Moving off

• You were marked on:
• control - your ability to control the car
• safety - your ability to perform this action safely
• You needed to show you could move off safely and under control throughout your test. This included:
• from the side of the road
• on a slope or hill (gradient)
• from behind a parked vehicle, so you have to move off at an angle
• at junctions
• You should have used your mirrors and checked blind spots to observe your surroundings, and signalled when necessary. Your control of the car should have prevented it from rolling backwards or stalling.

Examples of faults

• Some of the most common faults for this area include:
• trying to move off without appropriate control and rolling back
• not properly checking your blind spots
• moving off into the path of an oncoming vehicle
• repeatedly stalling when moving off throughout your test
• Your examiner may have explained the specific details of any faults you made.
• How you can improve in this area
• If you made faults in this area during your test, or if you want to improve in this area, you should:
• check rules 159 to 161 of The Highway Code
• read pages 91 to 93 of ‘The Official DVSA Guide to Driving: the Essential Skills’ (2022 edition)
• If you need to rebook the test, spend time practising and improving this skill with your driving instructor or supervising driver. You could work on:
• finding the biting point when using the clutch, to prevent stalling
• using the mirrors - signal - manoeuvre (MSM) routine

£1 thickness of the clutch pedal

Most common fault

When you release the handbrake your vehicle rolls backwards, the consequence (implication) here is that you could roll back into the vehicle behind you or even worse a pedestrian. So you can see the hill start skill is very important for the safety of others.

The remedy the roll back is to slightly raise your clutch pedal a THICKNESS of a POUND COIN until you have the correct about of biting point to hold your training vehicle (the key to success is to ensure you have the biting point before moving off). 

Uphill starts

The key to uphill starts is for you to understand the clutch pedal so if your vehicle does not roll back when you release your handbrake. If your training vehicles does roll back this means your clutch is too low. To fix this problem just raise your clutch up a £1 coin thickness at a time until you no longer rolls back, then this will hold vehicle stays still or roll slightly forward.

To move your vehicle forward raise your clutch up £1 up at a time till you are moving forward.

Parking up and leaving your vehicle on a hill

Use of steering wheel

For extra safety in case your handbraked ever failed on a down hill, turn your steering wheel full lock left. Then if your training vehicle does for any reason roll forward your front wheel of your training vehicle will roll forward and touch the kerb and stop your vehicle rolling forward any more. However if your wheels where straight it will just roll straight forward in a straight line and could collide forward into a park vehicle or even worse a pedestrian.

Use of reverse gear

You can also keep your gear stick in reverse gear if you know your handbrake is not working as efficiently as it should be.  Here is two strategy's on security if your vehicle on a hill.