Tag Archives: women drivers

women drivers

Foxy ways to enjoy the festival season

If you’re planning to join the beautiful people this ‘summer’ and head to the best of the festivals, here’s a list of top tips for you:

Be prepared – take your toothbrush and toothpaste, as well as any medical, beauty, sun care or female necessities – as well as a hat, insect repellent, bite cream and other first aid bits and pieces.

Take some water – and don’t get dehydrated by the sun or get heatstroke.

Keep your friends close – and don’t get lost; it might take hours to find them again and you’ll miss out on lots of interesting stuff and get stressed while you’re looking.

Know your location – where you’re aiming for and where the emergency services are.

Make sure you dress for the occasion – with our weather, take wellies, rain gear, thermals and a wartime spirit, as well as a sun hat, shorts, maxi, whatever you feel comfy in.

Be prepared to queue – both for the toilets and to get in or out of the site; also for the food and drink stations.

And as far as making sure you’re festival-savvy in terms of your motor trip there and back:

Be prepared – have your vehicle serviced beforehand, check your tyre treads and pressures as well as your spare, especially if it’s a long journey to get there – we don’t want you stuck by the roadside missing your favourite band. You could even take a spare car key in case one gets lost or the battery runs out. Know where your vehicle handbook is so you can check the fundamentals if you need to.

Take some water – check all the fluids in your car including oil and water, as well as windscreen wash in case the obligatory mud splashes too much; you could also take a windscreen shade so you don’t burn your hands on the wheel when you get back in to drive (you can see we’re covering all eventualities here!)

Keep your friends close – Have the contact details handy for your breakdown recovery service, any accident assistance support service and the FOXY Lady Drivers Club website, just in case.

Know your location – make sure you have a map, directions and/or working sat nav, as well as enough petrol and money put by for the journey home or enough credit on your card.

Make sure you dress for the occasion – even when you’re driving, make sure you’re kitted out in case it’s pouring and you have to change a tyre, fix a tow rope or other such practical considerations; also you can get burnt from the sun through glass so put on some sun cream in the remote event the sun’s shining!

Be prepared to queue – for petrol if you’re trying to get some near the site, if you forget to fill up beforehand; or to get out of the site ready for your journey home.

And – most of all HAVE A FUN, FOXY TIME!

buying a new car, car shopping, women

Brighton and Hove Motor Show | VIP Guests

This blog is mainly for readers within striking distance of Brighton.

We’re getting very excited.

We’re exhibiting at the Brighton and Hove Motor Show at the fab AmEx Stadium on Saturday 10 June (10am to 5pm) and on Sunday 11 June (11am to 4pm). Please visit us to see what we do to empower women drivers!

There hasn’t been a Motor Show in Brighton for many years but with a venue like this one, riding on the back of the AmEx being a Premiership Stadium now (!!) we’re confident it’s going to become a really memorable and growing annual event.

So we’re delighted to be supporting this, on behalf of women drivers, alongside headline sponsors Mobil1 and Rivervale Leasing as well as leading local dealerships Caffyns (VW/Audi), Tesla, Lookers (Mercedes/Smart), Yeomans (Toyota), Brighton Mitsubishi, Hendys (Renault/Dacia), Tates (Citroen/DS/Hyundai/Kia) and Porsche Centre Mid Sussex.

We’ll be asking them all, via Twitter (@FOXYTweets) which car models they’re bringing for us to see.

You’ll also find Heart Radio, the Platinum Publishing Group and Brighton and Hove Independent, all doing their bit to make sure this show is a success and becomes an annual event into Brighton’s future.

Finally it’s a free to enter event (unlike 2017’s London Motor Show that cost £17), providing you’ve registered in advance and via their website. So you can afford to come!

This is FOXY’s first Motor Show ever and we’re determined to bring a distinctly female flavour to balance out a likely male bias “because women drive as well as men… and often a lot better.”

Haha. Sorry guys. But the important thing is that we women influence between 80-90% of all car sales so it’s best to get us involved at the earliest possible stage!

A Family Day Out in Brighton

Yes, if fast (gorgeous looking and exotic) cars float your boat, driven by James Bond lookalikes of course, there’ll be lots of performance cars at the Brighton and Hove Motor Show and leading Sussex dealerships a-plenty organising test drives we’re told.

As you might expect, FOXY’s more at home in the Family Zone (that’s the Falmer side of the AmEx) relatively close to the Go Kart track and with a Bouncy Castle and Top Gear simulator as our family fun neighbours. Cool!

