Is a speed awareness course always offered?

[911F]

I got zapped doing 46 in a 40 (dual carriage way) earlyish Sunday morning. No excuses, I hold my hands up.

Looking at the paperwork, it says I "may be offered" a speed awareness course.

I have a clean licence and have for many years

Anyone have any understanding as to whether I'll be offered it or not?

It would be obviously preferable

Edited by 911F on Wednesday 3rd September 17:00

[E-bmw]

With a clean licence at that speed you will almost certainly be offered one.

As to whether they are "always" offered as you ask I am not sure.

[agtlaw]

E-bmw said:

With a clean licence at that speed you will almost certainly be offered one.

As to whether they are "always" offered as you ask I am not sure.

Is a clean licence a material consideration?

'May be offered' means it's discretionary rather than obligatory. There's no entitlement to a speed awareness course, at any speed.

[Steve Dean]

Hi ..... as you were bang on 46 (i.e. 40 x 10% +2) that puts you in the 46 - 53 category. Therefore depending on the number of points on your licence (it sounds like you don't have any) you should be offered a speed awareness course.
Despite some folks having a rant about attending a course, if you go into it with an open mind, you may be surprised at how much you may have forgotten since passing your test.
Hope it works out well for you.

[agtlaw]

Steve Dean said:

..... Therefore depending on the number of points on your licence (it sounds like you don't have any)

Does that matter?

[E-bmw]

agtlaw said:

E-bmw said:

With a clean licence at that speed you will almost certainly be offered one.

As to whether they are "always" offered as you ask I am not sure.

Is a clean licence a material consideration?

'May be offered' means it's discretionary rather than obligatory. There's no entitlement to a speed awareness course, at any speed.

You are (of course) correct, hence me saying "you will almost certainly".

[The Gauge]

Consider attending a course physically, rather than online.

I did an online course recently and got kicked off as my broadband signal cut out part way through. I was told I'd be classed as failing to attend the course and be forfeited from being able to do the course again and would receive points instead. Thankfully when I finally managed to reconnect the instructor allowed me back in but with a warning he wouldn't allow it again.

I wished I had attended a physical course as the stress of my broadband signal kicking me out again wasn't pleasant.

[Dave _]

Steve Dean said:

Hi ..... Therefore depending on the number of points on your licence (it sounds like you don't have any) you should be offered a speed awareness course..

Number of points is immaterial to being offered a course, the only disqualifier is having already done a course in the preceding 3 years.

[wyson]

Can you report back with the lowest MPH over the limit of the people on your course?

I really enjoyed my speed awareness course and did an Advanced Driving qualification off the back of it, which I also really enjoyed.

[911F]

Thank you everyone for the replies. Here's hoping that it is an awareness course.

RE the lowest speed, it looks like the cameras are triggered at 10%+2 So the lowest speed to get a ticket would be 24 mph in a 20.

79 would be the lowest speed to trigger a camera in a 70 mph limit.

In this instance, I was doing an indicated 50 mph for the 5 + miles of 50 mph stretch, it then went to 40mph (with a mobile unit just after the sign). My indicated 50 mph equaled 46 mph on their radar. I suspect they had a very fruitful morning!

[BertBert]

911F said:

RE the lowest speed, it looks like the cameras are triggered at 10%+2

Yes that's what we think! But it's always interesting on the course where loads of people say they got done at 30.1 in a 30 and the instructor then says oh yes of course you can be done for any speed in excess of the limit!

[911F]

BertBert said:

Yes that's what we think! But it's always interesting on the course where loads of people say they got done at 30.1 in a 30 and the instructor then says oh yes of course you can be done for any speed in excess of the limit!

I'm going by the paperwork, it would be odd not to allow speed awareness courses below these speeds...

[Simpo Two]

Steve Dean said:

Despite some folks having a rant about attending a course, if you go into it with an open mind, you may be surprised at how much you may have forgotten since passing your test.

I did mine on Zoom and one of the other victims was a rather pretty young lady so that helped. As for me, I was fully aware of what speed I was doing but The State doesn't understand such subtleties.

[Nibbles_bits]

911F said:

I got zapped doing 46 in a 40 (dual carriage way) earlyish Sunday morning. No excuses, I hold my hands up.

Looking at the paperwork, it says I "may be offered" a speed awareness course.

I have a clean licence and have for many years

Anyone have any understanding as to whether I'll be offered it or not?

It would be obviously preferable

Edited by 911F on Wednesday 3rd September 17:00

Some forces get "kickbacks" from courses (including Speed Awareness), and so the default is to offer the course where the driver/offender is eligible.

It is just that though, a discretionary offer. And one which you don't have to accept.

[Pebbles167]

The course is decent, or at least the two I've done in the last 18 years of driving have been.

It'll jog your memory, and it's eye opening how little some of the attendees know about driving. In fact it's worth attending for that alone, you share the road with them.

[bergclimber34]

Agreed with pebbles

Yes it's a waste of time and money, but I guarantee you will learn or remember stuff.

And you will also realise how dumb, arrogant, entitled and plenty of other words, a few people you share the road with are sadly

But if you drive enough, you know that anyway, it is just nice to realise you are not being overly picky, they really are that daft

[Furbo]

Pebbles167 said:

it's eye opening how little some of the instructors know about driving.

Amended for accuracy. The one I did was run by a woman who had no clue, and would have been out of her depth outside of her weekly run to Asda.

[AndyAudi]

Furbo said:

Pebbles167 said:

it's eye opening how little some of the instructors know about driving.

Amended for accuracy. The one I did was run by a woman who had no clue, and would have been out of her depth outside of her weekly run to Asda.

Sometimes these days the skills required to deliver a course are

Have completed training on how to train people - generic
&
Have completed the course themselves

So skill level is potentially someone who’s sat through the same before & has the course notes but apparently understands that different people learn differently etc….

[Furbo]

AndyAudi said:

Furbo said:

Pebbles167 said:

it's eye opening how little some of the instructors know about driving.

Amended for accuracy. The one I did was run by a woman who had no clue, and would have been out of her depth outside of her weekly run to Asda.

Sometimes these days the skills required to deliver a course are

Have completed training on how to train people - generic
&
Have completed the course themselves

So skill level is potentially someone who’s sat through the same before & has the course notes but apparently understands that different people learn differently etc….

It didn’t stop her being a sanctimonious arse. She was like Romesh Ranganathan’s mum but horrible.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

My father has just been caught doing 35 in a 30 and has been offered one (with a hundred pound fine). I thought you only ever got offered one, but he also got one about 5 years ago.