Johannesburg, 24 April 2012
African Licence

You are about to embark on your learner’s licence study and you are getting nervous - you know some of the curriculum well, some of it less so, and a few parts are quite alien. How do you study to both understand the curriculum and are able to apply it successfully in the learner’s licence test? 

Creative Colibri, African Licence’s parent company, recommends following its scientifically proven Virtuous Circle of Study:

Step A: Begin with an understanding of your strengths & development areas
Step B: Read the curriculum starting with where you need most development
Step C: Test your comprehension after this study and then repeat the steps again until you are ready for the exam.

In a series of three blog posts, African Licence and Creative Colibri will take you through the Virtuous Circle of Study. Stay tuned for next week’s post, which focuses on Step A: Begin with an understanding of your strengths and development areas. 

your team at africanlicence

Cape Town, 9 April 2012
African Licence

African Licence supports good education initiatives, which includes the Fatal Moves programme launched in KwaZulu-Natal last August with good response from learner’s licence students. 

The objective of Fatal Moves is to illustrate to learner’s licence students and drivers the dangers of poor driving. The programme achieves this by requiring all passing KwaZulu-Natal learner’s licence students a 15-minute educational video on how a set of 14 bad driving behaviours may make the difference between living and dying on South African Roads. 

Ismail Amod and his company Neo Africa, who started the Fatal Moves programme, researched the common causes of serious accidents, collected strong, graphic imagery from accidents, and used this to show how bad driving can change the life of drivers, their friends and families.

The 14 ‘fatal moves’ include: The impact of alcohol and drugs on driving; Aggressive driving, e.g. tailgating or hogging the fast lane; Overloading the vehicle; Speeding; Not using a seatbelt; and many more. Please refer to the Fatal Moves website for the full list of 14 Fatal Moves. 

In addition to reading the Fatal Moves website, the best way to commit to safer driving is to join Imperial on their I-PLEDGE initiative. With I-PLEDGE, you will personally commit to one safer driving behaviour and ensure you always act responsibly to create safer roads for everyone in South Africa.

Cape Town, 8 November 2011
African Licence

African Licence today launched a new South African mobile phone learner’s licence test app. The app enables African Licence users to carry the free African Licence eBook and more than 700 questions in their back pockets. The app web-based application that works on all mobile phones with Blackberry, Android, Apple iOS, Symbian, and Windows Mobile operating systems.

Says Johannesburg-based founder and Chief Marketing Officer Christo Crampton: “This is a major milestone for South African learner’s licence students. This release removes any need for students to buy expensive books or desktop applications, and helps students pass their learners licence test first time by studying at a time and place that is convenient to them.”

The company estimates that nearly 15 million South Africans with a smartphone can carry a version of the free learner’s licence eBook in their pocket. More importantly, African Licence hopes more students that previously couldn’t study for the learners licence due to lack of access to facilities or instructors can now study and get on the road safely and cheaply.

All the existing features of African Licence remains: a free eBook, a dozen mock tests, more than 700 unique questions across the learner’s licence curriculum, and online help should students have questions about the curriculum or learner’s licence test.

For more information, please contact African Licence at http://www.africanlicence.com via the website’s Feedback feature, which is accessible on all pages.

The following article was authored by Romaana Naidoo for the City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za). All views represents those of the author and the City of Johannesburg website. 

A free ebook has been launched for people to study for their learner’s licence, aimed at improving driver skills. The knock-on effect will be improved safety on the roads.

The new book comes at a time when road safety is in the spotlight. The minister of transport has pledged support for the UN’s Decade of Action campaign and the head of transport in the City is working on setting up a road safety council.

African Licence, a Joburg company, offers the full learner’s licence curriculum, plus images, that is needed to pass the test anywhere in the country.

Founder, Christo Crampton, says: “I am passionate about safe driving and have created a website that provides citizens with free learning material. All they need to do is sign in and get a high quality free ebook, which will teach them safe driving skills.”

In May, a friend of Crampton’s took his driving licence test. “He found the books cumbersome and the online propositions difficult to navigate and expensive relative to what you got. In addition, speaking to students in a test centre queue it was clear that getting learner’s licence lessons from instructors was expensive, as much as R700 for certain courses,” he says.

Website
“Then it hit me: why don’t I put together a user-friendly ebook and learner’s licence practice website that can be accessible by all South Africans from all backgrounds?

“African Licence’s mission is to ‘make all South Africans safe, skilled drivers’ and therefore reduce road accidents and fatalities and make our roads safe,” he says. Approximately 14 000 people are killed each year in road accidents in South Africa.

