Adi

Steve

Hi I'm Steve, I have lived in Oxfordshire all my life. when I was 17, I got my car licence same as everyone else around my age. My Adi at the time made driving fun and installed confidence into me to be able to drive :) well I went on and passed my test first time, a few years later a friend asked me if I would give them some basic lessons on a old track when no one went and I said yes, well after a little bit of up and down this track they went off and got paid lessons but they said they enjoyed basic lessons with me, and I always kept that in the back of my head.

Then I turned 21 was out of work and managed to get on to a retraining scheme, I took my HGV/LGV test when I was doing my training. I used to get left with other new drivers to teach them how to do the manouvers 😊 along with this I took my forklift truck licence for reach and counterbalance.

I then went on to use my HGV/LGV licence for about 4/5 years, Then I needed a bit of a change so went and worked for oxford bus and yeh you know it I got my bus licence. Stayed there for a year and went back to lorries again.

 Well during this time from lorries to Buses and back to lorries there was a program on BBC tv about driving with autism and this person was a ADI and teaching people to drive. Well that was it for me if they can do it I can, I did not know what I was letting myself in for, so went to BMS  in Oxford to have a chat and got no info apart from we teach you and give you pupils and you pay us. Never got a price or cost, so as normal if no price must be silly money and I've not got that sort of money with a young family. So back to driving lorries for a few more years.

Where I was working everything was good for about 3 years when I fell over at a customers site, had a little bit of time off with damaged ankle, and ended up a year later being paid out a few thousand.I then lost my job, so sat at home thinking ok a pounds in the pocket and its going to last me a few months, so I thought I wonder if I can get training again to be a ADI as free training for my HGV gave me work for a few years and then my PSV gave me work for a year. So I looked around and found the AA.Ok let’s do this so £3.5k chucked at them and lets start this training.

So I did the part 1 then part 2 and then my dad passed away and had to take a break from it as my head was not in the right place and I was working by this time. So I took a bit of down time, few months later I started the training again went off and done my part 3 and failed, this is nothing out of the orinary for a Adi to fail part 3 first time, so booked it again and smashed it second time with a 4/4 score. So I then started with the AA as a full time ADI. Over the next 6 months I filled the diary from 0 hrs to 40 plus hr every week teaching. I left the company I was working for at the time, and we are still good friends as it was family run.

Few years later I thought I’m going for another licence and that’s when I did my bike test well 3 of them to get full bike licence 😊 I then went on and did my fleet training and got my badge for that as well 😊 another driving test 😊

So, over the years from the time I turned 17 I have done :-

Car, lorry, bus, bike, Adi, fleet test being a total of 8 driving tests being around 1 every 4 years. So there’s nothing normal I’m not able to drive out there on the road and I have used all of them and i'm still qualified to use them.

So that’s enough from me when you get in the car ask away if you would like to know more about me, I’m easy to talk to and always up for a bit of banter

Take care all