You may have heard a lot about the POM routine, but what does it involve! Its not as scary as when its first explained, and if you follow the routine step by step, you might find it easier than when you first practiced the routine.

You may remember that a routine is a way of keeping things in order, like following a recipe when baking a cake, you don't put the flour and eggs in the oven before mixing them together!!

The routine we use to move away from the kerb is called the POM routine or:

• Prepare
• Observe
• Move

The first thing we need to do is Prepare the car ready for moving off. This involves the following sequence

1. Pressing the clutch fully down and selecting first gear.

2. Setting the gas to about 1500 revs of the engine.

3. Raise the clutch pedal until you feel the "bite point" of the clutch, then press the pedal down to the "dip point" of the clutch.

4. Hold both pedals as still as possible.

We then move onto the next part of the routine, which is Observe.

1. Carry out the six point observations, including, left blind spot, left door mirror, centre mirror, right door mirror and very importantly the right blind spot. If in any of the observations you notice a hazard approaching, look in the centre mirror and when you notice a gap in the traffic, check the right mirror and right blind spot again.

The next part of the routine is Move.

When we have checked all the blind spots and are happy its safe, we then follow the next steps.

1. Signal right, if necessary, to inform other road users of your intentions.

2. Release the handbrake.

3. Bring the clutch back to the to the bite point, and hold it steady until your speed has built up and the car moved forward about 1 car length.

4. Turn the steering wheel about 1/8 of a turn, to move away from the kerb, and then raise the clutch fully.

For further information and help with the reversing manoeuvres follow this link.

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