SURVEYS AND RESULTS
To date The Under 17 Car Club Charitable Trust has undertaken six surveys of its ex-members
Our surveys now cover young drivers from over 25 years (the participants in the first survey in 2006 reached back as far as 1995) confirms our contention that carefully designed and delivered pre-licence driver education delivers substantial benefits. The aggregate reportable collision rate of our students is 1 in 19 (across all surveys) which compares very favourably with their peers who, on DfT statistics, continue to experience a rate of 1 in 4.5. With over 1600 students now having taking part we can assert that Pathfinder has saved around 276 reportable collisions since its commencement in 2008.
At an average cost of around £150,000 (all collisions, all severities) that is a saving of about £41 million pounds delivered from a volunteer run programme.
The project would not be possible without the ongoing practical and financial support we receive from you, support which means no child has ever been refused a place on Pathfinder, regardless of their circumstances.
IAMRoadsmart
The Under 17 Car Club is the only young driver development scheme formally approved by IAMRoadSmart. Many Under 17 Car Club and Pathfinder graduates go on to IAMRoadSmart Membership aged only 17 and most Instructors are IAMRoadSmart Members with a significant proportion being National Observers.
Research Approach
Our research is primarily focused on comparing experiences with peer groups nationally
While developing and maintaining an awareness of other driver education activity aimed at our target group both in the UK and overseas, and of academic and governmental publications internationally, our own activity is primarily empirical and based on those engaged with our work.
This provides us with a continually evolving sample group and the ability to report achievement on an extended longitudinal basis. Our evidence now extends to cover experiences over more than ten years.
We recognise that relative to the total number of new drivers entering this high risk group each year, our current share is small. Nonetheless, we believe that there is sufficient robustness in our findings in both numbers of participants and longevity of the work to have confidence in the findings. Our formal survey work and findings are tested by experts to ensure that our claims are appropriately justified and robust. These experts have been drawn from Liverpool John Moores University and Manchester Business School.
We will continue to update our findings with each survey (approximately every 1 to 2 years). The key findings of all four surveys provided confirmation that the work of the Trust delivers significant benefit to participants.
The purpose of the surveys
Identify
Identify areas for improvement in the experience of members
Confirm
Confirm or refute the beliefs of the Club in relation to the benefits of membership
Provide
Provide a sound statistical basis for discussions with supporting organisations
Boost
Evidence to boost talks with Gov. Departments, Road Safety and Transport Ministers