In times when every dollar is spent more reluctantly, more people seem to be learning that a defensive driving class is an excellent way to get a discount on their auto insurance.

Most insurance companies now offer a discounted insurance premium to drivers who complete a defensive driving course. The standard discount seems to be 10% for three years, though you should contact your insurance company to ask for the particular details of any discount they offer.

But because more people are taking advantage of this discount, this question comes up more and more often:

How do I get a second copy of my defensive driving
certificate for my insurance company?

Actually, there’s nothing special that you need to do.

If you take a Comedy Guys Defensive Driving class — either at any of our live class locations or our online defensive driving course — to have a ticket dismissed, we  always send you two copies of your certificate of completion: one for the court and one for the insurance company. In fact, the two certificates are actually marked “Court Copy” and “Insurance Copy.”

This way you can get that speeding ticket off of your driving record AND get that discount on your auto insurance, all without any hassle about getting a second copy of your defensive driving certificate.

Often people call us who’ve never taken a driving safety course online before, and many of those people ask something like this:

If I take your defensive driving class online,
what’s the test like?

Well, this is exactly what we tell everyone who takes our online class, right before the test begins…

First, don’t be nervous. This test mostly covers things that a good driver should already know, and it`s not designed to be difficult.

There are 20 multiple-choice questions, each with four possible answer choices. You only have one chance to answer each question. If you use your Browser’s Back button to see a previous question, your answer may be recorded as incorrect.

You’ll have 90 seconds to answer each question. You must answer before your 90 seconds run out or your answer will be marked wrong. After you answer a question, you will be told immediately whether you answered correctly or not, and what the highest possible score you can make is.

You must score at least 70% to pass. If your possible score drops below 70%, the test will be stopped and you’ll be sent back to the index page so you can review anything in the course before you re-take the test. You have three chances to pass the test.

If you have any questions about driving or about our Texas traffic school, please email them to us or call us at 888-401-3748.

Or just add it to the comments below.

ComedyGuys.com continues to make mobile defensive driving more fun and convenient for Texas drivers with their online defensive driving course for Google’s Android smartphone operating system.

Richardson, TX — Recently, Comedy Guys Defensive Driving made online defensive driving in Texas  more convenient by formatting the online version of their comedy driving safety course  for Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Not satisfied with making their online traffic school work with Apple’s mobile technology, ComedyGuys.com has now made the course compatible with Google’s new Android operating system for multiple smartphones and carriers.

After registering online, customers may take the course from any computer with Internet access or using their iPhone, iPad, and now Android smartphone. And because nothing is downloaded and all information is stored on Comedy Guys’ servers, switching back and forth among different devices is no problem.

“Time-wise, our online defensive driving course is flexible because people can login and out whenever they want,” says ComedyGuys’ Cash Cooper. “Now by making it available on mobile devices, our course is available wherever our customers are.”

Offering online defensive driving to mobile phones allows users to login when they have time to kill and no computer. Regardless of where a customer is — at their desk during lunch, on the treadmill at the health club, or on the bus or train ride home — as long as they have Internet access via their smartphone, they can work on the course, making defensive driving fit into their schedule instead of the other way round.

“A lot of our customers really like not having to sit at the computer,” Cooper adds. “They love the fact that they can take the course sitting in a lounge chair at Starbucks or even laying in bed. It really makes our course the most convenient in the defensive driving industry.”

“Having our course work on Apple’s iPhone and iPad is great, but we don’t want people to think we have a man crush on Steve Jobs. With the course working on Android phones, we are now able to deliver online defensive driving to customers of other mobile broadband providers. Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile all have new Android phones.”

The company’s state approved defensive driving curriculum covers all required content for a Texas driving safety course, but Comedy Guys uses professional comedians to make the course more entertaining. Comedy writers wrote the original curriculum and the text for the online course, and comics appear in the video clips throughout the course.

In addition to the online course, ComedyGuys.com continues to offer Texas defensive driving courses in over 30 locations. A complete schedule of defensive driving classes is available at the Comedy Guys website or by calling 877-826-6339.

