Zipper's Blog

Sunday 2^nd May 2010

"THIS JOB MUST REALLY STRESS YOU"

Yes it does, but not in the way most people think. They assume instructors are stressed because of frustration with a learner's lack of progress ("You're not listening!!!") and being in the car with them as they drive dangerously ("You're gonna kill us!!!"), but it's not like that at all.

In fact, the biggest stress factors come from other sources. For example ...

• Other road users treating the L-plates as a target.
  What is it about driving which increases the intolerance of drivers to ridiculous levels? Everyone learned to drive at one time but many experienced drivers seem to forget this.
  Some P-platers (usually young males) seem to take childish delight in harassing learner drivers.
• Making enough to live.
  This job is volatile, sometimes I'm working 7 day weeks and 12 to 14 hour days, at other times my booking diary is almost empty.
  Even during the busy periods, the high turnover involved in keeping 2 cars on the road in good condition and the high cost of living in the NT makes it very difficult to save.
• Balancing the diary.
  It's difficult to juggle student bookings to dovetail neatly into a full day, most want the late afternoon time slots after work or school and it's difficult to fill up the other times. Late cancellations don't help either.
  
• Driving tests.
  I'm not one of those instructors who are blase about their students undergoing driving tests - it's often as nerve-wracking for me as it is for the candidate.
• People who think no special skills are needed to be a driving instructor.
  Included in this group are learner's family members & friends, some government officials, and some NT instructors whose lack of training and poor teaching skills is sullying the reputation of the rest of us.
• Government bureaucracy and red tape. Enough said!

I rarely get frustrated with learners themselves (they are LEARNERS after all, they are not expected to have prior knowledge or skills nor are they expected to "do it right" the first time they try).

As for learners driving dangerously, I strive to constantly keep my concentration and alertness at high levels (a big reason why we are so tired after a day of instructing), and I have dual pedals in the training cars to help maintain safety (they are training aids, e.g. for demonstrations, as well).

Sunday 2^nd May 2010

DON'T BREAK THE BRAKES

Spelling seems to be a lost art these days.
The most common spelling error I see (because of my line of work I suppose) it confusing break with brake.
I see it often on the driver training forums I visit and it was also in today's NT News article on a blue 1968 Ford Mustang, a nice car even though it didn't have "power breaks". I also see "loosing the plot" instead of "losing the plot" quite often as well.

That said, I wonder how many spelling mistakes I've managed to put on this site? The only sure-fire way to eliminate errors is to get some other person to check your work.

Saturday 18^th April 2010

MOWING DIRT

The Dry (season) is nearly upon us in the tropical Northern Territory, and with the Dry comes clouds of annoying dust.

A lot of this dust is due to a quaint Darwin habit of continuing to mow verges and public areas even if the grass is dried and the area being bowed is mostly dirt.
Closely related is the use of leaf blowers (see below).

Saturday 18^th April 2010

LEAF BLOWERS

What an infernal invention!
Yard maintenance contractors come round regularly to the block of units where I live and diligently blow leaves against fences and into corners while getting dust all over my clean training cars and disturbing the peace with a tremendous din.

Monday 13^th June 2009

MY NICKNAME

I've been referred to as "Zipper" ever since high school at Loxton in South Australia in the early sixties.
I got the moniker because school mates had trouble pronouncing my last name "Ziersch" and it's followed me around ever since.

I don't mind because they could easily have chosen something offensive instead.
While casting around for a trading name for my business, all I could think of was "Zipper's Driving School" - the name's a bit weird I suppose but it's unique.

Monday 13^th June 2009

FIRST POST

Working on my website is an evening hobby so although I already have a blog on Blogspot.com I thought I'd put one on my own site as well.

My intention is to duplicate the blogs on both sites, I haven't got round to updating my Blogspot.com blog yet.
An interesting feature of Blogspot.com is the "National Geographic Photo of the Day".