Learner's license on ebook

A free ebook has been launched for people to study for their learner’s licence, aimed at improving driver skills. The knock-on effect will be improved safety on the roads.
A FREE ebook, aptly launched during Transport Month, will help people with their learner’s licence and equip them with safe driving skills.

The new book comes at a time when road safety is in the spotlight. The minister of transport has pledged support for the UN’s Decade of Action campaign and the head of transport in the City is working on setting up a road safety council.

African Licence, a Joburg company, offers the full learner’s licence curriculum, plus images, that is needed to pass the test anywhere in the country.

Founder, Christo Crampton, says: “I am passionate about safe driving and have created a website that provides citizens with free learning material. All they need to do is sign in and get a high quality free ebook, which will teach them safe driving skills.”

In May, a friend of Crampton’s took his driving licence test. “He found the books cumbersome and the online propositions difficult to navigate and expensive relative to what you got. In addition, speaking to students in a test centre queue it was clear that getting learner’s licence lessons from instructors was expensive, as much as R700 for certain courses,” he says.

Website
“Then it hit me: why don’t I put together a user-friendly ebook and learner’s licence practice website that can be accessible by all South Africans from all backgrounds?

“African Licence’s mission is to ‘make all South Africans safe, skilled drivers’ and therefore reduce road accidents and fatalities and make our roads safe,” he says. Approximately 14 000 people are killed each year in road accidents in South Africa.

“To achieve this, we want to make the best content (the high quality ebook with the largest linked database of example questions) accessible to everyone … This means we have high quality content available through different mediums, and it is why we offer online access to our ebook for free.”

Students get in-depth knowledge regarding the basics of driving; controls of a vehicle; rules of the road; road traffic signs, signals and markings; road safety; and motorist’s responsibilities in the event of an accident.

The launch has taken place during the City’s annual Transport Month, held every October. This year the theme is “Connecting people and places”. Crampton says: “The ebook can be accessed with smartphones and … makes it not only unique in South Africa, but unique in open source professional education worldwide.”

Ebook
African Licence features a free ebook, complete with illustrations and simple concepts; winning study tips; community interaction; a dozen mock tests; and an additional 700 unique questions which have been designed to prepare students for their learner’s licence exam.

Crampton adds that the website also has a feedback link, which allows people to post questions and ideas, as well as any advice that might be helpful to others.

The South African driving licence test consists of two exams: the theoretical learner’s licence test and the practical driving licence exam. There are three categories of learner’s licence – category one is motor cycles, motor tricycles and quadrucycles; category two is light motor vehicles less than 3 500 kilograms; and category three is all other vehicles.

Once students successfully pass their learner’s licence exam, they need to find a professional driving instructor to help them pass their driving licence test. African Licence also helps in this step, through its iDrive link. iDrive is a quick and easy way to find quality driving schools and instructors.

There are three things to take into account when selecting a driving instructor, namely: make sure the instructor has a valid driving instructor’s certificate, find an instructor based close by, and ensure you can taught in your preferred language. Interview multiple instructors to find the right one.

Coming in the same month, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, along with ministers of transport from member countries of the Southern African Development Community, pledged his support for the United Nation’s Decade of Action 2011-2020 campaign to improve road safety and decrease the number of fatalities.

Also in the pipeline, is the minister’s plan to implement a requirement that drivers have at least 120 hours of actual driving, with 20 hours of night driving, between getting their learner’s licence and getting their driving licence.