If you want to know what it looks, sounds (and feels?) like ... watch on ...

I feel curmudgeonly. It’s not that I’m stuck in snow. Or stuck indoors, due to Covid. Or frustrated by short-notice cancellations, or a long wait for tests (or pupils absent because of it).

I think it’s mainly about time. Timing, more specifically. In driving terms, that means keeping good control of speed. Not going slowly, but not so fast you can’t spot everything that’s happening or where danger might start. I must be more observant as an ADI. I certainly hope so!

There’s no quick return to normal waits for tests. (The WHO have even talked about jabs through 2022).

LATEST DVSA STEPS TO HELP

From 6 December, local driving test managers have also been conducting tests 2 days a week, alongside helping new-entrant examiners get up to speed. (This means you may have a second, silent, examiner in your test car).

Overall, just under 200 more examiners are starting between Spring 2021 and 2022. This brings the total to about 3000.

A further 20 trainers should be in place from February to support the permanent training team for 6 months.

HOW YOU CAN STILL HELP

Because awaiting a retest could take months, do all YOU can to make every test count.

Surprisingly, more test candidates now are not turning up without telling DVSA (40,533 since April and 6,600 in November alone). This wastes a slot someone else could have used, just like with your GP.

You’ll lose your test fee if you don’t tell DVSA at least 3 working days before the test, unless you can give proof of testing positive for Covid. (Some 36,000 people lost their fee since April).

WHAT NO-ONE CAN HELP

Of course, we’re now in the part of the year most affected by bad weather. DVSA will only cancel tests if absolutely necessary, for everyone’s safety.

If so, your test is rebooked for the next available date at the same test centre, and new details will be emailed to you. (See the full guidance).

Just to wish all my viewers / learners / browsers a very peaceful and fulfilling break from “the usual” over this Holiday Season.

But what is our need, and what is just 'want' or lifestyle choice? Do we feel entitled to never reduce our living standard? Recalling Mr Hill's words, "it's not about being greedy", but are we not morally bound to weigh up what we contribute to the world amid others (NHS staff; care workers; pandemic officials; food deliverers; national decision-makers) who are making their own contribution? That's a decision each of us must face.

So, are ADIs at risk of profiteering? Yes. Money, or economics, or The Market, is not dictating what we (as sentient, responsible, morally obliged beings) SHOULD do. None of those inanimate things CAN dictate: they're all structures invented by people.

And it's not just ADIs who've "been through the mill". Thinking of people as business fodder, to feed a mechanistic world, is a view born in the Industrial Revolution. When we ourselves have been in difficulty or suffered misfortune, we want to be helped by others: shouldn’t we behave that way to them?

As an evangelistic champion for Adam Smith's free-market model, this technical presentation is great. But, for me, it was disappointing that 20 minutes passed before ethics got mentioned. And phrases like "they're not a person [student] worth having" are demeaning, casting people as a homogeneous commodity ... like "refugees", "immigrants", "the unemployed / disabled". Each has human value, whether we like it (or them) or not.