IAM RoadSmart

[mk08]

Hi All
Sorry for disturbing you. I am new driver and want to get confidence and drive carefully.
I was looking online for some course and came across Pass Plus and IAM RoadSmart. By reading further, I liked IAM RoadSmart and want to do that.

Any suggestions? Any other courses?

[Glosphil]

Where in the country are you?

[mk08]

Glosphil said:

Where in the country are you?

Manchester. Why?

[Glosphil]

I'm involved with the IAM but in Gloucestershire so cannot be of direct help to you.
Your local IAM group may not be operating as current Covid restrictions do not allow 2 persons in a car.

Suggest you look at the IAM web-site for more information & contact details for your local group.

[casbar]

If you want to get some advanced driving tuition also have a look at RoSPA, both RoSPA and IAM do courses, really depends on which group cover your area, but both offer similar tuition and benefits

[Haltamer]

I imagine there'll be a little while before training resumes - Worth having a look at Reg Local's youtube channel, and having a read of roadcraft in the meantime.

Practicing the content and doing your best to get into good habits will place you well at the start of any AD courses.

[Shaw Tarse]

Haltamer said:

I imagine there'll be a little while before training resumes - Worth having a look at Reg Local's youtube channel, and having a read of roadcraft in the meantime.

Practicing the content and doing your best to get into good habits will place you well at the start of any AD courses.

YT here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[mk08]

Glosphil said:

I'm involved with the IAM but in Gloucestershire so cannot be of direct help to you.
Your local IAM group may not be operating as current Covid restrictions do not allow 2 persons in a car.

Suggest you look at the IAM web-site for more information & contact details for your local group.

Is there any pass or fail in IAM RoadSmart courses?

[Superleg48]

mk08 said:

Glosphil said:

I'm involved with the IAM but in Gloucestershire so cannot be of direct help to you.
Your local IAM group may not be operating as current Covid restrictions do not allow 2 persons in a car.

Suggest you look at the IAM web-site for more information & contact details for your local group.

Is there any pass or fail in IAM RoadSmart courses?

You do a number of observed drives with an IAM Observer, during which your skills based on Roadcraft are developed. These are generally free of charge and each drive is always assessed and feedback provided for areas to work on until the next drive. Drives usually last around 1.5 or 2 hours and take in a variety of roads and environments.

Eventually you have to take a test. This is usually assessed by a senior IAM assessor or a retired (occasionally active) police driving instructor and if you drive like a moron on the day you will fail this test and not receive your full accreditation. The test does cost money (can’t remember how much) and you can rebook and retake once you have stopped driving like a moron. To be fair, you won’t be put forward for a test until your IAM Observer feels you are ready and not a moron.

[brisel]

mk08 said:

Hi All
Sorry for disturbing you. I am new driver and want to get confidence and drive carefully.
I was looking online for some course and came across Pass Plus and IAM RoadSmart. By reading further, I liked IAM RoadSmart and want to do that.

Any suggestions? Any other courses?

Good call. The DSA test isn’t really much more than a bare minimum standard.

ROSPA is similar, but requires a retest every 3 years. Both IAM and ROSPA should get you discounts on your insurance. I don’t know about Pass Plus.

I did IAM when I first bought a powerful car so my ambition and ability weren’t too far out of sync. The observers can sometimes be old farts but they give their time for free so are usually retired. If you can’t get on with yours, you can ask for another one. Mine was a good chap and I told him on day one that I had ambitions to take my training much further. He got me through the test and my insurance claims went down drastically.

[SprocketMan]

I did the IAM on my motorbike and it was the best thing I did for my riding. Highly recommend that or Rospa. It’ll make a noticeable difference. Little tricks like looking for drivers, lights or exhaust fumes of parked cars you’re passing to let you know if you need to consider if they might open a door or pull out on you, and that’s just one of the many signals your looking out for on any given meter of road.

Driving down a country road? Can you see the top of the hedge, the trees or power lines which tell you where the road is going, and can you see tractors, horse riders or anything else that might signal hidden dangers around a bend.

Well worth it!

Edited by SprocketMan on Sunday 14th February 13:32

[mk08]

SprocketMan said:

I did the IAM on my motorbike and it was the best thing I did for my riding. Highly recommend that or Rospa. It’ll make a noticeable difference. Little tricks like looking for drivers, lights or exhaust fumes of parked cars you’re passing to let you know if you need to consider if they might open a door or pull out on you, and that’s just one of the many signals your looking out for on any given meter of road.

Driving down a country road? Can you see the top of the hedge, the trees or power lines which tell you where the road is going, and can you see tractors, horse riders or anything else that might signal hidden dangers around a bend.

Well worth it!

Edited by SprocketMan on Sunday 14th February 13:32

Thank you

[mk08]

Thank you all for replying.

[Glosphil]

The IAM Roadsmart course costs £149. This includes the driving manual (based on the police Roadcraft), as many drives as you need to reach test standard & the test itself.
Many local groups have schemes to lower the cost for younger drivers - it's free wit'my' group.

[mk08]

Glosphil said:

The IAM Roadsmart course costs £149. This includes the driving manual (based on the police Roadcraft), as many drives as you need to reach test standard & the test itself.
Many local groups have schemes to lower the cost for younger drivers - it's free wit'my' group.

Thank you

[Bungleaio]

I did the pass plus and got quite a bit out of it, a good discount on my insurance too.

I've done IAM for bikes, I was going to do it quite soon after getting my license but they recommended leaving it a year just to get used to the operation of the controls etc then the IAM course will be able to polish the technique.

[mk08]

Bungleaio said:

I did the pass plus and got quite a bit out of it, a good discount on my insurance too.

I've done IAM for bikes, I was going to do it quite soon after getting my license but they recommended leaving it a year just to get used to the operation of the controls etc then the IAM course will be able to polish the technique.

Thank you

[Salted_Peanut]

SprocketMan said:

I did the IAM on my motorbike and it was the best thing I did for my riding. Highly recommend that or Rospa. It’ll make a noticeable difference.

+1