Today's episode is taken from our new podcast, Driving Test Tips, which is based around the top 10 reasons that people fail their driving test. However, the content of the episodes, isn't just for learner drivers as we hope that it will help drivers who want to build their confidence, fill any gaps in their knowledge, or maybe have a light bulb moment while they're listening. So our final one in this series is not keeping control of the vehicle during reverse parking. So reverse parking in referring to a parallel park on the side of the road, or reverse parking in to a parking bay. Again, it's all about control. And the controls of the car. Basically. So if you think of a parallel park and you know, you're doing really well with a parallel park, but what happens is the, either the back or the front of the car as you're coming into the space hits the curb or you end on the pavement. So, you've gone up the curb, you've actually mounted it. Sometimes what they do is they also use lowered curbs because they say to you treat the lowered curb same as a raised curb. So you won't necessarily feel it going up the curb. But what you need to do is be aware of where that curb may be. And make sure your car, does not go up the curb. Yeah, and this is something that, we see drivers who've passed their tests do all the time. Yeah. And what they say is they, well, I know where the curb is now. Yeah. So there's a bit of a contradiction there for learners trying to pass their test and that, but I mean, it's obvious, isn't it? The reason you can't go up the curb. Is because that's where they're maybe pedestrians. Exactly that. So it's a safety thing. and you haven't shown control of the car to stop it going up the curb. Yeah. If you slightly graze the curb. It's not great, but you'll get away with it. But this is talking about failing your test for control. So we don't want to go up the curb. Make sure you know where that curb is and if it means lowering your mirrors so you can see it more. Do it. Yeah. Okay. Because otherwise you can be put in people in danger. Yeah. So one of the other bits of control with reversing. Is, if you imagine the parallel park again. And what happens is you come in to the space, but you are too far away from the curb. So you move it. Out, you try coming in again and you do this several times. And again, what's happening is you're just taking too many times to reposition when park, and again, it shows a lack of knowledge of how to correct what you've done. It goes against you. So part of when you're learning, make sure you know how to correct. What happened when it goes wrong? If I'm too far away from the curb or I'm too close What do I do to correct this to end up in the space? Very similar to when you reversing into a space, what you need to do is to end up within the bay, in between the two lines. And if it takes you too many attempts when repositioning to do this, it will result in a fail cuz again, what you've shown is you don't know how to correct it. And I've seen many people at the test that come out, they started again, they end up in the same place. They go forward. They end up in the same place or they go forward and. Just misses, but they go forward and miss it. Again, it's just not, it's not good. It means that you are showing that you don't know how to correct things properly. And this is where the control of the car is a fault. And parking. And I know here, we're talking about reverse parking. But obviously on your test, you're doing all sorts of parking. Parking in general, this is something it's a skill to practice again and again and again. Um, practice makes better. Exactly, but also practice. How to correct things. Yeah. If things go bad. If you ended up with your car not parked within the bay. And I've heard the examiner actually say to pupils. Are you happy with that? And the pupils gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm, I'm fine with that. And they're not in the space. The wording is End up in a space. They don't say middle of the space You just have to end up in the space. So it make sure when you finish. Finished that reverse in exercise that, you know, you are in between those two white lines. Yeah. Very similar. If the parallel park. Make sure, you know, your fairly close to the curb. When you finished, if you finished and you've hand breaked neutral. And you're sitting there and the examine says, you're happy with that. And you say, yeah, Make sure you are in a nice place. Parked basically. One way I'd say to people is with my students, is if someone came that hadn't seen you park, would they know that you've parked your car? And they go, well, no, because it's not in the lines or I'm too far away from the curb or. That's immediate alarm bells. Change. Yeah. Have you parked your car or have you dumped your car?