Last month we published our first book focusing on driver behaviour. ‘Better Driving’ looks at the human factors of driving – like your health, mood and attitude. It aims to help readers identify their own tendencies behind the wheel and find ways to turn these into better driving behaviours.

We’ve been publishing our official learning materials in partnership with TSO for many years now. From the best-sellers like ‘The Official Highway Code’ and the theory test books to’ Driving a Tractor’, we cover every category of road use in almost every format.

Our readers told us that we’ve done a splendid job of explaining the technical aspects of driving and riding, but that we now needed to properly examine driver attitude and behaviour.

We’ve been using words like ‘attitude’ and ‘behaviour’ for years, and we’ve touched on the subject in some of our titles. But it was time to explore the topic with an expert and come up with a book about the driver, rather than the driving.

So, ‘Better Driving’ was conceived.

The brains

We all know a bit about what we should and shouldn’t do behind the wheel, but we needed someone who really knew their stuff. Someone who’s done the research and can say what good driving looks like. Someone who could also explain how to identify behaviour traits and what to do about them – for example, lack of confidence, or over-confidence, anxiety and distraction.

Dr Lisa Dorn is the Reader in Driver Behaviour and Director of the Driving Research Group at Cranfield University. We believe there’s no one better qualified – so we invited her to author ‘Better Driving’.

The looks

One of our aims in publishing is to make our material accessible to the widest range of people possible. We understand that not everyone can or wants to read lots of academic material, regardless of its authority and relevance.

So we’ve designed a stylish book that takes account of different people’s learning styles. Alongside Lisa’s words we’ve included lots of photographs, self-reflection quizzes, diagrams and links to online resources.

It’s for you

You may ask “who is ‘Better Driving’ aimed at?”, and our answer is “everyone who drives”. ‘Better Driving’ will be relevant if you have a special reason for needing to build up your confidence or address problem areas.

We also hope that readers will find it useful to manage confidence and anxiety in learner drivers. And professional drivers can use it to manage their moods and reactions during a long working day.

Even if you think you’re a good driver, there are things in this book that’ll get you thinking and help you to become an excellent driver.

The last word…

I’ll leave the last words on ‘Better Driving’ to our author, Lisa:

“Many experienced drivers face challenges; from a lack of confidence on motorways, to how to adapt to new technology, such as driving whilst following instructions from a sat-nav.

“Despite these challenges, few drivers actually take the time to rectify them, which can cause anxiety and stress, and make driving an unpleasant experience. This book will help address these issues, encouraging drivers to self-reflect, giving concrete advice and helping them to gain more confidence in their driving abilities.”

To find out more, visit the online DVSA shop.