“To achieve this, we want to make the best content (the high quality ebook with the largest linked database of example questions) accessible to everyone … This means we have high quality content available through different mediums, and it is why we offer online access to our ebook for free.”

Students get in-depth knowledge regarding the basics of driving; controls of a vehicle; rules of the road; road traffic signs, signals and markings; road safety; and motorist’s responsibilities in the event of an accident.

The launch has taken place during the City’s annual Transport Month, held every October. This year the theme is “Connecting people and places”. Crampton says: “The ebook can be accessed with smartphones and … makes it not only unique in South Africa, but unique in open source professional education worldwide.”

eBook
African Licence features a free ebook, complete with illustrations and simple concepts; winning study tips; community interaction; a dozen mock tests; and an additional 700 unique questions which have been designed to prepare students for their learner’s licence exam.

Crampton adds that the website also has a feedback link, which allows people to post questions and ideas, as well as any advice that might be helpful to others.

The South African driving licence test consists of two exams: the theoretical learner’s licence test and the practical driving licence exam. There are three categories of learner’s licence – category one is motor cycles, motor tricycles and quadrucycles; category two is light motor vehicles less than 3 500 kilograms; and category three is all other vehicles.

Once students successfully pass their learner’s licence exam, they need to find a professional driving instructor to help them pass their driving licence test. African Licence also helps in this step, through its iDrive link. iDrive is a quick and easy way to find quality driving schools and instructors.

There are three things to take into account when selecting a driving instructor, namely: make sure the instructor has a valid driving instructor’s certificate, find an instructor based close by, and ensure you can taught in your preferred language. Interview multiple instructors to find the right one.

Coming in the same month, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, along with ministers of transport from member countries of the Southern African Development Community, pledged his support for the United Nation’s Decade of Action 2011-2020 campaign to improve road safety and decrease the number of fatalities.

Also in the pipeline, is the minister’s plan to implement a requirement that drivers have at least 120 hours of actual driving, with 20 hours of night driving, between getting their learner’s licence and getting their driving licence.

Johannesburg, 24 October 2011

African Licence (http://www.africanlicence.com) today launched a new learner’s licence test center. The release makes it easier to create and manage tests, understand where a learner’s strengths and development areas are, and includes multiple new tests designed to help students learn the curriculum and pass their learner’s licence test first time.

Says Johannesburg founder Christo Crampton: “The learner’s licence test center is a ‘first’ for the learner’s licence industry globally and it is wonderful that we can give South Africans access to it before others have it.”

One of the most important new features is enhanced feedback on individual tests. African Licence will analyse the results and show students which sections of the eBook they need to focus on to improve the next time they take a test. Also, students can now measure progress over time to ensure their studying leads to the results they need.

All the existing features of African Licence remains: a free eBook, a dozen mock tests, more than 700 unique questions across the learner’s licence curriculum, and online help should students have questions about the curriculum or learner’s licence test. The eBook can be accessed with smartphones and allows people from all backgrounds to get driving.

Says Mr Crampton: “We are excited about some of the things we’ve added to African Licence in this release, but we are even more excited about changes that are coming in the next few months.” While Mr Crampton keeps his cards close to his chest about the future releases, he divulges it will be “mobile, fun for students, and game-changing to African Licence’s proposition.”

African Licence helps learner’s licence students pass their test. African Licence is the best way to learn for and pass your Learner’s Licence the first time. Sign up today to get access for over 700 questions, mock Learner’s Licence tests and more.

For more information, please contact African Licence at http://www.africanlicence.com via the website’s Feedback feature, which is accessible on all pages.

Last updated: Cape Town, 17th October 2011

Congratulations! You successfully passed your Learner’s Licence exam and you now need to find the best professional driving instructor to help you pass your Driver’s Licence test.  But how do you select one when there are thousands of instructors available?

Learning to drive is exciting and serious at the same time: you want to learn, but you want to do that with a driving instructor that is just right for you. There are many sources of driving instructors, but none, in our mind, as helpful, relevant and fun as iDRIVE.co.za.

Three things are particularly important when you select a driving instructor:

1. Make sure the instructor has a valid driving instructor’s certificate.
This should be issued by the Local Government Traffic Department. This means the instructor will be trained, qualified and legally permitted to train instructors in become safe, skilled drivers.

2. Find an instructor near you and who teaches you in your language.
You will be spending a lot of time driving; find an instructor that not only teaches you all the skills you require, but does so in your own language in that can make you a safer driver on the specific roads you travel on normally.

