About Driving Academy Global

Driving Academy Global has delivered training to numerous blue chip companies and high-profile organisations, including the British Army, ProDrive Motorsport, Bentley, BMW, Armourgroup Hereford and Ultimate Car Control.

From 2010 to 2013, the Academy delivered driver training in Doha, Qatar. The company, Enertec Qatar, needed courses for both heavy and light vehicles, plus driver presentations.  The Academy also asked to assess drivers on the road and while driving in the desert. Neil Jones personally devised and delivered all these courses, which were received with extremely positive feedback from both the company and the trainees.

In 2012, the Academy presented seminars in psychomotive and cognitive driver behaviour in Mumbai, India, for various international clients.
In 2014, the Academy delivered a series of courses in defensive driving for a large oil company in Kuwait.

Our trainers haven’t just learned their skills on closed circuits. Their experience has been gained on real roads and hostile environments all over the world.

We don’t just tell you what to do. Our training is designed to be fully interactive so that trainees develop their skills through discussion, explanation, demonstration and tuition. By using these techniques, our trainees learn better and quicker. The standard of driving they achieve is higher and, most importantly, safer.

Our philosophy is to deliver training that will improve the skills of the individual and to make them safer, both for themselves and the people that they serve.  Any reduction in accident rates will have a huge knock-on effect in savings of sickness pay, opportunity costs, hardware and training of replacement staff.

Neil Jones

Director

Driving Academy Global was founded in 2010 by director Neil Jones. He has more than 20 years’ experience in specialist defensive driving, and close protection and high performance driver training. He has worked on behalf of police forces, security agencies, blue chip companies and private clients in these fields.
Neil specialises in all types of driver training, from basic to advanced level, including evasive, tactical and pursuit techniques, and has delivered courses globally, in countries from Kenya to Qatar. His qualifications include: DSA Approved Driving Instructor (1996), DSVA Fleet Trainer (2002), RoSPA BTEC Diploma Distinction, Skid Car UK Trainer (2003), ARDS Instructor, RoSPA (Gold), IAM Diamond.

Komal Bhura

Marketing & Sales

k.bhura@drivingacademyglobal.com
Komal graduated from Kingston University in 2004 with a Bachelor’s degree with honours in Chemistry. After graduation Komal worked for Proctor and Gamble as a researcher and then moved to Pfizer Qunitles and GSK as Pharmaceutical representative.
In her spare time, Komal enjoys going to the gym, swimming and reading.

Andy Wheeler

Head of Hostile & Close Protection Training

info@drivingacademyglobal.com
Andy served for over twenty two years as an infantry soldier in the British Army.  His operational tours include Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Sierra Leone.  Andy has held a number of instructional posts in his time in the Armed forces, serving as a recruit instructor, an overseas instructor in the Czech Republic and as a tactics instructor at the Infantry Battle School in Wales.  He attained the rank of Warrant Officer before leaving the army.  Since then Andy has been employed in the private security sector; qualified as a Maritime Security Officer (MSO) and qualified & licensed as a Close Protection Officer (CPO). His most recent appointments include Maritime Security Team Leader conducting anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean and Executive Close Protection Officer in London. Andy’s free time is filled with marathon and ultra-marathon running, property renovation and learning to fish.

Targeted Training Modules (TTM)

In order to help our clients ensure that a suitable level of training is given to individual drivers, Driving Academy Global has developed a training system, TTM. This defines the level of risk posed by the driver so that a level of training aligned with their requirements can be given. This avoids unnecessary pressure on training budgets as well as ensuring that individuals are not kept from their revenue-generating work for any longer than is needed. TTM is a 4-stage process:

Profiling:   An assessment of individual experience, history and attitudes.
Matching: Formulating a training plan for each individual.
Training: Providing training to modify attitude and behaviour as required.
Tracking: Monitoring post-training performance.

Profiling
Given that all young learner drivers in the UK are currently trained to DL25 standards (where DL25 is effectively a formalisation and refinement of the driving techniques we have all been taught to pass driving tests since 1935), it is unlikely that there is anything intrinsically wrong with the actual driving techniques we all employ. Individual attitudes to competence and risk, however, are another matter altogether.
Driving Academy Global risk profiling is a RoSPA-accredited assessment designed to identify individuals whose attitude to risk and risk-taking is likely to have a negative effect on their driving style. This falls into two parts:

Questionnaire
Delving into a driver’s experience, collision history and attitude to risk and risk-taking. The resultant profile can then be used to assist in deciding what level of training is appropriate in each case.

Post-training risk profile
Which is completed by trainers for each driver at the end of an on-road session. It provides an assessment of response to training and application of key driving and judgment skills.
(The post-training risk profile is included in the basic cost of training. The pre-training profile is charged on a per capita basis.)

Tracking
If you do not already monitor vehicle collision rates, individual mileages, fuel and maintenance costs as a part of your fleet management process, Driving Academy Global can advise you on how to put this into place as well as linking those parameters to training requirements.

Driving Academy Global will meet the needs and expectations of our customers and support the organizational goals and established quality objectives, through the application and continual improvement of the quality management system.

Our training has numerous benefits, including:

• Compliance with Health and Safety Legislation and Duty of Care to employees and the public
• Clear procedures and techniques which enable thorough investigation of incidents
• Systems designed to minimise accidents and injuries
• Improved staff morale and sense of employee self worth
• Improved insurance terms
• A degree of protection against the negative publicity consequences of a fatality/serious injury involving an employee
• Reduced cost of vehicle fleet operation:
• Reduced direct repair cost
• Reduced fuel consumption
• Reduced tyre wear and other consumables
• Reduced vehicle downtime
• Reduced staff downtime/inability to work
• Improved vehicle residual value/vehicle longevity.