IAM or RoSPA

[johnao]

robinessex said:

When ROSPA had an area group, I was under the impression that volunteers from that group would give you pre-test evaluation, and some tuition

Yes, they would. But as they are no more you have to look elsewhere. The best starting point, if there is no local RoSPA group is to enquire of your local IAM group, assuming that you are an IAM member of course, if there are any RoSPA members within the group who would be willing to give you a few friendly “RoSPA” drives. In my experience there’s always a couple of RoSPA members within most local IAM groups and you usually find that they’re the keen ones who are happy to help out whatever the badge.

Good luck.

[GC8]

My view of the IAM soured greatly when they started trying to moneterise local group level membership and package the previously unlimited observed drives into a limited and comically priced ‘package’ that people had to pay for up front.

[waremark]

GC8 said:

My view of the IAM soured greatly when they started trying to moneterise local group level membership and package the previously unlimited observed drives into a limited and comically priced ‘package’ that people had to pay for up front.

I am not aware of any limit on the number of observed drives. One of the reasons for the way they changed the system was to reduce the proportion of dropouts before taking the test; another was to reduce the workload for group committee members. While the price is much higher than the comparable offer from Rospa, IAM Roadsmart is a charity so could not make a profit, and in fact has been making vast losses for the last two years. Like many real driving anoraks, I belong to both.