[Closed] Speed awareness courses at the moment?

They are online via Zoom at the moment. I was delivering other work related training to a Speed Awareness Instructor the other day and he was telling me they are shorter as well (2 Hours I think). He's getting wound up as people are dialling in still in their PJ's with a beer or a glass of wine in hand, which isn't exactly in agreement with the Road Safety Message he's teaching!

But what are the options for speed awareness courses now? Is there a Zoom version

Exactly that I hear. They're also a lot shorter than they used to be.

^

Could be worse, they could be driving at the time 😆

BLAST IT! Hah.

I got collared a couple of months ago (67mph in a 60 limit dual carriageway in Wales, I thought was a national - naughty boy)

I did a zoom course. It was under two hours, all very informal but they were very strict about you being in a room alone with no distractions. Tellings off were administered for interruptions (one of which was to me when Mrs Binners confirmed that 90% of married life is shouting things your other half who's in different part of the house). There were definitely no glasses of wine involved

He’s getting wound up as people are dialling in still in their PJ’s with a beer or a glass of wine in hand, which isn’t exactly in agreement with the Road Safety Message he’s teaching!

The bar has just been set for mrs_tthew. If she won't play ball, daughter and OP can conduct some 'suitable' background daftness while on the zoom.

I did an in-class one end of last year and it was only 4 hours then. Actually found it quite interesting and served as a useful refresher on a few points. Could have still done without it of course but hey, if you can't do the time etc...

If she won’t play ball, daughter and OP can conduct some ‘suitable’ background daftness while on the zoom

Oh Alice, (daughter) would bloody love that. She's a proper wind up merchant. Should see some of the stuff she posts on my Facebook I'm stupid enough to leave my phone lying around unlocked.

I did a zoom one in June. 3 hours iirc. Much better than having to do it in person! The course itself was fine, if predictable. The calibre of the other people attending was eye opening.

Pfft amateurs, put your wine in a tea cup...

I did one over Teams on Tuesday. 3.5 hours of my life I'll never get back. The woman delivering it was pretty rude - having a right go and someone because his wife walked behind him (he was in the kitchen) and threatening to fail him immediately.

Another fella on there looked like he was sitting in his wardrobe, when his talking clock told him it was 4 o'clock the trainer almost exploded and had a go at him for having someone in the room with him.

The content itself was OK, not really changed much since the one I did 10 or so years ago, but the woman delivering it spoilt it for me. Also made me chuckle how everyone pretends they're there to learn and are really interested in the information shared, and utterly repentant about speeding. Reality for most I expect (me included) is that we are just there to dodge points. Even the trainer said she was in the job because she did a course and was so blown away by it that she decided to make a career out of it. I suspect she just wanted a job 😀

The calibre of the other people attending was eye opening.

Its a club who's membership includes you 🙂

Did mine via Teams a few weeks ago. The bloke running it was sound, the content was meh, luckily I remembered to take the tape off the laptop camera, it's been there for 5 years and the residue left a rather sexy fuzziness to my image.

I assumed that the course was free. Mrs CB just signed up - £100!

I think it was an abundance of zoom that got her in trouble.

I did one last month after stupidly doing 34 in a 30 zone after thinking it was a 40.

My course was via zoom, took a couple of hours with a 20 min break in the middle and was relaxed and informative

I did one in the summer, £91 but better than points and declaring it on my insurance, course was Saturday afternoon was supposed to be 3pm-6:30pm, it finished at 5:30, the thing that shocked me was the cardboard box crash test, only 1mph more...

Do I drive differently yep a bit, the road I got caught on used to be 40mph but lowered to 30mph it’s an old dual carriageway but as more houses went up round it it got a lowered mph, problem is everyone still does 40, I know crawl along it at 30mph, I get beeped, bottles thrown, hand signals etc...but get the last laugh as at least 3x a week the camera van is in the same spot.

Got one coming up.
Considering if I can do an 'open university' style stunt by having the laptop upside down and having things 'fall' up off the table ( as I nudge them off the blutac )
66 in a 60 - average speed camera A3 , Guildford bypass .
Or I shall get hammered by haaving a couple of bidons of beer to hand

I did one in the summer, £91 but better than points and declaring it on my insurance,

I thought you still had to declare that you'd been on the course instead of points?

I did one early lockdown v1 and they were pretty clear on minimum standards of attendance / attention and preparation in terms of technical prerequisites. Evident failure to commit would result in ‘non-attendance’.

@theotherjonv. This came up in my course and the presenter was quite clear that the car insurers, on the whole, had agreed not to ask about speed awareness courses and if your were asked at quote stage to hang up and try another insurer.

I pointed out, with my underwriting hat on, that I reserved the right to ask any question I wanted if I felt it impacted my assessment of the risk so any insurer that did ask the question was well within their rights to.

