Essential Resources for UK Drivers

Drivers are fighting back against Britain’s speeding and parking laws, and in particular the unjust way in which they are often applied. A growing range of guides and websites aim to inform drivers of their rights and how legally to avoid a ticket or, if you get one, challenge it. However, while some guides are useful, others are a waste of time and money.

This website has therefore been set up to help inform UK drivers about the resources available and make an informed decision on what would meet their needs. We buy all the leading drivers' guides and website subscriptions and review them, so you don’t have to waste your hard-earned cash on out-of-date rubbish. Read on for the lowdown on what’s out there and what’s worth buying…

This is the seventh edition of this popular A5-sized book by Martin Thwaite, which is distributed by Streetwise Marketing. It concentrates on speeding, though when we ordered we also got a 10-page mini-guide on how to get a good deal when buying a new car.

In general, this is a good overview of the law as it applies to drivers, and any driver would benefit from reading and applying the information in it. There is an interesting analysis of the different types of police officer (beat officer, traffic officer, young/mature, male/female, and so on) and the attitude they are likely to take toward drivers. There are also some eye-opening case studies.

The book does contain a few mistakes, however. For example, Chapter 7 advises drivers that they may be able to get off a speeding ticket by quoting Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights (which gives European citizens the right not to incriminate themselves). While there did appear to be a loophole in the law for a few months in 2003/04, a High Court judgement in March 2004 effectively closed it. Any driver trying to get off a speeding charge by quoting Article 6 of the ECHR now would get short shrift from the courts.

The Driver’s Survival Handbook, seventh edition, costs £19.95 including postage.

Overall Score: 7/10

This is the new 2008 edition of a guide by an unnamed ex-police officer and published by WCCL. It’s a downloadable e-book, meaning you can order and receive it instantly.

UK Driving Secrets covers similar ground to The Driver’s Survival Handbook, and is similar in length (maybe slightly longer – it’s hard to tell with e-books). Again, it provides a good overview of the law as it applies to drivers, and practical steps drivers can take to avoid a ticket or to challenge one. Speeding is comprehensively covered, but the guide also has detailed information about challenging parking tickets. We were also impressed with the chapter about taking a case to court, which covers pretty much everything drivers need to know.

One drawback of UK Driving Secrets is that it is an e-book, so you can read it on your computer, but you cannot easily print it out or even copy portions of the text. We assume that this has been done to avoid copyright theft, but would like to have been able to print out chapters specifically relevant to a particular driving problem we might be facing.

That aside, however, UK Driving Secrets gets our overall recommendation for its detailed and up-to-date content, all written in an easy-to-assimilate style.

UK Driving Secrets costs £27.95, and can be ordered and downloaded via the website. However, if you are able to pay via the online payment system Paypal , you can order it for just £17.95 by clicking on this link.

Overall Score: 8/10

This is a website devoted to parking tickets. Most of it is password-protected. You pay a fee and this gives you access to the whole site for six months (after which you can pay a further fee to renew).

This is a decent product for any driver who has received a parking ticket and wants to know what their options might be if they wish to challenge it. One feature we especially like is that you can enter the ‘contravention code’ from your parking ticket and the site will tell you what it means, and provide a checklist of points on which you might be able to appeal.

On the minus side, the site only covers parking, not speeding or any of the other driving areas covered in the two publications above (e.g. drink-driving). It also has quite a strong London-bias. That’s fine if you’ve received your ticket in London, but it may not be so good if you’ve been ticketed somewhere else.

As with UK Driving Secrets, you get instant access to the site once you have paid your fee, and it is possible to copy or print out pages if you like.

Ticketbusters costs £9.99 for unlimited access.

Overall Score: 7/10 (Parking Only)  

This downloadable product (also available on CD-ROM) comprises three letters plus an explanatory document which, the publishers claim, will get you off any speeding ticket. It was released in 2006. 

Without giving away too much (and opening ourselves up to legal action by the publishers), the letters work by casting doubt on the identity of the driver, whilst staying within the letter of the law. The letters are well written and refer to the relevant Acts of Parliament and case law. The publishers caution that you should only use them if you are sure that you did not commit the offence in question, but there is no doubt that they could be used if you did as well. Not that we are recommending this, of course.

The letters are provided as Microsoft Word templates - you just fill in specific details where indicated. The first letter is the one you send on receiving the original NIP (Notice of Intended Prosecution). According to how the police respond to this, you then send either Letter 2 or Letter 3.

Whilst we were somewhat sceptical about this product before ordering, we were quite impressed with what we received. If you have had a speeding ticket and feel strongly that you did not deserve it, there is a very good possibility that this product will get you off.

Beat Speeding Tickets costs £27.95.

Overall Score: 8/10 (Speeding Only)

This guide on CD is sold on the eBay Internet auction site (and maybe other places as well) for around £5.

The CD is entirely about contesting speeding tickets, and for £5 it might sound like a bargain. Unfortunately, it is a waste of money. All of the information it contains has been copied – with or without permission – from the free website http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk. Much of the information is out of date, as can be seen from paragraphs such as that beginning, ‘From 1 September 2001, number plates will take on a new format…’ There has been no attempt to edit or update the material, and without the benefit of the navigation buttons on the website, finding the section you want is time-consuming and frustrating.

Save yourself a fiver – go to http://www.ukspeedtraps.co.uk, where all the info on this disk can be found for free. And once you’ve done that, invest in one (or more) of the products reviewed above for properly organised, up-to-date information.

Overall Score: 1/10 (and that’s generous)

Sponsored Product

One of the best ways for drivers to avoid a speeding ticket is a GPS satellite navigation (satnav) unit. As well as helping you get from A to B quickly and efficiently, they can also warn you of the location of fixed (and some mobile) speed cameras. And unlike radar speed camera detectors, which are shortly to be banned, GPS satnav units are and will remain 100 per cent legal!

The state-of-the-art satnav unit at present is the TomTom One. It’s easy to install – no computer required – and easy to remove again (for security purposes) once you get to your destination. Directions are given visually and - if you wish - verbally. You can download the latest database of speed cameras to your TomTom One for a small fee from  http://pocketgpsworld.com/uksafetycameras.php. 

The recommended price of the TomTom One Great Britain model is around £200, but it’s currently available new from the online store Amazon for a bargain-basement £124.99, post free. Click on the image below for full details…

You can also buy satnav units, including the TomTom models, from the online auction site eBay. The box below shows a range of current auctions. Clicking on any of them will take you to the auction concerned.