Supervised Drive: A Practical Tool for Better Practice Drives
Knowing the rules is one thing. Building safe habits takes practice on real roads, with a qualified supervisor who can guide the drive and give useful feedback afterwards. Supervised Drive is the heart of DriveReady Coach. It gives those practice sessions a simple structure: choose a few skills to watch, record what you see, then review the drive together.
Before you share your notes, ask the student: “How do you think that went?” Hearing their own view first gives them a chance to reflect, and comparing it with yours shows what went well, what needs work and what to focus on next time.
What Supervised Drive Does
Think of it as a practice log for the person in the passenger seat, usually a parent or another qualified supervising driver. Before the drive, you pick the skills you want to watch. During the drive, you tap to record how the student is doing. Afterwards, the student reflects on their own drive, and the two of you look at the results and decide what to work on next.
It is not a driving simulator, and it can’t tell you whether someone is ready for a road test. What it does is organise practice alongside proper supervision or professional instruction. If you’re new to the passenger seat, our guide on what to say (and not say) while your learner is driving is a good place to start.
Using It Safely
Your attention belongs on the road and on the student. The app comes second. Record an observation only when it is safe to do so, for example when you’re stopped in traffic, and skip it if the moment isn’t right. The app shows a reminder that it is for the coach or parent and should only be checked when it’s safe.
Setting Up a Drive
Setup takes only a few minutes.
Enter the student’s name (optional)
The name appears in the session summary and the exported drive log. Leave it blank if you prefer.
Confirm the pre-drive check
This step is required before the drive can start. Walk around the vehicle, check the tyres, adjust the mirrors, clear the windows, make sure seat belts are fastened and check that the lights work. The app asks you to confirm you’ve done it. It doesn’t inspect the vehicle itself. Our guide to a pre-drive checklist that actually sticks shows how to make this a habit.
Choose whether to enable GPS
GPS is optional and off by default. If you turn it on, your device asks for location permission, and the app can show live speed and estimate distance and other measures. If you decline, the checklist, self-assessment and debrief all still work.
Set the conditions and pick your skills
Choose the conditions for the drive, such as day or night, local roads or highway, and the weather. Then select the skills you want to focus on, from core skills such as following distance, shoulder checks and signalling to manoeuvres such as parking, plus optional skills like manual shifting. A short list works best, so you can pay proper attention to each one.
During the Drive
Each skill you chose has two buttons: a checkmark for Good and a warning symbol for Needs Work. Every tap adds to that skill’s count, so you can record several observations of the same skill in a single drive. If you tap the wrong one, an undo option appears for a few seconds so you can reverse it.
Automatic Session Safeguard
To stop forgotten sessions from running on, the app checks for inactivity. After 30 minutes without a tap, it asks whether you are still on the drive and starts a 60-second countdown. If you don’t confirm, the session ends. Choosing Continue resets the timer. The 30 minutes are counted from your last activity in the app, not from the start of the drive.
Self-Assessment and Debrief
When a drive ends, the student is asked one question before seeing your results: “How do you think that went?” The answers range from feeling confident to recognising that the drive was challenging and there is more to learn. Drives shorter than the minimum length skip this question and aren’t counted towards skill patterns.
- The student’s self-assessment, and whether it lines up with your observations.
- Each tracked skill, grouped by area, with a status based on recent qualifying drives.
- GPS information when it was on: distance, average and peak speed, braking and acceleration counts, and a route view.
Differences between the student’s view and yours are a useful starting point for a conversation. Neither agreement nor disagreement proves that either assessment is right.
Understanding the GPS Estimates
GPS figures are estimates, not precise measures of driving performance. Accuracy depends on the device and the signal, and the app tells you when the signal is weak. Hard-braking and rapid-acceleration events are estimated from changes in speed. GPS can’t tell whether the student did a shoulder check, signalled correctly, met a hazard or stayed within the speed limit. Use the figures to support a conversation, not as a score.
Viewing the Route
The route is drawn on your device from the saved GPS points, with colours and markers where hard braking or rapid acceleration was detected. You can open it from the debrief after the drive. An optional street map can add geographic context. It is off by default and asks for your confirmation before it is turned on. See the data section below for what that involves.
Tracking Progress Over Time
A single drive tells you very little, so Supervised Drive looks at patterns across several sessions. A drive has to last at least 10 minutes to count. Once a skill has been recorded in four qualifying drives, the app shows a status based on how often it needed work in recent drives. Braking and acceleration trends take longer to appear, and they only come from GPS-tracked drives.
These indicators are there to support learning, not to promise competence. A strong status means the skill has been recorded positively recently. It doesn’t mean it’s mastered, and the trends can’t predict whether a student will pass a road test. The app keeps up to 150 sessions, and your progress totals reflect the drives saved on the device. For ideas on what to practise next, see our guide to observation, scanning and mirror checks.
Exporting a Drive Log
You can export a PDF drive log, generated on your device, to save or share. If you share it, the file goes by whatever method you choose. It’s a handy record to show a driving instructor. See our guide to building a PDF log your instructor will actually use.
What Happens to the Data?
Optional Street Map
If you turn the street map on, map images for the area you’re viewing are requested from OpenStreetMap, which can receive your device’s IP address and details of the map area requested. Your saved GPS points, speeds and drive records aren’t included in those requests. You can turn the map off at any time, and without a network connection the app still shows the drawn route.
Sharing a PDF
Sharing is your choice. If you export a drive log, the file goes wherever you send it, and how it is stored or used after that depends on the recipient and the service you use.
Bring structure to your next practice drive
Supervised Drive is the core of DriveReady Coach. Run the pre-drive check, record what you observe, and see which skills need more practice.
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