We look forward to meeting Brighton based Mumpreneurs and Athena business network members as well as all local motoring mums and daughters of course.

And there’s something in it for you all so DON’T PASS US BY…

OK, we’re not planning to be as physically active or demanding as they will be .

Instead, we’re offering pre-registered female drivers a number of FREE lifetime online gift subscription to FOXY Lady Drivers Club, on a first come, first served basis.

Come and activate yours at the FOXY stand, to enjoy really useful support services that put females first – like preferential car insurance, affinity car buying deals, motoring offers, VIP treatment and a whole package of stress-busting* support services.

*We know from experience that motoring can be very stressful for many females. Too many of us suffer from serious anxiety as a result of accidents, road rage, partner criticism, motorways and the total responsibility for the safety of any child passengers.

Please consider timing your visit to coincide with one of our VIP Guest visits. In this way you can find out about the likes of learning to drive, tyre safety, organising motoring events (at clubs, employee staff rooms, associations, dealerships) and driving overseas perhaps.

The following VIP Guests will be attending the FOXY Lady Drivers Club stand in the Family Zone, close to Entrance A (ie outside the Club shop in the Seagulls Fan Zone area). NB: This schedule may be updated via social media ie Twitter, on the day..

This is YOUR chance to visit the FOXY Lady Drivers Club stand to find out about the following motoring and business related topics.

ABOUT LEARNING TO DRIVE AND CHANGES TO THE DRIVING TEST

Saturday 10 June – 12 noon to 1pm

VIP Guest – Sue Blinco from Sussex Driving School.

Sue is highly qualified (one of the best qualified there are) and a FOXY Lady Approved Driving Instructor as you’d expect.

If you have a rising 17 year old who is keen to drive, this is your chance to ask Sue for advice or about changes to the Driving Test. And if you’re a nervous driver, ask her (and FOXY) for recommendations.
________________________

ABOUT DRIVING – AS A WORKING MUM

Saturday 10 June – 2pm to 3pm

VIP Guest – Claire Jones-Hughes of Claritas Media.

Claire is an expert in all matters social media and manages the busy Mumpreneurs Network in Brighton.

She’s also a francophile with lots of experience of driving in France – and useful tips to share.

Come and talk to Claire about family motoring at home and in France. She knows how important your car is and how tricky it can be to manage its care, alongside family and work.

You could also ask her about The Mumpreneurs Networking Club in Brighton.

____________________________

HOW TO ORGANISE A MOTORING EVENT FOR WOMEN/STAFF

Saturday 10 June – 3pm to 4pm

VIP Guest – Steph Savill – FOXY Lady Drivers Club Founder

Whether you are a female friendly employer, organise a club or an association of sorts it makes good sense to organise a motoring event designed to appeal to men and women alike, to raise their awareness of the important safety-related issues they need to know.

So why not discuss this with me on the day and see how I can help?
___________________________

ABOUT DRIVING IN FRANCE

Sunday 11 June – 12 noon to 1pm

VIP Guest – Kicki Smith – ITE Travel Expert in Sussex.

Kicki is a member of the Athena Brighton South Downs Group and a veritable travel expert so she can help you organise your motoring holiday of course.

But today she’s on hand to tell you what you need to know about about driving in France. More rules bien sur… so we all need to know the latest savvy motoring hacks.

___________________________

ABOUT TYRE SAFETY

Sunday 11 June – 2.30pm to 3.30pm

VIP Guest – Steph Savill – FOXY

A subject dear to my heart – to keep you, your family, other motorists and pedestrians as safe as possible.

If nothing more, at least I can show you how to do the 20p tyre tread safety check and give you some simple tyre safety advice face to face.
___________________________

But if none of these topics hit the spot for you, come say hello and leave us any questions/messages in our Brighton and Hove Motor Show Visitors Book and we’ll get back to you during the following week.

Here’s how to find out what FOXY Lady Drivers Club does to empower women drivers in their motoring lives.

I hope to see many of our Club members at the AmEx on 10-11 June! Be sure to say hello.

FOXY

insurance for women, women drivers

Are women really better drivers than men – and how does this affect insurance?

It’s a contentious and controversial argument which has been debated for decades – and will probably still run for several decades more. Perhaps it will never end.

We’re talking about the battle of the sexes behind the wheel – are men better drivers than women, or is it the other way around?

Driving stereotypes are ingrained and hard to shift. Thus, female drivers are often tagged as unable to park properly – especially reversing into a parking space – while male motorists are too often seen as aggressive, fast driving types who would rather turn a one-hour journey into a six-hour trip than simply ask for directions.