This  question pops up from time, most recently from a parent concerned about sending his daughter to our defensive driving course:

“Is the comedy in your defensive driving class
suitable for everybody?”

The short answer is “yes.”

Comedy Guys Defensive Driving does take the boredom out defensive driving classes by having it written and taught by professional comics and entertainers.

But these guys are professionals, and they know that not all jokes are right for all audiences.We train our instructors to take the conservative route, to err on the side of caution and save the more questionable jokes for their stand-up routines.

The same is true of our online defensive driving class. The information presented in the text and videos of our online course is broken up with comedy, but the jokes are written to be amusing without being offensive.

In our driving safety classes we get a great mix of people. Some are teenagers whose license are so new, they’re still warm from the lamination machine. Others have been driving so long that their drivers license numbers are in Roman numerals. Some blush is they have to say the word “restroom” in public, while others have an everyday vocabulary that would burn the ear hair out of a truck driver.

Because of this great variety of people, we take a mainstream approach to the comedy.

The result should be a defensive driving class that cuts the tedium with comedy but without being tasteless or offensive.

This may be the single most-asked question:

“How does defensive driving work?”

Meaning, of course, how do I use a defensive driving class to get my ticket dismissed?

Well, we can answer that, but bear in mind that what we’re going to tell you applies to defensive driving and ticket dismissal in Texas. Things may work differently in other states, but Texas is our home turf and that’s what we’re going to limit ourselves to.

STEP 1: Contact the Court
On your ticket somewhere will be the name of the court involved, the address and telephone number, and a date—usually about 21 days after the date the ticket was written. That date is your deadline for contacting the court.

It’s always the court’s decision whether a ticket can be dismissed or not, so you have to contact them and get their approval to have a ticket dismissed before you take the class. Normally, this is just a formality, but it has to be done. Even if the officer that wrote the ticket told you that you could get it dismissed, you still need the court’s approval to make it official.

Be prepared though: even if you elect to have a ticket dismissed, you’ll have to pay court costs. This is usually about $110 — plus $25 if you were ticket in an active school zone.

STEP 2: Know your Deadline
Typically you’ll have 90 days to take the class, receive the certificate of completion to prove you were there, and deliver the certificate to the court.

That certificate has to be mailed to you. Whenever the courts are involved, we – and every other defensive driving course provider that’s following the law – are not allowed to hand your certificate to you personally. It has to pass through some third-party between us and you. In most cases, that third-party is the US Postal Service, though it can also be some overnight mail service or a courier. This requirement was begun a few years ago to help eliminate some fraudulent practices that some companies engaged in.

What this means for you is that you cannot wait until the deadline to take the class. If you do, you run the risk of not getting your certificate in time without paying extra for overnight mail. The advice we usually give is this: find out the last day to deliver the certificate, then subtract three weeks and consider that your deadline. Do this, and you’ll get your paperwork before it’s too late.

STEP 3: Sign up for the Class
Our online defensive driving class is incredibly convenient, because you decide when you want to work on it and for how long.

If you’d rather take a live class, check out our calendar of classes to find which of our 30+ locations is closest to you and best fits your schedule.

STEP 4: Take the Class
This is the easy part, because our instructors will be doing most of the work. You just need to fill out your paperwork carefully (remember: mistakes equal delays), pay attention, and pass the quiz at the end.

And, most importantly, have a good time. The whole point of mixing comedy and defensive driving is to cover the required material without boring anyone into a coma but without a comfy hospital bed.

STEP 5: Deliver your Certificate to the Court
When your certificate arrives (with regular mail, usually within 7 to 10 days after the class), there will be two copies in the same envelope. Sign the one marked “court copy” and get it to the court; deliver in person or send it registered mail. At this point, the court should erase this particular ticket from your record.

The other copy of your certificate is marked “insurance copy.” Ask your insurance company whether it offers a discount for people who’ve taken defensive driving. If so, the typical discount is 10% for three years. So instead of your insurance going up because you got a ticket, it may even go down because you took our class.

STEP 6: Remember what you learned in class
and don’t get another ticket!

This question came up three times last Friday:

“How do I find somebody who teaches the DUI class I need?”

