Activity Guide
The Vehicle
This document sets out the structure of the workshop, how each section is designed to be run and what the results of each section should be.
Activity Seven : The Vehicle
Activity Seven Facilitator's Notes : The Vehicle
Many young drivers find themselves using a range of vehicles when they drive for work, and often they can be different to the vehicle they learnt to drive in. The most common examples are larger vehicles with bigger engines, and vans.
This activity looks at what the delegates do when driving a new vehicle, and how they reflect on how they're using it.
Facilitator's Notes
The initial discussion can be brief as some groups only have limited experiences with driving new vehicles, although most should be able to cite at least one example. In the discussions, participants often mentioned the first time they drove a work van or other large work vehicle.
In the pilot workshops, one common experience described by several participants was just being given a set of keys for a work vehicle without any accompanying familiarisation or advice on driving it.
After the discussion, the facilitators introduced different vehicle technologies. When delegates were asked directly "what feedback do you get about whether you're using a sat nav correctly?" we found there were few responses from the delegates, although the most common response was that "you arrive at your destination".
We found one way of encouraging further examples is to direct the question at one particular aspect of sat nav use, such as "how do you know if it is positioned safely?" or "how do you know whether it is being distracting?"
The aim is to help the delegates identify how safely they are using the sat nav, whether by looking in the sat nav manual, consulting their employer, or self-reflecting on their use of technology.
Groups frequently had many personal examples of 'sat navs gone wrong' and these are likely to arise earlier on in the workshop so facilitators should ask delegates to hold onto those stories until this section, or refer back to them.
We found that some groups could give examples on the use of different technologies in new vehicles, and where technology was not being used in the way it was intended.
Using reversing sensors was raised by participants in pilot workshops. Some had noticed that even when the sensors were telling you to stop, there was still some space behind the vehicle and they could continue reversing, discounting the safety margin offered by the technology. In other situations, the sensors did not pick up thin objects and bollards, and relying solely on the sensors while reversing had led to a collision.
Following or during the discussion, the facilitators presented several examples about sat navs being used in a manner which might be dangerous:
- One-quarter of under-25 year olds admit to deliberately racing their sat navs
- 26 year old take-away driver "turned right" onto a railway line at a level crossing. Got stuck on cattle grid across the tracks
Many workshop delegates reported 'racing' sat nav times.
In addition, the delegates were shown a recent newspaper article about a driver who followed his sat nav and got stranded on a cliff.
The most frequent response was that using sat navs is "common sense" and that delegates believed that they would not end up in that situation. However, their own examples, although less extreme than the media cases, tended to illustrate how it is more than simple common sense.
For instance, one delegate offered an example where he was following the sat nav to terminal 3 at an airport, when he wanted to go to terminal 2. Even though he could see the signs to terminal 2 and could clearly see the sat nav was taking him the wrong way, he still followed it believing the technology to be correct. The overall summary was that we need to use such devices as an aid, and not something to rely on, especially as sat nav maps may be outdated, for example.
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