Method for verifying the AP driving skills before hire....

[Anonymous]

I was thinking about a way to verify an au pairs driving skills before she arrives at the home of the host family What if someone who lived close to your AP could meet up with the AP, allow her to drive his car then record the driving session then send you the video of the driving session. Would host parents pay for a service like this?

[Anonymous]

I think that would scare off a lot of AP candidates. I wouldn't pay for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that would scare off a lot of AP candidates. I wouldn't pay for that.

I agree that it would scare away AP's who cant drive but do you think the host parents would pay for this type of service?

[Anonymous]

I think that would be a great idea and yes, parents would pay for this service.

APs don't have to put a video together, but most do because it will likely help them find a family. I think they would feel the same way about a driving video.

Actually, I would think that some APs might want to pay for it themselves to enhance their profile.

[Anonymous]

There are lots of driving instructors who can do a quick evaluation when she gets here and give her a few lessons.

[Anonymous]

No I would not pay for it. It wont capture confidence a d wont capture how someone would react on the beltway. I require a solid driver. This is why I only will hire Germans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No I would not pay for it. It wont capture confidence a d wont capture how someone would react on the beltway. I require a solid driver. This is why I only will hire Germans.

I think the question is more general- as do you think other parents would pay for this. I myself only get French APs which come with a lot of driving experience and we have never had a problem in 6yrs. I prob would not need this But for families who prefer APs from South America or from Asia, I would think this would be a great idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No I would not pay for it. It wont capture confidence a d wont capture how someone would react on the beltway. I require a solid driver. This is why I only will hire Germans.

I think the question is more general- as do you think other parents would pay for this. I myself only get French APs which come with a lot of driving experience and we have never had a problem in 6yrs. I prob would not need this But for families who prefer APs from South America or from Asia, I would think this would be a great idea.

I agree. I would not pay for it because we only hire Germans, but back when we hired South Americans and we went through rematch twice due to driving (before we switched to Germans due to driving), I would have loved this service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that would scare off a lot of AP candidates. I wouldn't pay for that.

I agree that it would scare away AP's who cant drive but do you think the host parents would pay for this type of service?

It would scare away any APs who have good sense and are quality applicants, getting expressions of interest from a variety of families. What your proposing sounds rather dangerous. The AP agency vets the AP candidates in country. Why would a candidate agree to have an unvetted, unaffiliated driving "assessor" - who's probably a man - come to their home and sit alone in a car with them? That's incredibly unsafe. I would not ask a candidate to do that and I would think less of an AP candidate who had such poor judgment to agree. Only the lowest quality, most desperate candidates would agree to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was thinking about a way to verify an au pairs driving skills before she arrives at the home of the host family What if someone who lived close to your AP could meet up with the AP, allow her to drive his car then record the driving session then send you the video of the driving session. Would host parents pay for a service like this?

I just wonder how you would be able to find "someone" a host family would trust (e.g. not bribed by au pair, au pair's local agency, au pair's parents, an intermediary etc.) that lived close to any possible au pair applicant.

There have to be dozens of countries where an au pair might come from, hundreds of larger cities and thousands of rural towns an au pair might live in.
You would need such a reliable "someone" in every country and possible multiple reliable "someones" in large countries (doubting any one would be willing to travel from Paris to Toulouse or Hamburg to Munich or Brasilia to Sao Paolo to supervise or take such a driving test). Who would supervise those "someones"? Somebody from the US? Somebody within the au pair's home country? The au pair's agency? Would that "someone" need to be certified? By the US government? By the au pair's home country's government? Would it have to be a certified driving instructor? Would it be someone local? A US American? How would you find that "someone"? How would you certify that they are qualified? How would such a driving test be conducted? How long would it be? Just because someone can drive a compact car in rural Poland doesn't mean they can handle a US freeway in LA at rush hour in a SUV with three crying children in the back seat. Even if the applicant knows how to drive a car in their homecountry, what tells you that they will be able to safely drive in the US? What if the au pair arrives in her host family and she is not a safe driver? Would the host family be able to make the "someone" pay damage to their car? Press charges?

And that is not even touching the question why an 18/19/20 year old female au pair applicant with a valid driving license from her home country should want to get into a stranger's car (how would insurance be handled?) and be recorded by that stranger.

I agree that in theory it would be wonderful if there was a way to confirm an applicant's driving skills but it's impracticable!

It would be much easier for a host family to pay for driving lessons after their au pair's arrival. Lessons with a local driving instructor who is able to teach the au pair local rules and regulations, who knows the area and who can make the au pair acquainted with the local area while teaching her to drive in the US.
If driving is a main concern a family should be screening for driving experience (years, frequency, distance, country roads / freeway etc.). I assume it would also be possible to contact an accredited driving school in the au pair's home town and see if you can set up something through them... but my main advice would be not to match with an applicant whose driving skills you doubt if driving really is the main skill you are screening for. Pick an au pair from a country that uses a penalty point or demerit point system and ask them for a written confirmation by whichever authority handles this system in their home country that they have a clean driving record; pick an au pair who has been driving frequently for x+ years and not only five minutes to and from school but also long-distance and in cities she is not living in; pick an au pair from a country that is known for a good driver's ed. If you chose an 18 year old from China who doesn't have access to a car and who hasn't driven since she passed her test, you can't complain if she is a bad driver.

[Anonymous]

22:08 here and I agree with PP that it's more practical to have a couple lessons with a driving instructor set up once the AP is with you. That's what we were ready to do if AP's driving wasn't quite what we expected, but turned out not to be necessary.

[Anonymous]

We now screens for younger girls who own their own car and drive most days unless they are 23/24 and have been driving a family car for years. It's been the best indicator of good driving for us. They always overstate how much access they have to a car Otherwise.