtake' both ring true. I got told that when I described the fact that I 'could' overtake the two cars pottering along ahead just after then slowed from 30mph to negotiate a 30 degree bend on a b-road. I did add to my explanation that I also knew the examiner* loved to use the right hand turn half way up the straight to test the sportiness of drivers and that I thought that would be more fun. He laughed, told me to turn right** and 'prove I could make good progress'

*He was an ex-cop

**It was a one way road up a hill with reasonably sighted bends

Should this post also be on the thread about banning the asterix?

A mate was going to do the iam  course but was told that once passed if you get points on your licence you get more than if you didn't do the course,  any truth in that?

Never heard that, has to be bullshit. Think how ridiculous it would be for the law and justice to work this way.

Might he have been talking about speed awareness courses which I imagine could have some sort of "suspended points" thing?

Yeah, that's clearly nonsense.

If it was true, how would anyone know (unless you bought the grill badge to sit next to your AA badge)?

once passed if you get points on your licence you get more than if you didn’t do the course

"I'm a black belt in karate, so legally the police consider my hands to be lethal weapons"

I thought about doing the IAM motorbike course a few years ago, but then I realised that about half-a-dozen of my motorbike club-mates had passed the IAM and still rode like blinkin' idiots (and at the same time were really condescending towards anyone who hadn't done the course). So I decided it wasn't worth the effort. Buy (and read) a copy of Motorcycle Roadcraft: The Police Rider's Handbook, you'll learn a hell of a lot.

My mum started doing an IAM course (mature driver i think?) a decade or so ago, ended up with the chair of the local group. She just wanted to freshen up her driving and get some pointers.

Then after a number of sessions, she had to excuse herself from the bench when he came up in front of her on a couple of driving offences that he'd decided to fight. Got several points, a big fine and a ban due to totting up.

Ooops.

She didn't go back to the IAM.