Businesses in Northern Ireland can now access three online driver training courses via a newly formed partnership between Adrian Hide Consultancy and Road Safe NI.

We have three courses to offer, one for car drivers, one for van drivers, and a special Electric Vehicle familiarisation course, ideal for those moving over to electric vehicles for the first time, or, for those who just want to get the best from these amazing vehicles. We cover a whole host of topics that EV drivers need to know, meaning that they won’t be saying further down the line, ‘I wish I knew that sooner’.

Because each course is modular, participants can progress at their own pace, tackling bite-sized units one at a time. Once the course has been completed, a certificate will be automatically issued, providing evidence that the course has been done successfully.

As well as businesses being able to invest in the safety of their staff, the courses contribute towards an employer’s duty of care obligations under the health and safety law, and the Charity will benefit too because for every course purchased, Road Safe NI will receive a percentage, thereby supporting the excellent road safety work that they do.

If you are a business in NI, and you’d like to know more about our driver training courses, and a special offer that we’ve set up through Road Safe NI, please get in touch.

Today marks the start of Road Safety Week – with the theme being Safe Roads for All.
And in our line of work – it’s important as it brings together communities and professionals to champion keeping our roads safe for everyone.

It’s not uncommon for people to talk about range anxiety, that’s the worry that an electric vehicle battery might run flat mid-journey. The reality is that range anxiety is something that non-ev drivers believe we EV driver suffer from, in fact this is not really true, mainly because we have a very different mindset, we think about range, how to maximise range, and on long journeys, journey planning. That is, plan for a refreshment stop every two hours or so and if necessary, do a top up charge.

I’d like to tell you about a journey I recently made, from my home is Cheadle Staffordshire to Exeter, a total distance of just over 200 miles, the bulk of it being M6 and M5.

Firstly, a bit of background about my vehicle. It’s a BMW iX3, fully electric, I’m averaging 260 miles on a full charge, however, for most of the time I cap the charge at 80%, to speed up charging and preserve battery health, most manufacturers saying the battery has a sweet spot, between 20% and 80%. The first 20% and the last 20% taking the longest to charge and to be honest, this fits in nicely with my mileage patterns and thinking about it, if I was driving a diesel, would I keep my tank always topped up to full, no, of course I wouldn’t.

So, one of the EV mindsets is to plan a journey, and to do this I use Zap Map, it allows me to view all the charge locations, find out if they are working and what they cost, as well as whether I can pay with my debit card or whether I need a pre-registered card.

It just so happened that the halfway point was at my favourite Motorway Services, Gloucester Services on the M5, they have a small bank of Instavolt chargers, they tend to be the more reliable ones. By the way, if you are on the M5, definitely worth a stop at Gloucester Services, lovely place, excellent food.

Another of an EV driver’s mindset is to maximise range, we do this my being gentle on the accelerator, adopting a slow-to-flow approach wherever we can, which means trying to avoid complete stops, better to maintain a rolling motion rather than continual stop-starts. Then I disabled the aircon after conditioning my vehicle pre-departure while it was connected to my home charger.

I also employed a whole host of other range-extending techniques, I cover these in my online EV course if you are interested, and shock horror, after a 20 minute top up at Gloucester my car predicted the range was 336, it’s maximum range is supposed to be 286 – so employing the right techniques with the right mindset and some EV know-how, we got a massive extension to the range.

Suitably refreshed via a lovely latte and freshly made sandwich, my car app told be my vehicle was topped up and ready to go. On my way back to the charge point I noticed a chap tugging at his charge lead, getting somewhat frustrated. I asked if he was having trouble, after a few expletives I deduced he couldn’t remove the charging cable from his charge port. I suggested he locked and unlocked his car, he said “really”, but much to his amazement, it worked. He didn’t realise that the locking mechanism wouldn’t release unless his vehicle was locked, he’d been charging with his car door open! He only picked his EV up that morning.

Having done my good deed for the day I set off on the second leg of my journey, suspicious that my range would drop like a lead weight and the 336 miles was a blip, but no, it was indeed telling the truth.

Incidentally, another EV mindset with regards to planning is to have a plan A, B, and C. This means planning a second and third location as a charge top-up, just in case of problems with your chosen first destination, another way we EV drivers eliminate range anxiety.

The return journey was much like the outbound leg but in reverse. I planned my A, B, and C charge stop, even though my home was well within the range of my car, however, as a road safety professional it would be remiss of me if I were to not put into practice what I tell all my clients, that is that the Highway Code stipulates a 15 minute stop in ever two-hours worth of driving, this is a good way to combat fatigue, and take advantage of a charge top-up if you need it.

I just thought I’d share this journey with you given that today, 9^th September, is ‘World EV Day’, I’d love it if you would share your positive EV journey too, we do hear far too many negative stories about how rubbish the charging infrastructure is and that an EV’s range is too limiting, usually by non-EV drivers I might add. I’m not saying everything is perfect, far from it, but, with the right mindset, driving an EV is an amazing thing to do.

New figures have revealed that the number of deaths on our roads rose by seven percent in 2021. The provisional figures have been revealed in a recent Department of Transport report.

They also show that:

• There was an estimated 1,560 reported road deaths in 2021, a reduction of 12% from the 2017 to 2019 average
• There was an estimated 27,300 killed or seriously injured casualties in 2021, a reduction of 13% from the 2017 to 2019 average
• There was an estimated 127,967 casualties of all severities in 2021, a reduction of 21% from the 2017 to 2019 average
• There were increases in casualties of all severities in 2021 compared with 2020, though pedal cyclists showed a reduction in fatalities (20%)

The report says that the road casualty stats have been impacted by the national Covid restrictions implemented from March 2020. That means the figures above are probably lower than they could have been, because there was less traffic on the roads.

Despite that the numbers are frightening. 1560 roads deaths in one year. That’s 1560 families and friends devastated.

According to the Road Safety charity Brake, 1.35 million people die on the world’s roads every year – the eighth highest cause of death for people of all ages, and the number one killer of those aged between five and 29. More frightening statistics that are difficult to compute.

And we don’t mean to scare you but we don’t want you or your staff to become a road casualty statistic either.

That’s why we do what we do.

Our training courses are designed to keep you and your staff as safe as is humanely possible when driving on the roads. Find out all about our training courses here:

And don’t forget more than a quarter of all road safety incidents are work-related so having a good driver risk management programme in place is really important, I can help you with this too, check out my website for details on how I can help you.

If you are interested, here is a LINK to the full accident stats report.

When it comes to getting behind the wheel, we’ve already seen lots of rule changes this year already.

Last month we saw a clampdown on the use of mobile phones while driving and earlier this year we saw real changes to the Highway Code. If you missed it or want to find out more simply click on the text to check out our previous blogs on both subjects.

And now in around six weeks’ time we’re going to see more changes. From June 1^st 2022 Councils will actually be given powers to fine drivers for certain traffic offences rather than the Police.

Local authorities across England and Wales will be able to apply for powers to issue penalty charge notices.

It means councils will be able to fine motorists for breaking certain rules including:

• Driving through no entry signs
• Making illegal U turns
• Driving the wrong way down a one-way street
• Not giving away to oncoming traffic and;
• Stopping in a box junction. To find out more about the rules around Box Junctions please go to: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/using-the-road-159-to-203

Currently, these kinds of offences, outside of the English and Welsh capitals are managed by the police but not always enforced. We are told the aim of this change is to improve road safety and cut congestion.

Under the new powers councils could issues drivers with fines of up to £70 for offences which are likely to be reduced if they’re paid within a certain time limit.