This is an easy one. Put your cursor over FAQ at the top of our Website, and list of options will appear. Click where it says: Helpful links and Resources.

That will take you to another page of useful sites that we’ve found. On that list, under DUI you’ll find the first entry is Finding a DUI Course in Texas. Clicking that will take you to a list created and maintained by 1 800 DUI LAWS, an organization of DUI attorneys across the country.

Find your city on the list, and it will show the names, phone numbers, and Web addresses of the places that teach the Texas DUI class in your area.

One of the most common things we have
to explain to our customers is this:

“The court says
I have to take a ‘driving safety course,’
but all I find is  defensive driving.
What’s up with that?”

Oh, those lawyers: they have different name for everything. Like the French.

The simple fact is that a “driving safety course” and a “defensive driving course” are the same thing. Everyone calls it “defensive driving” except for judges and attorneys who call it “driving safety.”

But if you’re looking to meet a court’s requirements to get a ticket dismissed, they’re the same thing. And we can help you with that.

Actually, there is a more subtle difference if you’re interested in something more fundamental than satisfying a court. In a larger sense, “driving safety” is the entire idea of being safe while driving, all the attitudes and knowledge and skills that make any one driver safer when they’re behind the wheel.

If you look at it this way, “defensive driving” — the strategies and techniques wise drivers use to stay out of dangerous situations when they can and deal with them when they must — is just one aspect of this bigger picture.

(Of course, most people just want to make the court happy and make the ticket go away. I included all that “bigger picture” stuff to make the pedantic jerk in our office happy.)

Michelle in the Texas Panhandle called our office this morning with a great question:

“I want to take a defensive driving class in person,
but I’m not near a city where you have classes.
How can I find a class where I live?”

It’s true that ComedyGuys.com doesn’t have classes in every Texas city.

Yet.

As of now, we have more than 30 locations in Houston, Tyler, Denton, and all around Dallas and Fort Worth. And if you’re not in one of those places, we do have our online defensive driving class, which can get your ticket dimissed anywhere in Texas.

But if you want a live class and you’re not near enough to one of our locations, there is a database maintained by the Texas Education Agency that lists all licensed driving safety schools in Texas, sorted by city. Just pull up THE LIST OF ALL CLASSES, find your city, and make a few calls to find a class.

Of course, we wish everyone could take our class, but until our locations cross the state, we’re happy to help people find live defensive driving classes in their area.

It’s all part of our dedication to making Texas a safer place to drive.

Save time:
Anytime. Anywhere. At your own pace. The online defensive driving course fits into your schedule and is doesn’t matter where you are. It’ll work anywhere you can find an Internet connection.

This saves you commuting time and prep time, and allows you to reschedule your lesson at the very last second should any sort of emergency (or sudden desire to get far, far away) arrive.

Save money:
Taking defensive driving online gives you all the same money-saving benefits of our live classroom course. You’ll save on your vehicle insurance and be able to dismiss that ticket without having to pay the full amount.

Save driving:
Let’s say you just got a traffic ticket or were involved in an accident, and you’re a little bit nervous about getting back out onto the road before brushing up on your skills. We’re here for you and will have you driving confidently again in no time — without ever having to leave home until you’re ready.

Save comfort:
You can complete the online course in your pajamas, a burqa, bikini, birthday suit or suit of shining armor. You can become a better driver while in bed, standing up, dancing, riding a horse, or floating in a pool of jello (It’s amazing where you can find an Internet connection these days!) — whatever is most comfortable and whatever you need to better focus, learn and improve your defensive driving skills.

Save face:
At Comedy Guys, all of our defensive driving instructors and writers are professional comedians, including those in the online course. At home, you can feel free to laugh, snort, crack up, guffaw and fall off your couch as loud as you want without distracting other students. You also have the freedom to boo, hiss, yawn, heckle and roll your eyes without offending our hardworking teachers. Our online defensive driving course guarantees a giggle-(or jeer)-safe environment.

When it comes to teaching with comedy, defensive driving has never been done better than when Comedy Guys does it. Learn more about our classes here, or contact us for more information.