Dear Members of SAIDI's website, good day and
welcome to each of you; May I wish everyone a very Happy New Year, although
it is already February. I apologize for this, but have had to have some time
off recovering from some minor surgery.
We are all back at work by now and very busy
trying to meet the needs of our students while earning a living in the heat
of a boiling South African February, after an extremely wet two weeks in
January. Misted up windows, skidding and mud were some problems then, and we
wondered if we would ever see the sun again, only to be followed by heat
exhaustion, thirst, sunburn, mosquitoes and flies. All round it can be very
uncomfortable sitting behind glass now, but the days are also beautiful -
almost too beautiful to have to work! A swimming pool, or the sea, braais
and lazy days seem more appropriate.
Having said that, we find ourselves back at
work, and we are working very hard. Students starting university need
licences, and it is generally busy except for the fact that our roads are so
congested, and then there has been load-shedding, traffic lights not
working, late for appointments, and no sign of improvements for ten years
according to Escom!
However, I heard a Radio 702 telling that solar
powered traffic lights are to be introduced Nation-wide starting from March
at the Fountains and also Greyston intersections. (Motorists in Greyston
area were subjected to a broken sewerage pipe pouring it's contents down the
road carrying unmentionable vile things on Friday the 15th February which
they had to drive through), and that straight after Valentine's day on the
14th!).
What an interesting country we live in!
I found myself getting out onto the road at 6 am
to travel from Pretoria to Centurion which generally takes 20 minutes, but
which took two full hours from 7 am to 9 am on the 21st January, and then
leaving at 6 am for the rest of the week to miss the rush and having to sit
at the McDonald's until my 8am lesson.
I think all driving instructors in
Pretoria/Tshwane are holding our breath. At last we are getting some road
test appointments! We are scared to say it too loud in case it stops. We
have recently experienced the most incredible almost first-world service
from the e-mail booking system (Pretoria/Tshwane only unfortunately). We
could hardly believe it when we received appointments for several people on
our list. In fact, on more than one occasion we received an appointment the
same day that we applied!
Never in the last five years have we had such
incredible quick service! However, it must be noted that it is at an
additional cost of R136.80 per e-mail appointment, which we feel is not
entirely fair. In some cases it is just too expensive for some students. The
public are panicking about not being able to get an appointment too, so they
book and then if they get a quick appointment, they are not ready and either
have to cancel it, or rush their driving lessons, so that they fail because
they are so stressed. Please encourage people who phone you to learn to
drive first, and then to apply, at least later in the course of lessons.
Many people are quietly driving without licences.
However, we are just so grateful to get
appointments, - if we only had enough examining officers, it would be
perfect! Either that or provide better public transport.
We strongly recommend that the Call Centre is
dropped in favour of the e-mail system for everybody in all areas. It seems
that it is highly ineffective.
However, we have not had any learner's licence
appointments at all for weeks now. Is this how the Department intends
catching up with the backlog? (See article 25) There are still desperate
people needing to obtain an appointment who cannot afford these long
delays.
There do seem to be a few problems still, even
with the e-mail booking service, such as a couple of appointments allocated
to people who already have appointments or who have even passed their tests!
We hope that problem will soon be overcome.
We also heard of an instructor having a choice
of two appointments to "offer" a student. How does that happen unless there
is still some corruption going on?
Another report of a guaranteed appointment at a
cost of R5000, was heard of from a student where the student stays in
another province overnight, in a hotel, and enjoys supper as part of the
deal. Come on guys! You are shooting yourselves in the foot and giving the
rest of us a bad name.
As long as there is a shortage of examiners and
appointments this sort of thing will happen.
My personal opinion is that we, as driving
schools, should be willing to make e-mail bookings free of charge or at
least at minimal cost, so that anyone can make use of this way of booking,
and not just a select few. There can be no justification for an exorbitant
charge to make a simple e-mail booking.
Finally, we received a complaint from a member
of the public about a driving school, no names mentioned at this stage, who
apparently claimed to be a SAIDI member, and charged a client a fee and
refused to refund after a dispute.
A couple of issues come out of this:
-
No-one is entitled to claim to be a member
unless he or she has actually registered with us.
-
We require a copy of a valid instructor's
certificate before anyone can be accepted as a member, together with the
fee.
-
SAIDI believes in integrity. We believe in
honesty and fair treatment of students and their families. We do NOT
condone cheating clients. We also do not appreciate bad treatment from
the public. One has to be discerning to cut through some of the stories
people tell to get a licence! There is NO better way to get a licence
than by doing it honestly and working hard and complying with the law.
-
We believe that every driving school and
driving instructor needs to be willing to comply with a Code of Conduct
on page 22 of our constitution
(Click
here to view SAIDI's Constitution).
-
We believe there is a reason when driving
instructors phone up enquiring about membership and when they hear we
need a copy of their instructor's certificate and the minimal charge of
R180.00 for new membership and R100.00 for renewal, that they never get
back to us, except when they have a problem they need help with.
-
We believe the Government needs to recognize
it's responsibility to protect the public from unscrupulous driving
schools by compelling every driving instructor and every driving
school to belong to approved umbrella bodies, who should be authorized
to act against instructors who cheat the public.
-
The standard of driving instructors needs to
be checked and upgraded. Recent contacts with many students have
revealed yet again how low and how limited the standard of instruction
is countrywide.
-
SAIDI is in a position to offer this
training for the benefit of every driving instructor to help them to
gain respect and a name for excellence of training and professionalism,
and to be able to make crucial changes to the standard of driving in the
country, and also to protect the public from bad instructors.
-
SAIDI also recognizes our responsibility to
serve our members by assisting them in matters where they are struggling
with difficulties in the industry. Recently we were able to assist
various instructors who were coming up against a blank wall. Thank you
Dr. Kok for assisting us to solve various problems recently! We also can
make recommendations to protect yourselves against those clients who
cancel at the last minute leaving you no time to replace the lesson and
no income for that lesson, but with expenses to meet.
We encourage all driving schools to broaden
their range of lessons to include freeway lessons, city lessons, emergency
stops at high speeds, discussions about night driving, regular maintenance
of vehicles, the correct use of the lights on a vehicle, safety tips
regarding repairing of flat tyres, anticipation of hazards, and a systematic
approach to hazards as well as emergency techniques, such as how to cope
with aquaplaning, how to do an emergency lane change, cadence braking (for
cars not fitted with ABS braking systems), and many more. Australia requires
a minimum of 100 hours to train a learner driver. Promising a full course in
10 hours clearly will not cover anything except the bare minimum to pass.
We wish all of you in the transport industry
courage, endurance, patience and kindness. May you be a credit to the
Nation. God bless you as you serve His people.
With kind regards,
Pat Allen
Chairperson SAIDI Pretoria/Tshwane
