Location Overview – The lovely port town of Ipswich has been occupied since the Saxon era and is highly contested as the oldest town in England. Ipswich is located in East Anglia, approximately 10 miles from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. The historical docks, now called the Ipswich Waterfront, were England’s largest and most important dock. Ipswich is 67 miles northeast of London, 45 miles east-southeast of Cambridge and 40 miles south of Norwich. Ipswich is enclosed by two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Suffolk Coast and Heaths and Dedham Vale.
The A12 links Ipswich to Lowestoft and Chelmsford, and the A14 runs from Felixstowe to Cambridge, making it an ideal town to live with close proximity to the beaches at Frinton and Clacton on Sea and the beautiful open countryside throughout Suffolk.
We offer bespoke driver training in and around Ipswich, which includes general advanced training, motorway confidence, Post RTC training, van training, and fleet and corporate training.
With our advanced/defensive training, we aim to cover a wide range of things, including:
- Creating increased powers of anticipation and forward planning
- Safe driving on rural roads, urban areas, and motorways
- Awareness of speed limits and controlling your own speed
- Educating drivers about the rules of the road
- Understanding of the reasons for road rage in yourself and others
- Slow manoeuvres, parking and reversing
- Driving in dangerous and wintery weather
- Being aware of at-risk road users and risks linked to urban driving
- Understanding the difference between skids and how to control them
- Driving in a more economical and efficient way
- Anticipating the actions of other motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians
After training is completed, you will be sent a full driving report, you can see your standard of driving at the beginning and end and the improvements made and in which areas. Every client has a unique driving report, which will provide some handy and insightful information. Each report is fully documented and has its unique verification number so anyone can check back for an original copy with us. This is useful if an employer has asked an employee to take driver training.
Key points of our driver training:
- Become a safer, more skilful driver at all times and on all roads
- Address any issues which could be impacting your safety as a driver
- Demonstrating your intentions to become a safer, more improved motorist
- Deal with and address driving issues which may have been holding you back for years
Training is a little different for our busy commercial clients – the person receiving the training is often not the person who decides that training is necessary. While we help the driver to improve their driving in company vehicles, from a corporate perspective, your business will benefit from the following:
- Demonstrating your Duty of Care
- Possibly lowering your fleet insurance costs
- Providing the opportunity for a driver to develop their skills
- Showing you care
- Lowering fuel costs as well as damage and wear and tear on your vehicles.
Since 2017, we have provided bespoke driver training in and around Ipswich, including Castle Hill, Belstead, Sproughton and Kesgrave. The Junctions of the A14 and A14 at Washbrook are ideal for training to increase your motorway confidence, with the meandering rural roads to Grundisburgh and Bells Cross perfect for improving your rural driving skills.
Our courses are always door-to-door, using your own vehicle. You do not have to attend a centre, and you will have a handpicked tutor with excellent local knowledge.
Half or Full Day?
The half-day session is ideal for those with many drivers to train across the UK, whereas the full day is suitable for two drivers in the same location or for a driver with issues, a longer intensive advanced driving course to iron out ingrained habits.
We find many corporate clients opt for the full-day session and book one driver for the morning and one for the afternoon – there is no additional charge for this.
When we train all drivers, we look at building the course around their specific needs, letting them drive for a short time initially. Then, after a debrief, we introduce several advanced driving techniques, such as forward planning, car control, and advanced observation, tailored to their strengths and weaknesses.
The central part of the course is always designed to improve the driver’s safety; we find the best approach is to work on their specific driving style and requirements and adjust the training to fit their needs.
Contact:
If you’re looking to train a large number of drivers, we will be able to help along with how we can find the best approach for the training based on your specific business needs. Training large numbers requires a little extra planning. Still, we have many years of experience managing extensive, often complex, driver training sessions involving multiple start locations and hectic diaries.
Road Safety Risks and Information – Ipswich
Ipswich is primarily served by the A14, which circles the town west and south. Junction 53 of the A14 links to Bury Road, and this is a challenging junction leading into a large and busy commercial and retail centre. Bury Road merges with Norwich Road, A1156, which travels into the town centre. This route is littered with accident sites, especially near the traffic light systems at Meredith Road and Deben Road junctions. This route is shared with public transport and passes through a highly residential area with many driveways opening onto a busy road. It is hectic during rush hours, and it is vital that extra care and attention is taken to look out for pedestrians and cyclists along routes such as these at all times. The closer Norwich Road gets to the town centre, the collision rates soar as they happen near every road junction here, with one of the worst affected areas being the joining of Bamford Road. The A1156 then becomes St Matthews Street and Crown Street, and it skirts the north of the town centre, with numerous accidents occurring on the roundabout connecting Civic Drive and Berners Street.
Civic Drive runs west and south of the town centre and has a high level of accident statistics recorded, with many occurring near the junction of the Princes Street and Franciscan Way traffic lights. Franciscan Way merges into Greyfriars Road and meets the challenging intersection that joins Grafton Street to Bridge Street, College Street and Star Lane, which continues the A1156. There are numerous collision sites throughout these routes as it is a bustling area with a high amount of commuter traffic. It requires a lot of patience when using busy town roads, especially the older narrow streets near town centres, as they are often shared with buses, delivery vehicles and cyclists, with everyone rushing to their destination. Understanding and anticipating the actions of other drivers is a great skill to have if you use busy urban environments often, as not all drivers will indicate or look around them before moving into busy traffic, which is how needless accidents happen.
This brief outline only covers a fraction of collision sites in Ipswich. If you frequently travel on specific roads in the area and want to know which parts pose a higher risk for collisions, please get in touch. We provide this service free of charge for anyone interested.