Good, providing that this really holds true:
"All tests will be conducted by Driving Standards Agency (DSA) examiners."
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A good idea. Private sector should be used more for supplying straight-forward services like driving tests. Quite a bit of scope I would think.
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Makes sense. Why incur the cost of running your own test centre when you can do the same thing from a desk in the local Halfords?
Now, if the tests were administered by a private operator, and that operator had 'targets' to meet on pass/fail rates, I might be concerned. Though lets be honest, public service testers surely have 'targets' to meet too these days...
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>> Now, if the tests were administered by a private operator, and that operator had 'targets'
>> to meet on pass/fail rates, I might be concerned. Though lets be honest, public service
>> testers surely have 'targets' to meet too these days...
Why would they have targets for pass/fail rates? I'm sure what does happen is that an examiner who has an unusually high or low pass rate would be expected to come more into line - the conclusion that they must have been applying a different standard is inescapable.
If it's privatised then of course there is more risk. Look what happened to exam boards.
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I'm sure what does happen is that an examiner who has an unusually high or low pass rate would be expected to come more into line - the conclusion that they must have been applying a different standard is inescapable.
>>
That's exactly how it works.
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>> I'm sure what does happen is that an examiner who has an unusually high
>> or low pass rate would be expected to come more into line - the conclusion
>> that they must have been applying a different standard is inescapable.
>> >>
>>
Clearly the people who make the "high" or "low" judgment have no idea of statistical variances.
>> That's exactly how it works.
>>
The way it works is that examiners tend to try to keep their score at the acceptable "average" figure.
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>> Clearly the people who make the "high" or "low" judgment have no idea of statistical
>> variances.
That would come within the definition of "unusual" Shirley. It's not rocket surgery.
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>>
>> >> Clearly the people who make the "high" or "low" judgment have no idea of
>> statistical
>> >> variances.
>>
>> That would come within the definition of "unusual" Shirley. It's not rocket surgery.
>>
"that they must have been applying a different standard is inescapable."
Complete bonkers to come to that conclusion if you know anything about statistics.
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>> Complete bonkers to come to that conclusion if you know anything about statistics.
I do and it isn't on a reasonable interpretation. Forgive me if I assume that the audience has more brains than a gnat.
I don't mean this unkindly, but you do seem to have a compulsion to nit pick using a perverse literal interpretation wherever possible, almost to the point of rudeness by English mores. Are you German?
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 8 Jan 13 at 21:14
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>>Makes sense. Why incur the cost of running your own test centre when you can do the same thing from a desk in the local Halfords?
>>
Yep. Flog off or stop leasing any buildings just like the BiB locally.
Police now man a desk in the council offices and have shut down most of the stations.
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>> Yep. Flog off or stop leasing any buildings just like the BiB locally.
>> Police now man a desk in the council offices and have shut down most of
>> the stations.
Are you being droll?
No wonder the police response is abysmal. When I got a producer last January after being radared/lasered for speeding, I elected to do so at Tring police station. Turned out I couldn't as it has no counter. You can ring them up, but you speak to someone in Hertford, so you can't really ring them up. Berkhamsted was the same. I took my documents to Hemel Hempstead station at about 6.30pm on a Monday, to find that it doesn't open on Sundays or Mondays. It opens from 10.00 to 18.00 Tuesday-Saturday, with an hour closed for lunch.
Basically you need time off work to call in to the police station, in this town of about 100,000 people (not including the ones in the rest of the county to the west). There's no custody suite, so if there's disorder in Hemel Hempstead in the small hours, there's a good chance that it will be too much trouble to arrest anybody as they will have to be carted off to Watford, reducing the available presence across the entire county for at least an hour by about 50% presumably.
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>> Yep. Flog off or stop leasing any buildings just like the BiB locally.
>> Police now man a desk in the council offices and have shut down most of
>> the stations.
Are you being droll?
www.surrey.police.uk/contact-us/local-police-station-finder/elmbridge
"Monday to Friday 8:45am until 5pm.
Closed on Bank Holidays.
lease call main switchboard on 101 for daily confirmation.
Limited public parking available."
Hardly a rural area!
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I've heard of Elmbridge but had no idea where it was. I don't feel so daft now I know that it isn't actually a place, which since the LA re-organisation of 1974 is quite common, but most metropolitan district or borough names aren't used geographically.
I went to school a non-place in the 60s - Spenborough ( Cleckheaton, Liversedge, Gomersal Birkenshaw, Hunsworth and Hartshead) when they were less common - it's now part of a larger non-place, Kirklees, formed in 1974.
So were you being droll or not? If not, it might make more sense to put the police stations in supermarkets - plenty of space and parking, and they could conveniently nick everybody with bald tyres and no tax.