But are these truths or myths? And in the ongoing contest of women drivers versus their male counterparts, who are the better drivers?

Recent research seems to favour females. In fact, the Telegraph reported both in 2015 and 2016 that surveys revealed women are the ‘better’ drivers. Tests on motorists while in the car and when approaching London’s busy Hyde Park Corner junction yielded a stronger performance from women, who scored 23.6 points from a maximum of 30. The male drivers monitored managed 19.8 points in comparison.

Some of the results showed clear divides between driving behaviours. For example, 14% of men were witnessed ‘cutting dangerously into traffic’ while only 1% of women were. When it came to ‘driving too close to the vehicle in front’, 27% of men did so; only 4% of women did. And 79% of female drivers were considered to have shown ‘adequate use of mirrors’ compared to just 46% of men. Of course, this isn’t a definitive verdict but an interesting sample study.

Meanwhile, in this article titled 13 driving myths uncovered created by RAC Breakdown cover – data from an NCP survey suggested women were also more skilled at parking than men. It used surveillance on 2,500 drivers across 700 NCP car parks to come to the conclusion that while men were quicker at parking, women were more likely to park cars ‘in the middle of a bay’.

Driving proficiency obviously has a bearing on road safety but also insurance costs. Historically, primarily because male drivers are involved in a higher proportion of road traffic accidents, they were typically charged more for insurance than women. However, an EU ruling in December 2012 prevented insurance companies from discriminating on the basis of gender alone, instead pricing premiums of other data. What happens to that ruling in the wake of the Brexit decision remains to be seen.

What’s interesting is that, according to an article published by the Guardian earlier in 2017, instead of the price gap between men and women narrowing, it has widened. Back in 2012, it says, male drivers paid on average £27 more for an annual car insurance policy. Now, that amount has grown to £101. Despite the ruling, in general terms, women drivers have benefited from insurance pricing. Men are still considered higher risk. Instead, insurers are increasingly using more targeted data and analysing specific factors such as age, driving history and occupation calculate premiums based on the probability of risk.

As an extension of that, telematics – also known as black box – insurance is a way of monitoring driver behaviour and performance, as a means of rewarding safer drivers with lower premiums. It can track braking and acceleration to calculate a driving ‘score’ which could then lead to a reduced price at renewal time.

This means, regardless of whether you’re a man or woman, you have the ability to lower your insurance costs by driving carefully and responsibly – although black box insurance is usually available to younger motorists only.

cost of motoring, road safety

FOXY adds female voice to MoT consultation

Sent to MOT411consultation@dft.gsi.gov.uk.

On behalf of UK women drivers, this is FOXY Lady Drivers’ Club’s response to the UK government’s proposal to extend the MOT test ‘grace period’ of new vehicles from three to four years. As you can see we are not impressed.
__________________________________

Dear Sirs

I run the UK’s only motoring club for women drivers, FOXY Lady Drivers Club, and am writing to you, on their behalf, about your proposal to delay vehicle first MoT tests from their 3rd to 4th birthday.

I was a signatory of the previous Pro-MoTe campaign, when this proposal was last aired and I remain as baffled, if not more, about the Government’s agenda here. I am particularly concerned about the implications re tyre safety.

MoT Consultation Concerns

These are the points I’d like to submit for your consideration within the consultation period.

1) A Misguided Moneysaver

The safety issues raised outweigh the one-off saving of some £54.85 (ie one MoT fee) even for the many women who dislike visiting garages.

2) Dangerous Cars on UK Roads

Delaying a first year vehicle MoT from 3 years to 4 years is increasing the number of dangerous cars on our roads, for longer.

An unacceptably high number of vehicles are failing their first MoT and whilst it might be tempting to think that tyres and brake failings are the main road safety issues, we must not overlook the risks drivers run with inadequate lighting, wipers and or windscreen washer levels.

Even worse, a van could have driven some 150k miles before its first MoT safety snapshot. Hence their higher first time MoT failure rates.

3) Newer Cars Aren’t Always Safer

Badly maintained ‘nearly new’ cars are NOT safer than well maintained older ones. A modern car with a typical 30,000 miles on its clock, driven by a motorist who is oblivious to tyre care and TPMS warnings is too common an example to ignore simply because a car has covered fewer miles.

4) Car Servicing Standards

Car servicing/manufacturer/vehicle handbook servicing regimes/checklists cannot be relied upon to alert motorists to car maintenance neglect in between garage visits.

