Location Overview – Sunderland is a vibrant port city in the North of England and is the main admin centre within the County of Tyne and Wear in the county of Durham. The city is 10 miles from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on the mouth of the River Wear. Sunderland received city status in 1992. Like many cities, Sunderland comprises several areas with distinct histories, including Fulwell, Monkwearmouth, Roker, and Southwick to the north side of the Wear and Bishopwearmouth and Hendon to the south. Sunderland was on the shortlist of the world’s top seven “intelligent cities” for forward-thinking of information technology in 2004 and 2005. When the former heavy industries of shipbuilding and mining started to decline, new, modern industries were being developed, including electronic, chemical, paper and motor manufacture, and the area expanded hugely during the 1980s and 1990s. Washington has since become the UK’s largest car factory.

We offer bespoke driver training in Sunderland for businesses and private clients in cars and vans.

During our advanced/defensive training, we try and cover a wide range of things, including:

* Creating increased powers of anticipation and planning
* Being aware of speed limits and controlling your speed
* Improving a driver’s overall attitude to driving on UK roads
* Safer driving on motorways, rural roads and in the town
* Educating drivers about the rules of the road
* A better understanding of the reasons for road rage
* Manoeuvres
* Driving in dangerous weather
* Risks linked to urban driving and being aware of at-risk road users
* Learning the difference between different skids
* Learning to drive in a more economical way
* How to anticipate the actions of other motorists

After training, you will be sent a full driving report so that you can see the standard of driving at the start and end of the training and see improvements made and in what areas. Each client’s unique driving report will provide some beneficial and insightful information. Each report is fully documented and has a unique verification number so anyone can check back for an original copy with us. This is sometimes useful if an employer has asked an employee to take driver training.

Key learning points of our driver training:

* Become a safer, more skilful driver
* Address any issues which could be impacting you as a driver
* Demonstrate your intention to become a safer, improved driver
* Finally, deal with and address issues which may have been holding you back
* Training is a little different for commercial clients – the end client, the person receiving the training, is often not the person who decides to do the training.

While we help the driver to improve, from a commercial perspective, your business will benefit from the following:

* Demonstrating your Duty of Care
* Potentially lower your fleet insurance costs
* Providing the opportunity for an employee to develop
* Showing you care
* Lowering fuel costs

The fastest, largest, and busiest road in Sunderland is the A19, a dual carriageway running north-to-south along the city’s west edge, crossing the River Wear at Hylton. This provides great access to the Tyne Tunnel, joining the A1 to Edinburgh. South through Teesside, it joins up with the A1M via the A168 at Thirsk, between Sunderland and the M1 motorway. The four main roads which support the city centre are the A690 Durham Road, which terminates in the city and runs to Crook via Durham. The A1231 or the Sunderland Highway, begins in the city and crosses the Queen Alexandra Bridge running west through Washington to the A1. The A1018 and A183 roads start in the centre of South Shields and enter Sunderland from the north before merging to cross the Wearmouth Bridge. The A1018 follows directly from Shields to Sunderland and the A183 follows the coast. We have provided driver training across the whole of Sunderland and the outlying towns such as Washington, Whitburn, Seaham and Houghton le Spring and our courses are all door-to-door. We come to you using your vehicle for the course duration.

Half or Full Day?

The half-day is ideal for those with many drivers to train and want to take advantage of the time and cost savings associated with such. The full day is ideal for drivers who wish to experience an intensive advanced driving course and want to iron out any bad habits they may have.

We tend to find many clients opt for the full-day session – and book one driver for the morning session and one in the afternoon – there is no additional charge for this, and it works really well.

When we train drivers, we look at building the course around their specific needs. We initially let them drive for a short period. Then after a friendly debrief, we introduce several advanced driving techniques such as forward planning, car control, advanced observation, and much more.

The main part of the course is designed to improve the driver – and we find the best approach here is to work on their specific driving style and requirements and adjust the training to fit their needs.

Talk with us:

While we cover as many things as possible on this page, we understand you may still have questions. Please call or email us if you wish to discuss something specific. Our team will be pleased to help and advise you. We can help both private individuals and business clients.

If you’re looking at training many drivers, we can provide a quote and how we can best approach the training based on your business needs. Training larger numbers of fleet drivers may require a little extra planning, but with many years of experience managing large, often complex driver training involving multiple start locations and busy schedules, we can certainly help you to find the best training for your needs.