About Ride Drive Limited – A Brief History

The objective of the Ride Drive company is to provide high quality advanced driver training, as well as advanced motorcycle courses, that will provide each customer with greater skills to use their car or motorcycle on the public road. It is to provide a period of enlightenment to show how there is life after the driving test and so much more to learn.

Hi, my name is Julian Smith and I am the owner of Ride Drive limited, which I run with the help of my wife, Angela. I have always had a passion for driving and for cars and never grow tired of helping others to understand how they can get much more fulfilment from road driving and motorcycling at advanced level, and be safer by doing it. This has always been the primary function of my company, although other business areas have been developed over the years too.

My Entry Into Ride Drive

The company was launched in November 1997, but I was not actually involved at the beginning. I came on the scene in 1998, almost exactly a year later. At that time, Graham Owen was in charge, but he and his then business partner had parted and Graham was looking for someone else to come on board.

I had known Graham for a number of years up to this point, as we were both working for the same police force and within the same police traffic patrol section. In fact, we were very often crewmates together, working the motorways, highways and byways of the Thames Valley and sharing the experiences this brought.

Ride Drive Was Started as a Hobby

Graham launched Ride Drive as a hobby and that’s all it was in the beginning. He wanted to promote his passion for motorcycling at advanced rider level by sharing his exceptional skills and knowledge among ordinary motorcyclists. It was only after I came on the scene that Ride Drive became involved in cars as well as bikes.

Over the years, we gradually took the company from the status of a small and localised specialist interest organisation towards being the nationally recognised major player in the field of advanced driver and motorcycle rider training it is today.

Sadly, and for health reasons, on New Year’s Eve in 2004, Graham had to relinquish his involvement with Ride Drive. From that point, my wife and I took control of the company and went forward on our own.

Tough Times With Tough Challenges

At the time my wife and I unexpectedly became responsible for Ride Drive, the company had just become VAT registered. This was not a situation taken on voluntarily, but a forced circumstance on account of the recorded financial turnover of the previous 12–months of trading. Ride Drive didn’t just topple over the VAT registration threshold either; it crashed through the fence in spectacular fashion and quite a way beyond.

The situation was now that of trying to run a fast growing business at the same time as holding down a full time job, and with my wife trying to run a home as well as look after the needs of two children. Far from being a hobby concern, Ride Drive was now becoming a commercial animal and one that constantly required feeding, getting ever more restless for more attention.

By the time I retired from the police service in early October 2005, none of us were coping with the demands required to run a business of this nature. This was a full–time commitment being run as a part–time job. Once I had retired from the police service my wife and I were then able to give Ride Drive the attention is deserved.

Taking the Company Forward into New Markets

In September 2004, Ride Drive became involved in an area of work that appeared on the face of it to be something quite bazaar. To learn that a once confident and capable driver could suddenly develop such a condition as driving phobia was something that was not easy to understand.

All I can say from my viewpoint today is that I wish I had known what I know now throughout my time in the police service, as I realise I had met a number of phobic drivers, but never realised that fact at the time.

Ride Drive took on the company’s first driving phobia case almost completely blind. None of us had the first clue about the condition, but accepted the task as a challenge and as a favour to a firm of solicitors who had nowhere else to turn. The case was reported as that of a road traffic collision victim, who had developed an abject fear of driving on certain road types.

The task ended with complete success and inspired an incredible journey of research and development into what has since become a whole section of our business. Over the years more and more research was completed into Road Anxiety Disorder and more and more knowledge gained.

What has been remarkable to find out is that many of the skills required to be effective in this field of work have been those gained from many areas of police training and active street experience in that role.

High Performance Car Clubs and Sports Car Groups

The first sports car owners club with which Ride Drive became involved was the TVR Car Club and this association unfortunately began as a result of a fatality involving a TVR Chimaera. It was the dealership who had sold the car that became the first point of contact between Ride Drive and TVR owners. This naturally led us to the TVR Car Club.

The association with the TVR Car Club began in 1999, and has grown stronger ever since. Writing features for the club magazine, Sprint, and attending TVR Car Club organised and sponsored events and shows, has been regular activities, all of which has helped the company to form an ever stronger bond with the club and its members.

Ride Drive provide club members with high performance car driver training to help enjoy their powerful sports cars in a safe manner on the public road. Our performance car driving courses are very popular among TVR drivers, with long serving club members always ready to advise newcomers to TVR’s how a Ride Drive course is recommended to be part of the TVR sports car ownership package.

From TVR’s, Ride Drive has become involved with the Honda S2000 owners club, known as S2KUK, the Nissan 350Z owners club, Triumph Sports Six Club and Mazda MX–5’s. Any member of these organisations who wishes to book a course with Ride Drive can take advantage of a discounted rate of 10% to be deducted from the course fee.

Discount Car Insurance for Advanced Drivers

During all the years since I was a part of Ride Drive I campaigned for motor insurance service providers to recognise how much of a reduced claim risk was represented by advanced drivers. The task was one of complete frustration, having to deal with what I found to be the closed minds of people who could not, or refused to, think outside the box.

It was early in 2007 that I met with the management team of Adrian Flux Insurance Services at their headquarters just outside Kings Lynn. It was from there I came away with an incredible deal of 20% discount car insurance, excluding insurance tax, that I could offer to all Ride Drive customers when assessed as representing a low level of claim risk.

I had at last found a motor insurance provider that was prepared to listen and who recognised the high quality training provided by the Ride Drive organisation. The scheme is still thriving and becoming ever more popular.

Young Driver Safety – Better Than Pass Plus

On a smaller scale, Ride Drive has become involved in a young driver training scheme within the county of Buckinghamshire. The driving course is called, Get in Gear, and is aimed at 17 – 24–year olds who have passed the driving test no more than 1–year ago. Get in Gear offers a much better quality post test driver training programme than Pass Plus.

Get in Gear is a local authority road safety initiative for which Ride Drive is the driver training service provider, managing a small dedicated team of trainers. These are people, who used to be standard driving instructors, but who have now been trained to a high standard by police trained advanced drivers on the Ride Drive team.

Where Ride Drive is Today

Today, Ride Drive is a provider of advanced training for drivers of standard cars as well as high performance cars in all regions of the mainland UK. We have even sent representatives of the company to foreign lands to provide training in various forms.

Advanced rider training for motorcyclists is offered, risk assessment and defensive driving courses that provide training for fleet vehicle users, so reducing occupational road risk for those who drive as part of their employment role.

Ride Drive own a number of nationally accredited advanced driving courses and motorcycle rider courses. Using the highest trained members of the team we deliver driver and motorcycle rider training, which provides successful candidates with a recognised driving or motorcycle riding qualification.

As already stated, the company is committed to helping those drivers who are psychologically handicapped from leading what would be regarded as a normal life in a motor vehicle on a road. This is an area in which we have developed an outstanding amount of expertise and success.

At the time of writing, Ride Drive continues to prosper and thrive, maintaining a solid reputation as a driver training services provider that delivers good, honest defensive advanced driver training from a legitimate skills background.

It is at Ride Drive where driver and machine work together in perfect harmony.

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This page was last updated
Thursday, 26-Apr-2012

About Ride Drive Limited – A Brief History