Hi! I’m Rachel and I live in Peterborough with my husband, two young children and a Boxer dog.  I do a fair amount of driving during term time as the school run is 25 minutes each way and during the holidays ferrying everyone around to family and friends.

I think everyone thinks that they are the perfect driver, including myself until October 6th 2008 when I swerved around a corner to avoid a car that had straddled the white lines and ended up in a field on the school run!  This was the first ‘proper’ accident I had ever been involved in, and I thank my lucky stars that no-one else was involved or hurt, but the damage it did to my self-confidence in the car was shattering.

I’d heard about advanced driving and it was something that had interested me, as my Dad is a senior observer in Wales, but I had never done anything about it.  After my accident my Dad very kindly lent me his IAM manuals and a police roadcraft DVD and told me that he’d give me the ‘skills for life’ course for Christmas, as he was ‘worried about my standard of driving’!  I still had a courtesy car as my car was in the garage for almost a month (half the front bonnet had been left in the field!) and I started practising the IAM way of driving. 

During my first few weeks before I started the observed runs I couldn’t believe how many bad habits I had picked up, especially when turning corners and observing what was going on around me.   It took me weeks to judge a corner and put the car into the correct gear, and very slowly my confidence started to return.

My first observed run was on the 15th March, and my observer put me at ease straight away.  I was nervous though as I had never had anyone asses my driving since I was 17 when taking my driving test!  My drive-check was much better than expected (I had to practise driving more smoothly though) and that boosted my confidence no end!

For the next run Matt wanted to evaluate tiny details in my driving to make sure that I was ready for my test.  A few weeks later, Matt sprung a surprise mock test on me to see how I would do!  I was pleased as I managed a good score at the end, although there were still a couple of points (mainly on the motorway) which needed refining.  My actual test was booked for the 30th May. The day before my Dad took me for a run which was far more nerve-racking than my actual test!  But he gave me some good advice and it was really helpful to have someone different observe my driving.

On the day I set off a couple of hours early to practise, and then I met Paul, my examiner, in Morrison’s car park for the test.  We set off and he took me through country roads I’d never been before to test my understanding of limit points, through Stamford and down the A1.  Although I was probably far more cautious than usual (which Paul observed) I passed and was over the moon!

Being on the Skills for Life course has taught me not only about my driving, but I also appreciate my car and look after it more.  I wish it hadn’t taken an accident to get me on the Skills for Life course, I wish I’d done it much sooner.  I have my confidence back again and drive much better than I ever have; in fact on average I’m getting 50 miles extra per tank of fuel, that’s brilliant!  I haven’t enjoyed driving this much since I was a teenager!  One important lesson though was realising that nobody is the perfect driver and you keep on learning every day.

I hope that more women in particular take the Skills for Life course as I know quite a few who don’t have much confidence on the road, and would benefit enormously from taking the course and boosting their self-esteem from behind the wheel.

I have recommended the Skills for Life course to all of my friends and family, several of whom are enrolling in IAM courses around the Cambridge and Stamford areas.  My daughter Millie (who’s 5) has already told me that she wants to be an advanced driver when she grows up!