Insurance companies, law enforcement, the government and private industry from the driving school industry and educators to corporations have worked very hard together to stem the tide of these young useless deaths and tragedies. Through legislative efforts and education there has been some success but something unexpected happened.  Young drivers began to wait to drive.  Clearly this contributed to the favorable statistics that show a drop in mortality of this age demographic.  However a picture over the past 5 to 10 years has been evolving, and that now shows a shift of the mortality rates from the 16 year olds to the 18 to 19 year olds.  In fact they are killing themselves four times more often than previously.  A closer look reveals to a great extent what has been happening.

Many families, and 16 and 17 year olds could not afford or chose not to face the high price of insurance, gas, cars and training requirements and have chosen to delay their legal driving status. However once they are close to 18 they begin with no professional training and totally avoid the minor licensing requirements, learning on their own or with family members.  Often when they get their license at 18 or there about, they are also away from home and shortly after that in college or living on their own.  Thus they have missed the vital professional training they need from a driving school and lose two years of driving under the regulations for minors and parental supervision. 

It should come as no surprise to hear and see so many more young adults in the 18 to 20 age group killing and maiming themselves and others.

What can be done.  It is a challenge for sure but here are a few thoughts on the matter.

1. Start training your young driver as soon as you feel they are mature enough to handle it, but remember if they get licensed early it means more experience under your supervision which is vital.
2. Avoiding good professional training to save money is something that will cost more later on for sure.
3. Parents are not instructors, in many cases they are average and even mediocre and do not know what a good professional knows, and should not try to replace them, but instead work with the professional to improve the next generation of driver.
4. Remember what you don”t know will hurt you! And your child!

A. The length of time a School has been operating is one measure of their effectiveness. This usually indicates the amount of experience and skill they will bring to teaching YOU. Consider of course that the DMV changes a license when a school goes from private ownership to corporation so it can skew the years factor.

Q. Does the school teach adults and seniors, as well as handicapped, disabled, and learning challenged people, or do they just teach teenagers?

BMW 328i
Equipped with Air bags, A/C, Side impact air bags and Anti lock brakes

A. Teenagers are for the most part the easiest to teach. They are always involved in learning, so they learn quickly. They are also highly motivated often fearless so they really work hard at learning.

Adults and seniors, who have been away from daily learning, are likely to learn more slowly. They are also more difficult to teach, since they often have their own ideas about driving. Handicapped and learning challenged are even harder to teach.

Schools that train their instructors to teach adults, seniors, handicapped, and disabled or learning challenged offer you a much higher level of skill, knowledge and experience than those who just can teach teens. These instructors are generally a world apart from the ones just teaching teens.

Q. Does the school have a formal driver’s education curriculum, or do they just have the students read the DMV Driver’s Handbook.

A. A thorough Driver’s Ed course goes well beyond the Driver’s Handbook. In this day and age of online education it is even hard to find a school that offers the classroom let alone can teach it. Nevertheless a school that does offer it with a licensed instructor teaching the class is a good sign again that they are a serious school. However find out about the class what is being taught is there a teacher teaching. Do they abide by all the hours required, 25 real hours must be offered.

Q. Does the school teach a full curriculum of the skills needed to drive and stay alive, or do they just run you around in the car.

A. There are at least 25 so called skills in driving required to drive and stay alive on today’s highways. Driving Schools may follow a detailed curriculum for teaching those skills. Or they may simply sit you in the car and let you drive around. Ask the school to explain, for example, exactly how they proceed, from the start, to teach you how to drive. Ask how they teach specific driving maneuvers, such as a left turn. How do they teach you to use your hands and position yourself in your seat. The use of your eyes and feet? Make sure that you are paying for learning something and not joy riding.

Q. Is the school licensed and insured?

A. Driving schools must have a State License, a city license or business license and Commercial Liability insurance. Ask about them and you may ask to see them if you are at their office.

Q. Will the school allow you to put the charges on a credit card?

A. A hallmark of a professional school should also be are they serious enough to accept Credit Cards. The protection offered by Credit card payment is often better for the client. Schools not offering Credit cards may not be able to qualify for the service or may have a problematic history, or just do not want to pay the extra fee. Do your homework.

Q. Will the school let you use their car for the drive test.

A. Schools that will not allow you to use their car are possibly improperly insured and if they took the car to the DMV they would have serious problems.

Certain insurance carriers do not allow the car to be used that way.

However any school that will allow you to go with their car for a drive test when you are not ready is a school that is more concerned collecting money than training you correctly. A good school will generally have a very high pass rate and that is due to training and saying no to a person that is not ready.

Q. Is the school a member of the Driving School association of California and or the Americas.?

A. Members of the Driving School Association of California pledge to provide quality services in a professional manner, and to conduct business in an ethical manner. It also means that school has met higher standards than required by the DMV.

Q. What is the price of your services?

A. After asking all the other questions this should be your last one not your first one.

It has been a long standing tradition from the early nineteen nineties to have an American made fleet. Where other schools have operated with vehicles made in other countries we at Dollar Driving School have made every effort to operate an almost entirely home made fleet. Since the Nineties we operated with some GM vehicles, and mostly Ford motor vehicles. The reason was simple enough we felt we needed to support our American workers and our economy first.

In that same tradition, we our now moving to Chrysler and specifically the new 2013 Dodge Dart. Although FIAT the Italian automobile manufacturer and owner of brands such as ALFA ROMEO and FERRARI to name just two, now owns a controlling share of Chrysler, we still want to support our American workers.

So although the heart and soul of the new Dodge Dart is Alfa Romeo, which is not by any stretch of the imagination a bad thing, the design and construction has taken place in the USA. The new 2013 Dodge Dart is the first of our changing fleet with more to come.

It is really easy on the eyes, spacious, smooth, it has tremendous visibility, great gas mileage with many modern amenities. It is truly a great mid size sedan for the money. Come try it out at Dollar Driving School you will be impressed.