DriveTech provides education schemes for two more counties

Berkshire-based driver training services provider DriveTech will be behind two new schemes which offer drivers an opportunity to receive education and support, as opposed to being handed a fine and points on their licence.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary will be introducing a Speed Awareness Scheme for those caught marginally over the prevailing speed limit, along the lines of that run so successfully by Thames Valley Police for many years, and Surrey Police has asked DriveTech to manage its new Driver Improvement Scheme, aimed at those drivers who have been involved in collisions where their judgement has been called into question.

The Cambridgeshire Speed Awareness group workshop-based courses are four hours long, cost £60 and are available in four different venues throughout the county – Cambridge, Huntingdon, Peterborough and Wisbech.

The Surrey Driver Improvement Scheme courses are more involved, due to the potential complexity of the source problem. The course starts with a group workshop presentation but delegates are then required to attend two further half day, practical, in-vehicle training sessions with specially-trained driving instructors. Despite this the course still only costs £176.17 and is available from two Surrey venues – Guildford and Reigate.

In both cases drivers must wait to be nominated for the courses by the police authorities issuing the penalty notifications, at which point they can contact DriveTech to book on a course at the most convenient venue.

“We’re very pleased that DriveTech’s track record of administering and delivering these types of courses successfully over the past few years has persuaded both the Surrey and Cambridgeshire police authorities that DriveTech represents a safe pair of hands,” says DriveTech Managing Director, Jim Kirkwood. “We’ve had hundreds of letters from attendees saying how much they’ve learnt from our courses and a lot of this is down to the environment we try to create within the sessions themselves.

“We never lecture or preach. We never adopt the ‘holier-than-thou’ approach. We’re there to inform, advise and support, and it seems that this strikes a chord because we now know that re-offending rates are substantially down compared to the pre-course era.”

The inclusion of the Cambridgeshire and Surrey courses brings the total number of separate driver education schemes run by DriveTech for various police and local authorities to 27.

Further information about DriveTech’s wide-ranging work in driver education please refer to drivetech.co.uk