3. Interview multiple instructors to find one that is right for you.
Check out a few different driving instructors in your area and make sure you can work with them. Importantly, you should check the following things: prices and packages, how many students they help pass at first attempt, and whether or not you can work with them.

There are many sources of driving instructors, but none as helpful, relevant and fun as iDRIVE.co.za. They check the possession of valid driving instructor certificates, make it easy to find quality driving instructors in your area that offer the driving code and language you require, and has a helpful feature for to contact instructors through free SMS or email. And best of all: it is FREE, so represent a really good place to Find the Best Driving Instructor for Your Needs.

Last updated: Cape Town, 2nd October 2011

There is no magic to driving safely: Stay attentive; avoid distraction; keep to a speed commensurate with road, traffic and weather conditions; and maintain a safe following distance. This article lays out five specific tips for how you can drive safely - it should take you 4 minutes to read. For additional safe driving tips, read African Licence.
 
1. Maintain distance around your vehicle
Make sure you have space between your vehicle, other vehicles and other potential hazards. Maintain a safe-following distance to vehicles ahead; ensure you let vehicles following you too closely pass; and keep a distance from hazards to your sides (driveways, parked vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians, and so on). The cheapest insurance you have is space around your vehicle - the more space you have, the safer you will be.

2. Extend your vision and identify escape routes
Look well ahead of yourself to pick up on hazardous situations early. The earlier you see a hazard, the easier it is to take corrective action. A rule of thumb is that you should scan the road 12 seconds ahead of where you are. This means at 50km/h, you should scan 150 metres ahead and at 100 km/h you should scan 300 metres ahead.

Once you have identified a hazard, reduce your speed and increase your following distance so you can react in plenty of time if a hazardous situation develops.  

3. Keep your eyes moving
As well as looking ahead, you should also use your mirrors to look the sides and behind every seconds. This will further help you spot hazardous situations. Moving your eyes regularly also help you stay alert.

4. Don’t get distracted
Things like music, passengers, animals and many more things can distract you (see African Licence for a full list of potential distractions). You should ignore distractions when you are driving behind the wheel and never take your eyes of the road. If you do get distracted, stop the car, deal with the distraction and proceed only when it is safe to do so.

5. Keep learning
You should continuously improve your driving skills. Practise will help you refine these, but there are also instructors that can help you become a safer driver iDRIVE.co.za is the best South African source of professional driving schools for students wishing to find qualified instructors that can help them become safer, more skilled drivers.

Last updated: Cape Town, 3rd August 2011

Each day, almost 40 lives are lost and 20 people are left permanently disabled in South Africa from traffic related accidents. In the Easter Weekend of 2011 alone, 203 people were killed in road accidents. South Africa’s road traffic mortality rate of 40 per 100 000 is estimated to be 26% higher than the aggregate for the African region and nearly double the global rate. Driving safely, therefore, is not only a legal requirement – it is a responsibility to fellow citizens to ensure everyone can live long and healthy lives.

The unfortunate reality is that things are not getting better. South Africa’s progress against its targets to reduce fatalities is abysmal. While there has been a small improvement in March this year, the last two years road fatalities have been on the increase and the gap between the 2015 target to reduce road fatalities by 50% and actual road fatalities is growing (see chart below).

2 of 5 persons killed in traffic related accidents are pedestrians. Of these, 1 out of 5 persons killed were children. Overall, more than half of people killed in traffic related accidents were in the age between 20 and 44. 

So what can be done? Alcohol plays a big role (linked to nearly half of the road fatalities in South Africa) and so does excessive speed (reported to account for 30-50% of traffic related accidents). 

The answer lies in education on several levels.

• Government: Better and more government campaigning to explain the dangers of alcohol and excessive speeding, and the limited benefits of either
• Learner’s License: Improved learner’s license education focused on safe driving behaviours, educating driver’s on the dangers of alcohol and speed, in a way that is sufficiently robust to ensure that young drivers become safe drivers.
• Driver’s License: Driver’s License education that is focused on safety above ‘passing the test’, where there are clear minimum requirements for how much time students should spend with certified, skilled instructors.
• Friends & Family: Friends and family that cares and asks each other to avoid driving after drinking and slow down when things are going to fast. 

South Africa’s traffic related fatalities can be reduced to zero, but it requires a concerted effort from government, driving instructors and the public to insure everyone can live long and healthy lives. 

African Licence