Location Introduction – St Albans is an exciting and bustling cathedral city in Hertfordshire, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield. It is 20 miles northwest of London, 8 miles southwest of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles southeast of Luton and is located within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area. St Albans was the first significant town on the old Roman road of Watling, and there are many visible Roman remains throughout the city, such as the city walls and mosaic floors. St Albans was known as the Roman city of Verulamium, the second-largest town in Roman Britain after Londinium (London), developed from an Iron Age settlement. Located to the north of London, St Albans has become a lovely place to live and work and is an ideal area to take further advanced driver training. There are some challenging faster roads and winding rural roads across and around the city, including the outlying villages of Abbots Langley, Kings Langley, Colney Heath, Elstree, Frogmore, Park Street, Radlett, Redbourn, and Shenley.
We offer a range of bespoke courses, which include:
* General advanced and defensive courses
* Motorway training
* Performance training
* UK Familiarisation
* Confidence training
* Younger drivers
* Pre-court assessments
All courses are designed around the needs and requirements of the individual driver, but below are several things we look at:
* The system of car control – IPSGA
* Working towards an expert level of forward planning and observation
* Undoing years of ingrained bad habits
* Understand your own limitations and at-risk factors – most of which you won’t be aware of
* How to deal with complex and busy traffic environments
* How to understand other drivers and what they may do next
* Learn how you and other drivers think when behind the wheel
* How to become a safe driver on urban and rural roads and also motorways
* Understanding observational elements of driving (seeing) and building these into your driving plan
* Manoeuvres and reversing (This is often requested in confidence training)
* Learning to manage speed and become more speed aware
You will be issued a driving report after each session – sent via email. This report is fully documented with us and has a unique verification number attached – proof you’ve had training with a qualified professional. In your report, you will be able to see how you improved and in what areas, along with some useful tips to ensure you keep up your improved standard of driving.
The individual benefits of our advanced and defensive driver training:
* Upskill your levels of skill and overall confidence
* Reduce wear and tear on your vehicle
* Lower fuel costs
* Consider issues that may be specific to your driving
* Identify and remove any higher-risk driving characteristics
* Increase vehicle control on every road type
Looking for fleet advanced driver training? Driver training for business clients provides many benefits that include:
* Managing your occupational road risk
* Possibly reduce your fleet insurance costs
* Demonstrate to your drivers that you care
* Demonstrate your Duty of Care
* Help employees who have specific issues (confidence, speeding, collisions)
The M1 motorway runs west of St Albans, and the M25 motorway is slightly further south. The A414 road runs directly south of St Albans between Hemel Hempstead and Hatfield, and the A405 directly links to Watford. The junction of the A414 and the North Orbital road is an ideal spot to take Advanced Driver training to help to upskill motorway confidence. We have trained many drivers in and around St Albans, both private and businesses. Our tutors are all DVSA registered and will come to your address, and you can use your own car or van for the training. We have also carried out campervan and motorhome training in St Albans.
Whether you are a private client or a business customer, we can build a course based on your specific needs and requirements anywhere in the UK.
Our courses do vary in structure, although our courses are based and costed on duration:
3.5hr session
7hr session (which can be split for two drivers if needed)
2 x 3.5hr sessions
3 x 3.5hr sessions – We also have longer courses if needed.
The 7hr session, as mentioned above, can be split between two drivers, which is time and cost-efficient. One driver will be trained in the morning, usually from 9 am to 12:30, and then the second driver in the afternoon, usually from 13:00 to 16:30. We can be flexible with start times and start earlier than 9 am if needed. Each driver has 3.5hr on-road training.
Longer Duration Courses:
Our bespoke 3,4 and 5 x 3.5hr sessions are suited to those with specific driving issues. These issues include driving anxiety, motorway confidence, a fear of driving in new areas, post-RTC confidence or those that have not driven regularly in a long time.
These longer courses are booked mainly by private individuals, although they are also open to our business customers.
Those who commit to these longer-duration courses see change happen over the weeks as they build confidence and address the specific issues they may be facing.
Contact us:
We would be delighted to hear from you about your exact requirements. Our team are trained to advise on course information and how they run and offer a non-judgemental approach for those who wish to open up and discuss specific issues. We know that for some, this is the first step in reaching out on their journey to confident driving. Please call or email for more information and advice.
Road Safety Risks and Information – St Albans
St Albans is located to the North of London between Watford and Welwyn Garden City and is situated on the A414, which links the M1 and the M25. This is a very busy town with commuter traffic in and out of London daily. The collision rates are very high in the St Albans area, and they occur mainly during rush hours when everyone is trying to get to their destinations in good time.
Junction 8 of the M1 links to the A414, and this is a very busy and challenging junction with numerous accidents noted, some very severe and some sadly fatal, in the last few years alone. Many of these accidents occur on the slip roads leading to and from the intersection; these types of collisions are prevalent on busy motorways and can be due to drivers not being in the correct lane of exiting and making last-minute panic moves across lanes or too much speed when leaving the motorway or too low speeds for joining the motorway. Using busy motorways does require good observation skills and an understanding of the direction you will be going once you leave the motorway and are in the right lane for your exit. Many drivers are hesitant when leaving the motorway, and it is wise to be aware of other drivers’ intentions and hold back if they look like they are struggling to be in the right lane. This can be the difference between being involved in a needless accident or arriving safely at your destination. On the A414 at the Park Street Roundabout, linking the A405 North Orbital Roundabout and Watling Road, A5183 into St Albans, there are numerous collisions noted at this intersection and again, many can be accredited to poor lane positioning and lack of observations.
Watling Road meets Watford Road at the St Stephens Hill double roundabout and continues into the centre of St Albans via Holywell Hill. This route travels through a residential area and is shared with bus routes. The speed is lower on this route than on motorways, but the collision rates are still high, indicating that pedestrians and cyclists are coming to harm when colliding with traffic. This is a narrow road with many sections where parking is allowed, and this can make for many accidents involving drivers trying to park or leave a space straight on the busy road. Holywell Hill meets London Road and Chequers Street, and although this junction has traffic lights, many collisions are still noted. Chequers Road continues along the city centre, linking Victoria Street and Hatfield Road; both roads have high accident rates, and some are very severe, involving pedestrians and cyclists.
If you have any specific roads you travel on in St Albans and are keen to discover what routes are at higher risk of collisions, please get in touch with us. We offer a free-of-charge service to anyone who may be interested.