Learner driver pratice: is my supervising driver suitable for the task?

lizferris1984

There was nothing really wrong with my question - as in, if someone you knew asked this question (eg. a neighbour or a friend) would you respond by saying "are you even insured? are you even safe to be driving?", or would you be a bit more reasonable/understanding.

onomatopoeia99

lizferris1984 wrote: »

I have found the answers here to be... erm, not what I expected.I didn't say I wasn't properly insured, and that's not what my question was about.

This is the motoring forum on MSE, you can expect to be asked irrelevant questions all the time, and for people to keep going on about things you didn't ask ...

I don't have an answer for you, beyond the fact that your friend is not your instructor and you should not expect any instruction from them. The idea is to practice what you have learned. When I was learning I used to drive the family into town on Saturdays for shopping, as well as 20 miles each way to my grandparents and back once a week in the evening (my first driving in the dark as it was winter), and received very little feedback from either parent.

I was correctly insured, before anyone asks :rotfl:

AdrianC

lizferris1984 wrote: »

I have found the answers here to be... erm, not what I expected.

Which is, of course, one of the reasons why people ask questions, isn't it?

I don't see anybody having belittled you. You just haven't had the answers you wanted. These are not the same thing. It seems that you wanted an excuse to say to this other person "You're not doing it right", whereas the consensus is that they are, and the issue is your expectations.

Remember: When you pass your test, it simply means that you can legally drive without anybody in the passenger seat. If you're even remotely close to test standard, then the person in the passenger seat really should just be there for legal purposes and to give you the very rare pointer if something goes wrong. If you aren't at that standard, it's instruction you're needing.

The question about insurance was a simple one of "Have you thought of this potential issue?". You're insured, OK. But are they also insured for the car you're practicing in? You raised the issue of them only driving hire cars - without mentioning whether it was those hire cars you were doing your practicing in. If it's actually your car, have you added them to your policy as a named driver? Because they won't have a DOC clause on their own policy to fall back on...

Sea_Shell

We're only asking the questions (about insurance) just in case, to make you aware of the potential issues.

OK so you are aware of them, that's good. No need to go on the defensive. You could have just replied "yes, we're all insured to drive, we've checked"

Don't forget, potentially lots of non-posters read these forums too...and if we can raise questions (to you) that might get them thinking "oh, god, I hadn't thought of that" then we've done our job.

Clive_Woody

I am somewhat surprised that a hire car company would allow their car to be used by a learner driver, particularly when it is being hired by someone else who is then allowing a learner drive to use it to practice in.

AdrianC

Clive_Woody wrote: »

I am somewhat surprised that a hire car company would allow their car to be used by a learner driver, particularly when it is being hired by someone else who is then allowing a learner drive to use it to practice in.

They won't. The OP hasn't confirmed what car they were practising in, just that their friend does not have their own car.

DoaM

mtc95 wrote: »

Why should the OP answer any of this? It's not relevant to what she's asking - or should all posters have to confirm that they are driving legally?

As others have already said ... not every reply necessarily needs to address exactly what the OP asked. The questions were asked to make the OP aware of a potential (legal) issue that could result in the OP or the friend getting prosecuted ... so how is asking such things not in good faith/spirit?

Mojisola

If I was giving up my time to help someone practice their driving who didn't think I was doing a good job, I'd immediately stop helping them.

silverwhistle

I thought about this thread this morning as my friend has gone off to the airport for helicopter training. The weather isn't good enough to do the next lesson in her training but she's going anyway as she can always practise circuits, with or without an instructor depending on the strength of the wind.


My somewhat cheaper (!) pastime is playing football. I can kick and head a ball but I still go to training with my team for all sorts of similar reasons: muscle memory, technique, accuracy, learning how the other women and girls play and react, decision making in different situations..


In all three areas, as with many others, you never stop learning and improving. The OP really needs to consider what practise is and what it is meant to achieve.

lizferris1984

Can I just say I don't know why on earth any of you people think I am doing anything illegal? That's crazy.

I haven't said anything that even implies that. I don't why people think it's ok to make accusations I am breaking the law, when all I've done is post about learning to drive basically. It's over the top completely and not even relevant at all.

Just wanted to put that out there.