ADUK Archive

Hi, everyone, good morning!

I am happy to join the forum and looking forward to be part of your group. My name is Vladimir, I am Russian and based in Moscow. I have done Diploma course in Rospa in 2010 and later passed Advanced test with IAM . I would call myself Advanced driving enthusiast, and this is my prime interest in joining your forum. In Russia we do not have Roadcraft and the majority of drivers have no clue about advanced driving. Apart from 50-60 defensive driving trainers who have done Diploma course with Rospa. Hope one day the situation will change.

val848 wrote:Hi, everyone, good morning!

I am happy to join the forum and looking forward to be part of your group. My name is Vladimir, I am Russian and based in Moscow. I have done Diploma course in Rospa in 2010 and later passed Advanced test with IAM . I would call myself Advanced driving enthusiast, and this is my prime interest in joining your forum. In Russia we do not have Roadcraft and the majority of drivers have no clue about advanced driving. Apart from 50-60 defensive driving trainers who have done Diploma course with Rospa. Hope one day the situation will change.

Great to have you on the forum. What led to you taking the Rospa Diploma course?

We see many videos of horrible crashes in Russia, which gives us the impression that driving in Russia is extraordinarily dangerous. Are we getting a fair impression, that driving in your country is many times more dangerous than driving in Western Europe? With the benefit of your higher level of observation and anticipation, does driving in your country feel reasonably safe?

Hello, and thank you for your question!

Yes, indeed, driving here is much more dangerous than in the UK. I would say there are several reasons for that: poor initial driver training- there is no standard for Learner driver as yet, any person can announce himself as driving instructor, also we came very fast from the time when there were very little number of cars and nearly impossible to buy them, to the time, when very powerful vehicles are available. To add to that Russian people like to drive fast and quite aggressively. Again, poor enforcement from local police. Actually, the police are not trained as police in your country to drive safely. So overall, there are 27000 people killed every year for the last 5 years and the situation is not really improving. Which gives an opportunity for private companies who know how it should be done to open business and train drivers. Again, major demand comes from international companies. The fact that driving is dangerous here, many people have dash cameras so that footage can be used in court in case of an incident. Also for the last years we have too many people from ex Soviet Union republics, like Uzbekistan, who come to Russia to earn money. The come and work as cleaners or drivers with even less experience. They are paid less than Russians, but private companies like that, so the result is increased statistics.

I work as fleet safety manager and always wanted to improve my driving to a better level, So passed Advance test and later took a Diploma course. .I found Advanced test with Rospa more difficult than with IAM. I suppose because it was the first test. Anyway, it was the best training I have ever done. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks. We look fwd to your input. You will realise most of us are in the UK, except Astraist who is in Israel.