Driver Training Industry Roundabout, 16 September 2020
This week driving test booking reopens to over 180,000 booked, motorways to trial 60mph limits to cut pollution and a new T-plate is being trialed to inform other road users the car is fitted with a black box.
Driving Tests Booking Reopens
The DVSA website was updated to show new driving tests can now be booked between 6am and 11:40pm as of today. The test booking service reopened on Monday and saw over 180,000 test booked that day.
Other important notes:
- Tests can be booked 18 weeks ahead (up to January 2021 currently)
- Examiners are now delivering 6 tests per day, instead of 5
- There are no waiting lists or cancelation lists. The only test slots available are those listed online
Motorways to Trial 60mph Speed Limit
The BBC reports that Highways England will trial reducing 70mph speed limits on four motorways to 60mph, in efforts to reduce pollution.
The roads effected will be:
- M6 - Junctions 6 to 7 by Witton
- M1 - Junctions 33 to 34 by Rotherham
- M602 - Junctions 1 to 3 by Eccles
- M5 - Junctions 1 to 2 by Oldbury
The plan is for this trial to take place before the beginning of October 2020.
T-Plate Trialed to Discourage Tailgating
Co-op Insurance are piloting a T-plate that informs other road users that the vehicle is fitted with a telemetric system (or black box), after a report revealed that newly qualified drivers, aged 17-25, feel pressured to drive faster (via SomersetLive).
The report, titled "Beyond the Box" stated that over half the drivers in the previously mentioned age group feel put under pressure by other road users to speed up. 80% of those young drivers felt that fellow motorists drive too close to them.
The hope for the T-plate — which is being tested with hundreds of young drivers — is that these other road users will see the plate, know that the cars speed is being recorded and realise that the driver of the car in front can't speed up, without the system capturing that they would be speeding.
3 in 5 newly qualified drivers are involved in serious incidents within their first 250 miles of driving, so the T-plate could theoretically remove a big stress for this group, resulting in a reduction of incidents.