Halloween Howlers

It was a dark and moonless night, as a lonely driving instructor was travelling home. When all of a sudden a pumpkin was thrown at his car.  When he called the police he said, "I've just experienced a drive-by fruiting!"

Share your funny halloween howlers.....

Don't get caught up with fraudulent car insurance companies

As more stories hit the headlines of fraudulent car insurance companies selling worthless policies, it's important ADI's don't get caught up with rogue traders.

More stories on Rogue Traders

Latest news of a "ghost broker" being jailed at the Old Bailey for what is believed to be the UK's biggest fake car insurance scam. People were fooled by fake websites offering cheap car insurance and by using paid-for advertising to ensure their online enterprises appeared at the top of internet searches.

Many of his victims only realised they had been conned when they had their car seized by police for having no insurance.

Full details of the article can be found here.

So how do you avoid being scammed?

Car insurance is a fairly crowded and competitive marketplace, but the quality and the breadth of the policy’s coverage should be as important to you as the cost. 

An instructor car insurance policy should cover:

■■ Dual-control courtesy vehicle supplied in the event of a fault or non-fault claim.

■■ Hire and reward cover – required by law for instructors – not available on standard car policies.

■■ Pupils covered for test purposes.

■■ An aspect of cover for advanced tuition such as Pass Plus tuition, banned driver tuition and ADI check tests.

■■ Personal accident cover for the instructor and pupil.

■■ Access to a 24-hour accident management company

Car insurance is based upon a number of factors, some of which are within your control (such as your past claims history) and some out of which aren’t, such as your age and the amount of crime in the area that you live. Two different insurance companies can – and often do – take very different views of these risks and accordingly quote very different prices.

There are many good providers out there and it is worth shopping around, talking to colleagues and asking the question on online forums. We provide training car insurance through DIA Insurance and use our in-depth knowledge of driver training to ensure that our policies cover all of the key areas that are important for our members.

Report proposes radical changes for novice drivers

A new government-commissioned report from TRL (formerly the Transport Research Laboratory), has suggested a complete overhaul of novice driver education.The report has been written in an attempt to tackle the ‘overrepresentation of young novice drivers in road collisions’ in the UK and what TRL considers to be the major contributory factors: youth and inexperience.

The main proposals include a form of Graduated Driver Licencing (GDL), some of the stages of which would include:
■■ A minimum one-year ‘learner stage’ during which drivers would have to accrue at least 100 hours of daytime and 20 hours of night-time practice under supervision.
■■ On passing the test, there would then be a probationary period of one year.
■■ Drivers under the age of 30 would be banned from carrying any passengers also under 30.
■■ There would also be a ban on all mobile phone use (including hands-free phones) and a lower alcohol limit.

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “Young drivers drive around 5% of all the miles driven in Britain but are involved in about 20% of the crashes where someone is killed or seriously injured.
“We are committed to improving safety for young drivers and reducing their insurance costs. That is why we are publishing a green paper later in the year setting out our proposals. This will include a discussion about how people learn to drive. The research report has been produced by the Transport Research Laboratory under commission by the Department for Transport and it, among other things, has informed the green paper.” DIA chief examiner Mike Frisby commented: “We wouldn’t necessarily agree with all these proposals, especially those based on a form of GDL. Restriction will not resolve the problem of collisions involving young drivers: training will.

It is possible to develop young people’s ability to assess risk and improve their attitude to risk from a younger age. Client-centered learning, risk profiling individuals to understand their attitude to risk and developing training that specifically tackles risk management issues has been shown to work. “It’s our belief that the focus regulation should not be mandatory post-test restrictions, but instead a focus on a mandatory pre-test minimum learning programme, taught by a qualified instructor with a much more robust test to gain a full licence, followed by a post-test advanced qualification to be taken within a year.” DIA will be shortly publishing its own paper on the development of driver education and we continue to lobby and campaign on this critical agenda to ensure the voice of the driver trainer is heard, and listened to.

