Published July 19th, 2007
in car exhaust, dizziness, falling asleep at the wheel, insurance rip-off, car fumes, carbon monoxide, petrol, ambrand, mijag, irish driving and driving.
In the last few days a hole developed in the exhaust of my car, and as being young - viz under 25 - the faceless corporation I am forced to call my car insurance company wanted a kings ransom to transfer my cover to the Garage’s courtesy car.
After some ringing around I found out it was actually cheaper to Rent a car. Now there must be something about rented cars… I found myself drawn to stop at ancient monuments and admiring knitted jumpers in craft shops, perhaps Failte Ireland have patented some chemical that is sprayed in Rental cars to steer wealth American tourists in the “right” directions?
Returning to my car - as I did yesterday - the Garage said there was a hole in the Manifold, which is an area under the gear stick where the straight exhaust connects to the engine block. Thus the toxic gases, including but not limited to carbon monoxide (CO), had been expelled at a dangerous location, too close to the cabin. CO is like radiation, viz you can’t see it or smell it, and its very dangerous.
Fortunately in a cars exhaust you can smell other gases, and you can hear the loud noise, and that is what made me bring it to the Garage for a servce. But it is conceiveable that if one had hayfaver causing a blocked nose, and if one was not used to the sound of a given cars engine and exhaust that one could drive in blissful ignorance of the dangers below. The CO would make the drive sleepy, and as we all know fall asleep at the wheel could lead to a crash.
- Is in-cabin CO the cause of so many “single car accidents” in Ireland today?
- Does the NCT test CO levels inside cars when the engine is running and the windows are closed?
I have bought a CO metre with a three digit proper number display showing ppm. I’m going to keep it in my car turned on at all times. I’ll keep it supplied with 9V batteries.
In conclusion… Does you car smell?
Published August 4th, 2006
in driving, government and uncategorized.
I have zero penalty points on my driving licence, but I was thinking if an unmarked garda car was to follow my car - or any other persons car who has zero points - lets say as an experiment for an entire day that points would be quickly accumulated.
For the experiment the occupants of this hypothetical garda car are paying close attention to only my driving, and are doning things exactly by the book.
Lets see what happens.
Maybe in slow moving traffic you were just a bit too close to the car in front “Failure to leave appropriate distance between you and the vehicle in front” 2 points, maybe you pulled out for a cyclist and two wheels crossed a continuous white line for a second “Crossing white lines” 2 points and sure lets add “Dangerous overtaking” 2 points, maybe you were unfamiliar with an area and drove almost stright over a ghost roundabout “Failure to turn vehicle left onto a roundabout” 1 point, maybe on a narrow street in a scenic tourist town while crawling along you had to put two wheels on the footpath to pass a parked delivery truck “Contravention of restrictions of driving a vehicle on a footway” 1 point, maybe when coming to a stop sign you stopped with your front wheels just past the sign “Failure to stop at stop sign” 2 points.
Note how many offences carry multiple points, so I easily reached 8. What does that mean? Well for each point there is a monetary fine, but more importantly the cost of my insurance would rocket, and if the experiment was to continue and I accumulated 12 points, within a 3-year period, then I would automatically lose my driving licence for 6 months.
Fortunately I am not being followed by an observant garda car in real life, but the message is clear, driver carefully because it is your licence on the line.
Continue reading ‘Penalty Points’
Published March 22nd, 2006
in driving, government and uncategorized.
A reason given for the lenght of the list is the high number of no-shows. Why would someone fail to turn up? and more importanty if they did actually know they couldn’t make it why didn’t they cancel?
Well today I learned that the driving test fee is non-refundable regardless of the notice given
to cancel! A candidate who cancels 10 days in advance will be allowed to reschedule without payment of an additional fee, however this means going to the end of the list as if he just applied.
So imagine you have received a letter, after 10 months of waiting you have your test date, unfortunately because tests are only run on weekdays, during office hours, you have to be at work on that particular day, you knew you would get a date and take time off, but due to a rush job you can’t do it on that day. Well, you’re not going to cancel because that would mean another 10 month wait for sure, so you say nothing and hope, just hope, to get off work for the crucial hour, ultimately you can’t.
You lose your fee, the Department of Transport is happy as it doesn’t have to process refunds and employ more staff, the tester is happy as he still gets paid. Only the candidate loses.
What always surprises me is the governments short sightedness. Most candidates are aged 17-22, and were born in Ireland. On reaching this age they want to drive, this is not a surprise, it is predictable, years in advance. Schools know about predicting and look at birthrate in their catchment areas and think ahead, but alas…
Continue reading ‘Driving test waiting list’
Published January 20th, 2006
in driving and government.
A perennial issue raised by the fourth estate in Ireland is the driving test waiting list. Thats right, not the test itself but the actual waiting list. The published waiting times and suggest that 6 months is average, however the word on the street is 8-9 months. What does this mean to someone on the list? Lets say Mr X is on the list
- He pays loaded car insurance (empirically EUR 200)
- He must be accomponied by a licenced driver
People often complain of waiting lists for scheduled operations in public hospitals, however at least there if a person has the money he can take jump onto private fasttrack. The driving test on the other hand has no private alternative, so even if the waiting time increased to 6 years a candidate could do nothing but wait.
Lets examine why the waiting time has been allowed to grow long. Who profits from it?
- The insurance company enjoy the higher premiums
- The government take a slice of the insurance cake through their “temporary” two percent insurance levy
- The driver testers enjoy concrete job security because of the continuous supply of candidates
As an aside, the second point is applicable to all comsumer purchases in the form of VAT @ 21%.
Well, what is the solution? Well there is no need to reinvent the wheel, for every service in one country there is an eqivilent in another, so the most successful model should be identified and implemented.
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