5) Motorists Knowledge of Car Maintenance

My experience talking to groups of women drivers confirms that many of them are poorly informed about tyre safety in particular – I imagine this is true of male drivers too.

The Tyresafe infographic draws attention to this, extrapolating that 1 in 4 vehicles on our roads is potentially travelling on illegal ie dangerous tyres.

They also record that the level of ignorance relating to TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems) is increasing. See Tyresafe.org 2016 research.

6) The Cost of More Road Accidents

An increasing number of dangerous vehicles on our roads will result in more road accidents, more serious injuries and fatalities, more days lost at work, more traffic jams and more stress for our emergency services alike. As I see it, this is the potential risk you run were you to actively postpone essential safety checks on UK vehicles from their 3rd to 4th birthday.

________________________

All in all, I’d rather be talking to you about organising courses to help women drivers understand how to/what it takes to run safer vehicles.

Finally, I remain unconvinced that MoTs should be discounted. Demand is inelastic and MoTs should be seen as a fixed cost. Too many MoT offers look like a ‘sprat to catch a mackerel’ tactic. I’d prefer to see some of the full fee being spent on delivering better customer service.

Yours sincerely

Steph

Steph Savill

MD

FOXY Lady Drivers Club

www.foxyladydrivers.com

Steyning

BN44 3GF

motoring

FOXY Lady is a Top Ten Automotive blog

FOXY Lady blog is one of the Top 10 UK Automotive Blogs in 2017 as ranked by Vuelio from within its Social Media Index.

I write the majority of blogs myself and you’ll soon see that we’re a different sort of motoring-related blog from the norm.

Which makes this badge all the more rewarding.

What Makes FOXY Lady Blog Special?

For starters the FOXY Lady blog has a distinct female flavour and attitude. By that I mean we aren’t just about the latest cars and car reviews (which many do better than us I think) nor do we include a great deal about motor racing and F1.

Instead, we’re a female brand reflecting the FOXY attitude that motoring services can be a lot better for women than many enjoy as is. So FOXY Lady blog reflects our balance of putting the spotlight on best practice whilst being prepared to have a pop at evident motoring cowboys!

In short, FOXY Lady Blog straddles two different audiences which isn’t recommended in marketing spheres (but are inter-related for now) with four big objectives in mind.

1/ To help women buy better value for money garage and car buying services without compromising their safety.

2/ To help automotive businesses (willing to listen!) to understand what women want as consumers and employees

3/ To promote signs of measurable excellence in unregulated business areas – HM Government please note.

4/ To encourage talented and hard working females to consider careers/strive to move up the ladder in the motor industry. Because they are much needed higher up…

Somehow we need to find a way to parachute a veritable explosion of exceptional women into automotive boardrooms that remain resolutely male.

For the evidence is compelling – a more diverse board is better for the bottom line and a more diverse business can more effectively and fairly represent the best interests of a diverse customer base.

How To Become A Top Ten Vuelio Blog

The first myth I’m delighted to dispel is the assumption of some that we’ve probably nominated ourselves in this competitive field! Our presence will no doubt intrigue those that run bigger businesses, post more blogs and employ a dedicated social media resource.

So it’s for this reason that this award matter so much more for FOXY because, as important as we think our messages are for women in particular, we can’t influence the outcome here.

Yes, you have to be on Vuelio’s Social Media database to be ‘innit to winnit’ as they say but most good bloggers will be, knowing that this is where PR professionals expect to find the most influential bloggers in their sphere.

It’s all the more impressive for FOXY Lady Blog to have ‘squeezed’ into Vuelio’s Top Ten Automotive blog listing knowing we’ve been scored by Vuelio’s proprietary algorithm that ranks ALL the media in their massive database. They choose the ten most influential blogs after their automated results have been carefully reviewed by a team of in-house researchers, taking into account the likes of social sharing, topic-related content, post frequency, social media influence, traffic, design and interactivity. I hope you’re as impressed as me!

Clearly this allows Vuelio to demonstrate the strength of its blogger database alongside their associated PR and research services. It’s also true that these awards/rankings set a high benchmark within the blogging industry and act as a resource for existing and potential PR and communications’ agencies to value and enjoy.

How To Get Your Blog Considered By Vuelio

If you write an influential blog and would like it to be considered by Vuelio please submit details to the database email updates@vuelio.com or tweet them using the @Vuelio handle.

Thank you Vuelio for this important ranking and recognition for FOXY Lady blog.

FOXY