Avoiding Website Design Scams

Establishing a presence on the internet can be relatively easy to achieve but look out for rogue companies offering to build your website.
When you hear about a rogue builder, the more obvious thoughts would turn to brickies, plasterers, plumbers, electricians and the like, conducting substandard work on your house.
But out in the wild west of cyberspace, there’s a new generation of scam builders: website builders.

With the growing pressures of modern competition, and the need to market your business, creating a website seems the obvious answer. However, small businesses are now falling prey to rogue website builders who overcharge for higher listings on Google and over-promise traffic to your website.

Scam website design companies will hard-sell their services and, once they have your money, will fail to produce a decent website promptly – or, in some cases, build one at all. These scammers will simply use generic templates that are widely available (and could, in some cases, even be free), leaving you with a very expensive and uninspiring-looking website.

So how do you avoid potential scams and ensure you have a well designed website that effectively portrays you and your business? The first step is to carry out plenty of research: ask around and read plenty of reviews. The one advantage of the internet being one massive message board for comments is that people will shout out if they have received a terrible service or have been scammed, so check out forums for detailed and honest reviews. Google the name of the company that is calling you, offering the best deal on earth (one obvious tip: it won’t be if they’re cold calling). You should soon pick up on any complaints about them on the web. 

It’s also worth calling our ADI Helpdesk: we have quite a few complaints from members on this topic, and there are several individuals and companies that keep cropping up on our rogue trader radar. And, if you are unfortunate to have been caught out by any such firms, we might be able to help by giving advice on how to deal with these less-than professional outfits. However, remember that if you’ve already consented to the terms and conditions, even over the phone (as distance selling regulations allow for verbal contracts to be made over the phone), and given over your banking and other personal information, or physically signed a contract, it’s very hard to get out of it, unless you can prove that you have been mis-sold a service or there’s some other legal or regulatory issue with how the company operates. It’s important to not allow yourself to be pressured into signing up over the phone: ask them to email details of their offer for you to consider – and do not give them any more information than your email address.

One current scammer is calling ADIs, implying they have an existing account with them and asking to confirm all their address details (and other personal information) ‘for security purposes’. As a general rule, if they’re asking you to confirm your information to them (and you have already established they are not a company who should have your data ie like your bank or utilities provider), they don’t already have it - and therefore this ‘confirmation’ exercise is simply a way of extracting that highly usable data from you for the first time. Once they have it and can evidence you willingly gave it to them, they can even use it to evidence you entering into a relationship, or even verbal contract, with them. In this instance, the company is selling you your listing on Google Places, which is free to set up by yourself and takes five minutes. This company wants to charge you £238 for doing next to nothing.

Websites are a fantastic tool but they require planning, a good design, well-managed content and regular updating. If you decide that you definitely need one, the most important question to answer is what the key objective is in its existence. If it’s to demonstrate to concerned parents and internet-savvy learners that you are a reputable, well-qualified, personable – and, most importantly, licensed – ADI, then a free blog site and social media platforms might be all you need. Even if you’re representing a large driving school, and a website is considered necessary, free blog sites can be used to build websites. Sites such as Wordpress and Google Blogger can create stunning, informative and tailored web pages that are easy and free to set up. Extra customisation features – such as advanced templates and your own domain name – cost extra, but there is a wide range of free templates to choose from and you can buy domain names for as little as £6.98 from companies such as 123.reg and Names.co.uk.

An online presence can be a useful promotional tool for your business: just make sure you avoid the scammers if you decide to build one.

Use Social Media to Establish your Credentials with Existing and Potential Clients

WITH STORIES OF rogue ADIs and driving schools on the rise, it’s important that honest instructors and businesses shout out that they stand out from the fraudulent crowd. Using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, won’t just help spread this message, but it could also open a whole host of promotional opportunities that are free. Outdated views that Twitter is just full of mundane information will not only keep you, but also your business, out in the cold.