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I wasn't serious about basing police in supermarkets, but many a true word is spoken in jest...
inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/17867/
As Gadget notes, the possibility of being seen talking to the plods in the supermarket will have a magically helpful effect on the crime rates too! Doubles all round!
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I live not far from a former playing field. THe police use the area for dog and firearms training. Don't get a lot of trouble.
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>> I wasn't serious about basing police in supermarkets, but many a true word is spoken
>> in jest...
>>
>> inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/17867/
>>
>> As Gadget notes, the possibility of being seen talking to the plods in the supermarket
>> will have a magically helpful effect on the crime rates too! Doubles all round!
>>
Gadget whines about cash going to Pakistan. he doesn't say which if any political party at the last election promised to end that aid.
The Guardian reports
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/09/met-detectives-move-community-policing
"Officers from 107 specialist squads to go back into uniform and join neighbourhood teams to boost local investigative powers"
"To replace front desks at police stations the Met is considering basing officers in supermarkets, cafes and the Post Office. These would be places where the public could talk to police about crimes, buy licences, and report lost property.
The aim of the changes is to give neighbourhood constables investigative powers for dealing with low-level crime. They will be led by a "sheriff" in each borough, and be supported by a teams of special constables, police community support officers and some detectives within each of the 32 boroughs of the force."
"Every crime takes place in a street, a home, it's wedded in a business, it's wedded in a community. At the moment we've got over 107 different squads working in my bit of the Met. It's just inefficient.
Last edited by: John H on Wed 9 Jan 13 at 19:18
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>> No wonder the police response is abysmal. When I got a producer last January after
>> being radared/lasered for speeding, I elected to do so at Tring police station. Turned out
>> I couldn't as it has no counter. You can ring them up, but you speak
>> to someone in Hertford, so you can't really ring them up. Berkhamsted was the same.
>> I took my documents to Hemel Hempstead station at about 6.30pm on a Monday, to
>> find that it doesn't open on Sundays or Mondays. It opens from 10.00 to 18.00
>> Tuesday-Saturday, with an hour closed for lunch.
>>
>> Basically you need time off work to call in to the police station,
Carry your driving license around with you, and you will never get a producer.
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>>when you can
>> do the same thing from a desk in the local Halfords?
>>
That will mean an unmanned desk then. When you go off to try and find someone, it will be a shelf stacker who doesn't know anything.
When you get back to the desk there will be several other people also waiting. Finally a Halfords bod will appear, and open up a different desk. You will now be at the back of the queue.
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Mickey Mouse Motor Factor issues Mickey Mouse driving licences?
Pat
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I saw this on Sky News:
'The firm's director of communications, David Sawday, told Sky News the store offered learner drivers a "non-threatening environment to meet your examiner and start your test".
"All the people in the country are within a 20 minute drive of a Halford's store so we are a very accessible location," he added.'
Not strictly true, I wonder what other fantasy facts were included in the bid ?
It's a good idea if standards are maintained. If the above statement is used to justify closure of test centres then people may have some drive for their test.
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Distance from my house to the nearest Halfords: 1.3 miles
Distance from my house to the nearest test centre: 1.8 miles
That's a huge improvement. But if I was a learner I'd hope to avoid the roundabouts near the Halfords during my test!
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Between Cramlington (just north of Newcastle) and Edinburgh there are two stores, Berwick and Galashiels. You'll have to give it some beans to hit those in 20 minutes on the A roads where HGVs are limited to 40mph.
Last edited by: gmac on Tue 8 Jan 13 at 19:03
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Standards will not drop as the tests are still being carried out by DSA examiners whose command structure will remain unchanged. All Halfords will do is provide the facilities.
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I didn't think standards would drop. There were a lot more test centres when I was learning. I assume this means there will be more jobs for examiners which is a good thing. Okay it's a small increase but it must mean there are more examiners - I assume so because the limit on how many can be examined is the examiners and not the premises/facilities.
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>> Not strictly true, I wonder what other fantasy facts were included in the bid ?
>>
>>
Can you give an example to show why it is not strictly true?
edit: just seen your example above.
Last edited by: John H on Tue 8 Jan 13 at 19:00
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Do a store search for Alnwick. It's c.30 miles from the nearest stores. Heading north is the single carriageway A1 which is heavily used by HGVs between England and Scotland which are limited to 40mph, going south A1 is split between single carriageway and some dual carriageway.
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Okay, they must be the 10% who are not within 20 minutes of a Halfords Group location.
www.halfordscompany.com/investors/halfords-explained
" ... Our UK footprint of over 467 stores and 261 Autocentres places us within 20 minutes drive for 90% of the population ... "
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10% does not sound like much when you put it like that. 4,000,000 to 7,000,000 (depending on which population data you look at) people sounds a lot to me.
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Driving Tests at Halfords - Londoner
