The Driving Instructors Association and PeopleMaps Launch New Psychometric Profile Test for Learner Drivers
Glasgow 02 October 2008 – The Driving Instructors Association (DIA) today launched a new online service to allow driving instructors to produce psychometric profiles of learner drivers. The new profiling system will allow instructors to develop personalised training programmes for individual candidates, enabling them to identify areas of strength and any weaknesses that need to be addressed
The new service, developed by PeopleMaps, comes during the Government’s current public consultation on ‘Learning to Drive,’ the responses to which will form the basis of what is widely expected to be the biggest reform of the driver training and testing system in the UK since the introduction of the L-test.
Of the 750,000 people who qualify for a full car driving licence each year, three-quarters of are under 25 years old and one in five will have some kind of accident within six months of qualifying. Although the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents in the UK has fallen over the last ten years, the number of new drivers involved in accidents has actually risen
Personality profiling is one key area that campaigners and influencers are becoming increasingly vocal about and the DIA has decided to provide its members with this service without waiting for the outcome of the consultation process.
“The current driving test assesses people’s conventional driving skills – hand/eye/foot coordination, vehicle manoeuvring skills, and very basic knowledge of the rules of the road,” explained Eddie Barnaville, Chief Executive of the DIA. “What it doesn’t take into account is a driver’s attitude towards driving – and the way drivers think is the most vital part of safe driving.
“Many young drivers have a poor attitude to safe and responsible driving. Many see themselves as risk takers, happy to break the speed limit or jump a red light. Psychometric profiling will help instructors identify these traits, and allow them to modify their training to deal with them.”
The benefits of using psychometric profiling in driving instruction are already recognised, with a number of professional driving trainers and commercial operators using it regularly. For example, Arriva operates more than 6,500 buses in the UK and uses a psychometric test to assess new drivers, who face a one in two chance of being involved in a collision in their first year.
In the last four years, while the tests have been in use, the company has seen fatalities involving its buses reduced by 31%.
Keystone Distribution, the exclusive supplier to all McDonald’s restaurants in the UK and which has over a thousand lorry drivers on the road, uses the psychometric report to help them to understand what may have happened if a driver has an accident – and how it may be prevented in the future.
The company has also established a personality ‘benchmark’ and uses this in its recruitment process to help to identify drivers that have a similar personality to existing drivers with excellent safety records. Reported accidents have fallen by 75% since the company introduced the profiling system.
The developer of the Keystone report was online psychometric profiling company PeopleMaps.
“The system evaluates the driver’s personality in terms of how it could impact on his ability as a driver. For example, one of the main focuses is on the driver’s levels of concentration and patience, both essential qualities of a good driver. It also highlights which individual personality traits could lead to them driving badly too,” said Martin Gibbons, Chief Executive of PeopleMaps.
“As the system is entirely web-based it also makes it very quick and simple to complete. But most importantly there is no ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ with the test: the process is designed solely so that trainers know what type of training is needed, where to focus it and how to deliver it effectively to suit each individual driver.”
For further information please
sign up here: http://www.driving.org/peoplemaps.html
PeopleMaps has been used for a wide range of applications. For instance if you want to see your dating profile you can access it here.
I do think that parent drivers have a lot to offer their kids when developing safe and courteous driving skills. The Driving Instructor can provide the mechanical skills and help with attitude but the best people to reinforce these are the learners family, particular parents if the learner is a teenager.
Definitley agree with this extra profiling test as the fatality figures are becoming more alarming every year and extra tests like these will definitely aid instructors better in making the next generation drivers more safer not only for themselves but for everyone around them.
right said, i think driving attitude is more important than driving ability.
when you are on road with a rash attitude its like hold a gun ready to fire . Most accidents take place due to driving attitude inspite of driving capability of a person. BEfore starting with driving lessons a person should also undergo driving attitude test of some kind.
Finally someone has adressed the most important issue…drivers attitude. You can test a pupils theory. You can test a pupils driving ability. However testing a drivers attitude has been well and truely overlooked. Thank you PeopleMaps for this great innovation
This new Psychometric Test for Learner Drivers is way overdue and as evidenced in the report in a related profession,should bring some very valuable benefits indeed when fully implemented.
Britain and Sweden,who have been in the forefront in tackling road fatality figures for years now, should take the lead in bringing this Test in without delay.
It is almost embedded in the psyche of Learner Drivers,particularly young Males, that Passing the Driving Test is the pinnacle of Driving achievement and nothing else needs to be addressed.
It’s been common knowledge throughout the Industry that the first three years of driving,after passing the test, are the most critical in a drivers career. At this point there is a combination of lack of experience and lack of judgement in all new drivers.
Further learning usually takes the path of making serious errors behind the wheel and a reluctant realisation that there is still much more to accomplish.
In many other European Countries the standards of the Driving Tests leave much to be desired and generally there is a very underdeveloped Culture of Driving Tuition and Driving Lessons, leading to unacceptable accident statistics.
Ireland is a case in point where only now is there a Regulatory System for Driving Instructors being introduced. Many young people over the last 25 years are no longer alive due to never having taken any form of lessons whatsoever.
Clearly the Government of the Day bears the brunt of the responsibility here, but I believe Parents should take more of an interest in how their offspring develop as Drivers on the road for the first time.