Education is key to improving driver behaviour and making our roads safer.

RACQ’s Mobility Centre at Mount Cotton in Brisbane is home to six driver training facilities and three driving courses that aim to do just that – a defensive driving course, an off-road 4WD workshop and a caravan workshop.

Whether you’ve just got your provisional licence, or you’ve finally invested in your dream caravan, Driving Instructor John Black, who has been teaching drivers decades, promises there is a course for everyone.

Defensive driving course

RACQ’s five-hour defensive driving course covers everything from how to correctly sit and set up your car, to how to control it in an unfolding emergency.

John said the skills you learn in this course could be the difference between life and death.

“The more we drive, the more complacent we can get,” John said.

“Even if you’ve been driving for a long time, we teach you new skills and refresh the skills you may have forgotten.

“We practise emergency braking, braking and steering in wet and dry scenarios, and emergency hazard avoidance.

“We put people through both proactive and reactive scenarios and teach people how to get out of a sticky situation.

“You obviously can’t keep statistics on how many people haven’t had a crash because they’ve done a defensive driving course, but I’ve had many people ring me and say ‘you saved my life’ and companies have told me their accident rates have dropped after people did this course.”

The details

• Five-hour defensive driving course in your own car
• Safe and controlled environment with no traffic
• Emergency braking and manoeuvring
• Wet and dry braking exercises
• Member price: $330 per person
• Group packages also available.

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Caravan workshop

It doesn’t matter if you’re a veteran caravaner or you’ve just picked up your first one – RACQ’s caravan workshop is vital before hitting the road on your next adventure.

Staying in control of your caravan while driving is a must to make sure you get to and from your holiday destination safely.

RACQ’s caravan workshop covers everything from getting your caravan ready at home, to setting up at a caravan site.

“We start with what to do when you first get your caravan, then move on to how to correctly load it and hitch it up,” John said.

“We cover how to drive the caravan and then we practise how to reverse it and get set up at a caravan site.”

Weighing the caravan is a big part of the course and John finds about 50% of caravans are overweight, which can be deadly.

“Weighing is one of the really important things we do in the caravan workshop,” John said.

“You’ve got six or seven tonnes of vehicle travelling down the road and some inexperienced people driving them; things can go wrong quickly. Weight of the vehicle is something that can cause things to go wrong.”

The details

• Five-hour towing workshop
• Safe, controlled environment with no traffic
• Maximum of four caravans per course, providing maximum coaching time
• Weight assessment of van and tow vehicle
• Practical manoeuvring exercises
• Tips and advice
• Member price: $695 per caravan.

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4WD offroad workshop

Tackling off-road terrain can be tricky but RACQ’s Mobility Centre has 6km of 4WD tracks featuring hill climbs and descents, obstacles, log crossings, moggles and a water crossing to help you nail your skills.

The six-hour 4WD workshop provides differing degrees of difficultiy, from beginner to advanced manoeuvres.

“You go four-wheel driving to enjoy it, not to break things and you can get yourself well and truly stuck if you don’t know what you’re doing,” John said.

“The course starts at a very basic level, and then we work up to cover water crossings, sand crossings, and basic vehicle recovery.”

The details

• Six-hour 4WD workshop
• Safe, controlled environment with no traffic
• 6km of undulating 4WD tracks, catering for beginners to advanced drivers
• Handbook provided
• Member price: $395 per vehicle.

For more information and to book into any of our driving courses email driver.training@racq.com.au.