The “supervising drivers” here may refer to parents, spouses, ex, uncles/aunts, neighbours, siblings and friends etc that are supervising new drivers.
I get asked this question quite a bit from loving parents so I think I’d better write them down to help future supervising drivers. And you are most welcome to contact us if you have something not sure in the process of bringing up a new driver.
First thing to supervise, is to learn.”Parents” usually get their license a quite a while ago, in average 20 years ago, the requirements are quite different now although the driving basics are the same. There are a couple of way to learn: 1) RTA used to host a free seminars for parents so if its still on book your seat; 2) read this little booklet : Guide to driving test 3) talk to a qualified instructor.
Second thing is to choose the location carefully. To supervise new drivers can be challenging, and sometimes even dangerous. So please try to plan the driving ahead, think about if the new driver can really handle the situation you throw on them. If you never teach them how to handle roundabout, and the instructor did not teach roundabout yet, please try not to assume the new driver can handle it.
The third thing is, do NOT compare a new driver with you — a driver with 20+ years experience. Many of us tend to forget how slow we were when learning. Please accept that the new drivers can make mistakes (we still make some anyway), and if it happens, stay calm, try not to shout, unless its really dangerous. If you plan your “lesson” before hand, the highly dangerous situation should be eliminated. What you focus on is to avoid big mistakes, and don’t worry about they push a bit too deep, brake a bit too hard, steer a bit too much etc as long as you are safe, coz the driving will become smoother with more hours down the track.
The fourth thing is, after the initial stage of learning and the ‘new’ driver can drive quite comfortably, step back a bit so they can grow, eventually they are going to drive alone, they need to get used to it early. Try to create a more real environment for future under your supervision, e.g. driving in music, let them plan the route etc.
The last but not least, do not over turn what the instructor has taught (what you have paid for). For example we teach not to speed but a couple of parents think not to worry, then the worry might come when attempting test, and after passing the test.
Happy supervising!