It’s not surprising that we all assume social media is full of meaningless nonsense, especially when big celebrities use it to post updates on their pets or attacks on one another. However, the growing number of large corporations and businesses with Twitter accounts highlights its increasing importance in reinforcing a company’s profile. A website alone no longer cuts it as the sole online face of your business. So how can a Twitter or Facebook account be used to promote your reputation? On a very basic level, people can demonstrate how much they value your teaching by simply ‘liking’ your page or favouriting one of your tweets. Any interaction with students and the public will help show anyone

who views your profile a better picture of your personality – whether it’s being well informed,

friendly, committed, funny – or a combination of all of those. So if you congratulate students, share industry information (such as road safety news) and promote your key goals and achievements, not only are you presenting who you are and what you stand for, but you are also providing the opportunity

for others to either support you or state it themselves. Even if someone leaves a negative comment, you can use the opportunity to show how you are dealing with the issue and how you will rectify what went wrong. Demonstrating how you deal with complaints can result in an equally (or even more) positive

reaction.

Your website should be a reflection of your business, but you can use social media to present your personality. With the cost of learning to drive on the increase, concerned parents and eager students will carry out online searches, rather than turning to their abandoned Yellow Pages.

Luckily, most of your younger learners will probably have Twitter and Facebook accounts, so simply ask if they can ‘like’ your page or leave positive comments on their page, suchas congratulating them on their driving lesson that day and complimenting them on how they performed. This simple post will

advertise you to all their friends, who may then check out your profile page. If your Facebook page could do with more ‘likes’, you could incentivise learners to like your page by entering them into a competition to get money off their lesson. The key to using social media is be proactive in engaging your clients: by posting on their pages and mentioning people in tweets, you will draw people

to your social media profiles, which advertises your business for free. Although social media is free, it can prove costly time-wise, as you need to tweet or post regularly – a stagnant page is worse than no page at all. At the same time, it’s important to ensure you have something relevant to say, so only post something interesting, funny or useful to your target market. 

Download social media apps to your phone to enable you to send quick messages and updates between lessons – and always respond to comments or messages quickly. Once you have engaged people, keep their interest going, and encourage debate and interaction.

Setting up profiles is easy and quick but if you have any questions on anything from the basics to more advanced digital marketing, feel free to get in touch and we can help you get started and develop your online presence. Oh thats free for our DIA members too!

Free Driving Instructor Roadshow Event for Members and Non-members too!

Are you a Driving Instructor based up north? We have some fantastic roadshows this week as we are in Sheffield on the 22nd, Newcastle 23rd and Preston on the 24th of October.

This Autumns topic is all about managing money and providing top tips and techniques to help manage the financial aspects of a driver training business.

This will also provide the opportunity for instructors to get involved in relevant debates, discussions and network with likeminded fellow professionals.

So if you need to sort out your taxes and want to learn some handy tips on how to save on your tax return then this short and snappy presentation from our highly qualified accountant is a must. This will also give you the chance to meet the super friendly and dashing Mike Frisby, DIAmond Chief Examiner from the DIA, so grab your free place now by going to driving.org or calling 020 8686 8010

We've also got some fantastic sponsorship from Collingwood Insurance for our Newcastle event and Face For Business will be at Preston. We're delighted to have their support as it helps us provide these events for free and they always provide top services for Driving Instructors and our members.

Welcome to DIA's Blog!

We've set up this handy blog to keep people posted on the latest industry news, top tips on running your business and important stats on road safety.

The DIA is the largest driving instructors association and we hope this blog can act as a platform to help our members speak out on key issues and proposals that affects their trade. Nevertheless we also want to help keep the general public up to date with driving news that can affect those on the road and people learning to drive.

My role within the DIA is marketing so I help spread the word of what we do but I can always crab our highly qualified ADI's from our helpdesk if you need more technical help. I can however, also help those looking to develop their social marketing skills so don't be shy to ask even the most basic of questions such as, 'how do I set up a profile?' 'What does hashtag even mean?!

I hope you find this blog useful!

Lynda