Driving Skills

[Gregory Matthews]

NOTE:L  I am writing from the standpoint of the United States.  I do not know about the application in Canada, or any other country.

As many of you probably know, for decades  people have generally been able to obtain a 3-year discount off of their automobile insurance by taking a driving skills course.

There is a relatively new course that is now offered that sets the standard for this type of a course.    Its development was substantially funded by Toyota and developed by the American Association of Retired People (AARP).  It is offered in a classroom setting (8 hours) in many cities in the U. S. and in an online course for people who have computer access.  It is the online course that I will discuss here.  You can access it at:

https://www.aarpdriversafety.org/?intcmp=AE-MIV-AARPAUTO-BUY

NOTE  I am in the process of taking the online course and I am very impressed with it and consider to be of greater value than any other course that I have taken through the years.  By the way, I was issued my first drivers license at the age of 14, in California.  So, I have many years of driving and I lost track of my mileage count when I exceeded 1,000,000 miles.

Basics:  The online course  is a high-tech course that may be taken at your own rate of speed, as long as you complete it within 60 days of purchase.  The discount off of your automobile insurance will differ by the State in which you live, the limits of your insurance policy and your driving record.  You can telephone your insurance company and ask what you insurance discount will be.    On a personal basis, I believe that this course would be of value for anyone who either lives with, or is closely related to an elderly person.  It will help them to better understand  issues related to elderly people who are driving.

  Cost:

*  In a classroom, check with the instructor.

*  Online, $25 for people who are not AARP members.

*  Online, $20 for people who are AARP members.

*  One of the   interesting tings about this course it that it has a lot of physical exercises that increase the driving skills of elderly people.

*  To take this course, your computer must use a browser that supports Adobe Flash.   While the Windows 10 browser is supposed to work with Flash, I found it worked better for me to use the Firefox browser for taking this course.  Other versions of the Windows OS should work fine, and Windows 10 may work fine.

*  If you use Windows 10, in my experience, you will do better with using Internet Explorer as your browser.  I have problems with using Edge as my browser in W-10,

*  You will not be able to finish the online course in less than 8 hours as that length of time has been established in the legal requirements for the insurance discount in some states.

*  At places in the course you will click on an icon that will give you specific information related to the State that has issued your drivers license.

 *  The insurance discount is tied to the State that issued your drivers license.

*  Once you have completed the 8-hour course, you may take a 4-hour course to extend the 3-year insurance discount.

*  This course is offered in languages other than English.

 

 

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

Today I completed the course.  As I experienced it, software problems exist for people who use Windows 10 and the Edge Browser.  Windows 10 people who use the Internet Explorer browser do not have those problems.

I have discussed the software problems with them in greater detail.

They have a 24-hour per day help telephone line.  As I experienced it, functionally it did not work due to multi-hour waiting periods.  I found their e-mail help line to work although it would take 24 + hours to respond.

Outside of these problems, I found the course to be quite vaulable.