Martin Fergusson ADI
Left Glasgow on a usual wet Sunday morning in July, flew to Heathrow, then on to Amman in Jordan, and from there, just a quick flight to Erbil In Kurdistan Iraq. The 1st thing to hit me was the heat it was 3am and it was still 34degrees.
On the 1st day it was about getting out and about to see the standard of driving in Erbil city and I could not believe what I was seeing as 4 drivers make their own lanes from nothing they drive the wrong way down the road even one way streets mean nothing. It gets the old heart pumping when you are happily driving down a one way street when you see an 42 tonne artic driving towards you and you know the driver has had no training what so ever. The drivers out here have had a form of instruction which goes by the way of this is the car here are the pedals lets go and that is it the driving test if they take one consists of driving a figure of eight and lasts for 5 minutes they have no concept of road safety which makes you realise why they are at the top of the world health organisation road death statistics.
When we train the drivers here they are going to become drivers for the company’s armed protection teams and we only get them for 6 days training; the final day before test we take them on a 400K run to Suliamania over the mountains which has breath-taking scenery and the sitchbacks are a sight to behold, but also we have to deal with the crazy drivers overtaking on these turns and if you get it wrong it’s a 1000 metres to the bottom with no crash barriers to stop you.
On a long run to Dahuk there are armed check points all the way there every 10K’s and the team manager took a wrong turn went through the wrong checkpoint and myself and Jim in the last car were surrounded by a bunch off very agitated AK47 toting soldiers who looked about 12 then a Toyota pickup with a dirty great machine gun (PKM 7.62) on the back arrived with the local secret police in tow (they weren’t very secret if you ask me) and after about 20 minutes of very agitated and loud shouting we were allowed to turn round and be on our way, was pretty serious at the time but it’s very funny to think back on now.
Have to go now as we are preparing for the next course to come in but I swear I will never moan about UK drivers ever again.
More adventures soon!!!!!!!!
We all have differing opinions on DSA Examiners, after all we are only human. But at the end of the day, whatever your thoughts are, they are human beings like you and I just doing a sometimes difficult job.
Recent events that unfolded starting on Xmas day are sad to say the least and serves as a reminder just how fragile our health can be. Herne bay MPTC DSA Test centre manager Steve John contracted swine flu and was left on a life support machine from Xmas day until very recently. Steve is now off the life support, and to my knowledge in a stable condition.
Steve, is a very well respected and liked examiner by ‘ALL’ instructors that use the Herne bay test centre. On a personal level, Steve has always made himself very approachable and been very willing to help if I have ever needed any advice or help to any queries that have arisen.
So this news was not only a shock, but also of a sad nature too, as he is, and this next phrase is banded about so easily these days – ‘ a genuinely nice guy, that no one ‘EVER’ has a bad word to say about! ‘ So We would like to wish Steve the very best and a ‘FULL’ recovery as quickly as possible!
They say the power of positive thought is a very good thing to have, So if this is true, then please leave just a short message of support for Steve and his family.
Thank you
Wayne Eccott, Director.
The ‘Refer a Friend’ scheme just got a whole lot better!
As of January 2011 we completely re-thought our Refer a Friend offer. We felt the last offer was just a bit on the ‘Boring’ side and just about everyone else is churning out the same old offer too or something very similar!
So how could we make it ‘interesting’ and of more value to our pupils? Instead of the offer giving just one standard option, we decided that it would be better to give our pupils a choice. What’s good for one pupil may not be for another.
So, we now have 4 fantastic options for our pupils from good old cash to a fantastic day out on a Virgin Day Experience they’ll never forget!! To view all our new & exciting Refer a Friend offers simply go to the website or click here! We hope you like them!
All the best
The Panther Drive Team
We would like to welcome you to the official Panther Drive Blog! This Blog will have Blogs for both Instructors & Pupils alike! We will be inviting guests to write Blogs from, very prominent people in the Driver Training Industry, Driving Instructors and also pupils for their thoughts on a wide range of Subjects!
Our first guest Blogger will be Mark Smith from ADI Support Services, a very close and trusted friend and business associate of Wayne Eccott one of the Panther Drive Directors. Ged Wilmot from Active Driving Solutions Ltd will also be writing a guest blog for us too, which we are looking forward to very much. David Poole from Marketing for Driving Schools will be sharing a few of his wonderful insights about how to Market and advertise yourself effectively.
We will also be inviting Driving Instructors to write blogs on their thoughts of the everyday issues that affect them in the day to day running of their businesses. Pupils will also be invited to write a blog on their experiences when learning to drive too!
So there will be a little bit of everything for everyone who has some form of involvement in the Driver Training Industry. We look forward to seeing the different thoughts and opinions from everyone.
All the best
Panther Drive Team