Most importantly though is that CIDRA has been law since 2015 and this scrapped utmost good faith and any connecting non-disclosure for consumer insurance products. Instead now if an insurer deems a piece of information material *they must* ask the question. If you are asked the question then you, the buyer, *must* answer the question truthfully and to the best of your ability. However if you are not asked the question then you have no duty to disclose or otherwise volunteer the information. Note I have written training courses for multinational insurers on CIDRA and the Insurance Act 🙂

that's interesting, so unless the insurer / underwriter now asks you don't need to disclose something that may be relevant?

Do they have to ask specifics, eg: have you any points or have you been on an awareness course, or can they just ask if there's anything that they should know about?

My gf did the Zoom one a few months back, seemed like a piece of piss compared to the usual one in terms of how long it took etc.

She lent me her (very fast) car the other week and I got done driving home after a night shift, so hoping I'll get offered one to avoid points learn more about the impact of speeding.

I did one on Teams last month.

Logged in. First person there. Got logged off by instructor as he had to wait and register others. This took 15 mins as 4 people were using their phones. (slumped on sofa...)

1 person clearly asleep during course.

Two 20 mins break. Total course was 1hr 40 mins (supposed to be 2hrs), so including waiting time for everyone to log in it was 45 mins.............

We all "passed". To be honest the fella was fairly good but clearly doing this everyday is taking its toll.

@theotherjonv. The questions have to be specific. It was decided that utmost good faith was overly onerous on a consumer as they can’t judge what is relevant and what is not so a vague ‘anything else Mr V...’ won’t do.

So if they only ask about points you only have to declare points. If they stupidly don’t ask whether you’ve had any accidents and you’ve had 10 crashes in the last 6 months you do not have to tell them.

If say they asked Mrs D about years of no claims discount and she said ‘I’m sure it’s 5 but my husband usually deals with and he’s left me and isn’t talking to mea’ and they apply a 5 year no claims bonus and then find out I had none it would then depend on whether the FOS or the court decided Mrs D answered honestly to the best of her ability or outright lied as to the remedies the insurer could apply.

Note the law, whilst less onerous on the buyer than utmost good faith was, for commercial customers is very different and now relies on Fair Presentation and there is still a good deal of onus on a commercial customer to volunteer information.

If you are asked the question then you, the buyer, *must* answer the question truthfully and to the best of your ability.

... or abort the transaction and hang up?

However if you are not asked the question then you have no duty to disclose or otherwise volunteer the information.

So if you take out insurance and then subsequently get points you don't have to tell them unless they ask?

I think it was an abundance of zoom that got her in trouble.

Under-rated post, chapeau.

You never get asked if you've been on a speed awareness (or any other driver training) by insurance companies. The only time a speed awareness course counts for anything, once you've done it, is if you get caught speeding again. Then you get points and that has to be disclosed to insurance (maybe just at renewal time?). And I think the speeding offence has to be in the same county, otherwise you can do another awareness course.
Could be wrong, but then I'm a STWer so I won't admit it if I am.

I've done the sit down one and the zoom one. I thought Zoom one was better. Agree on the 1mph/Cardboard box film. That definitely makes me hyper aware driving in town.

Two odd things in ours; 1) instructor suggested putting auto-box is Sport when in town as it's noisier so you'll be more aware of your speed and 2) one lad at the end when they talked about your plan said 'I just like driving fast, I know it's wrong but I'm going to carry on doing it'. He still passed 😉

@Cougar - I think it would be more accurate to say until they, which they will when you renew the policy/shop around. They often ask should you call to make any other changes mid-term (change car for eg).

And yes, you could just hang up and abort the call but the question set is pretty standard these days so you’ll pretty much have to answer the same ones whoever you take your insurance with.

Next door is ex-traffic cop who does speed awareness courses for pocketmoney now he's retired. Just running the zoom calls from his spare bedroom, obiously limited numbers but everything still up and running.

Best quote ever mind "So, <insert name> if we use the phrase 'only a fool breaks the two second rule' to keep two seconds behind a car, what would you say to double that distance for bad weather etc?2

Reply: "Only a fool breaks the four second rule"

Reply: “Only a fool breaks the four second rule”

Is it possible to pass speed awareness with distinction?

DezB
Full Member
You never get asked if you’ve been on a speed awareness (or any other driver training) by insurance companies.

Pretty sure Admiral do/did as I had to change insurers as a result.

Also, you cant rely on the wording on the comparison site, just because a meerkat asked did you have any points and used that to populate a field in the insurers API with a different wording, the onus is on you to read through the questionnaire as it appears in the actual quote.

There were definitely no glasses of wine involved

Aye but you've got form for pasties... Nearly as heinous... 😉