Re: Caught at last
Originally Posted by
ruthio
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Realist you've obviously been on the course and fiund it boring, patronising etc., but not everyone finds this.
Yes, was on one last Oct/Nov.
As I said earlier, they ARE presented as fun, un-patronising. It's a business. They would be out of business if the courses were otherwise.
Much of the material they present is highly questionable and manipulative. Unfortunately you can't argue the toss with them because the rules of the course are that you HAVE to comply and HAVE to participate and do so in a co-operative manner. If you don't, they don't give you a "tick in the box" at the end of the course and your case goes back down the normal route of fine and penalty points. In short, they have you by the balls.
But again, I concur that everything is presented in a fun and amicable way, as it must. There were slides put up (many actually) and everyone was given an electronic voting gizmo just like the audience on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" so they ask some quiz questions and let everyone anonymously press A, B, C or D on their keypads.
So, yes, most people will enjoy it and some of those will be essentially duped by those niceties and go home feeling pretty good.
As a realist I knew from start to finish that I was the victim of a multi-million pound scam business preying on people in easy target areas. £90 a pop. Nothing they showed me changed my opinion of things nor did it ease the annoyance of having £90 taken from me.
Not one minute of the proceedings changed my view on how I drive. Where I was caught was on a totally empty 30mph road at 7:00am in the morning. No pedestrians, no other cars, no cyclists. The van was waiting just over the brow of a steep incline, steep enough that 2nd gear was too loud and revvy and 3rd gear too much to remain under 30mph. Like I said, an easy target entrapment area.
I'm sure Galty will choose to attend a course. Its a no-brainer because you don't get points and crucially it means you don't get any conviction so nothing to declare to your insurance company.
That situation is likely to change in the future. The Admiral Group of insurance companies had last year started asking new customers if they had ever attended a Speed Awareness Course and if so treated it like a speeding fine and bumped up their premiums. I raised this with the course tutors who were aware of it and they said for now Admiral have agreed not to pursue that angle.
Essentially the insurance companies are not getting their share of these lucrative £millions. They are not in the loop. The money goes to the private entrapment firms and the police. So if no-one gives them a slice of the pie it's pretty certain imho that they will all start asking customers if they have been on courses. Once that happens there will be little incentive for anyone to attend a course. The only exception being those people who already have a high number of penalty points on their license and who don't want to get a ban.