The Florida 8-hour traffic school course is also known as the Intermediate Driver Improvement Course and sometimes referred to by the acronyms, DDS, ADV and DDC. Taking the 8-hour traffic school in Florida is usually something that is mandated by a court if you have received 2 traffic violations in a 12 month period. There can be some exceptions to this, but that is usually the cause.
Don’t worry, I’m not here to judge you. I’m here to help!
As a certified CDL-A driving instructor, I am very familiar with how online driver training works, the companies that run them, the scams that exist, and all that other good stuff only an “insider” would know. And even though I might be some lame driving instructor, I’m not going to get all high-and-mighty by explaining which course will teach you the best things. I know what you really want.
You want a course that is fast, easy, cheap, and approved for your Florida 8-hour traffic school requirements. So first, let me show you the Florida certified 8-hour traffic schools I recommend. Please be aware that all of my recommendations are ONLINE traffic school courses and they are all approved in Florida for the 8-hour Intermediate Driver Improvement Course. Don’t even think about doing this in a classroom unless you enjoy torturing yourself. Taking your course online is the least painful way to go.
What is the Florida 8-Hour Traffic School Program?
The Florida 8-Hour Traffic School Program may be referred to by different names depending on the clerk, court official, or other party referencing the course. Some common titles for the course include:
- The Florida Intermediate Driver Improvement (IDI) Course
- 8-Hour Aggressive Driving Course
- 8-Hour Suspended License Course
The 8-hour course might also be referred to by some clerks as a “Defensive Driving Course,” or “DDC,” but these terms can refer to other types of courses as well.
Why take the Florida 8-Hour Traffic School Program? The 8-Hour Traffic School attendance in Florida typically falls into one of the following three categories:
- The driver decides to take it voluntarily
- The driver received a court order to complete the course due to the driver having committed one or more serious traffic violations
- The driver accumulated a number of violations in his/her driving record
In Florida, law enforcement officers often cite a driver for aggressive driving when that driver commits two or more serious traffic offenses at the same time, or within a short period of time.
Some examples include changing lanes rapidly without signaling while speeding at the same time. This will often result in an aggressive driving citation – thus, the course is also known as the 8-Hour Aggressive Driving Course.
In other situations, a judge might review the facts of a traffic crash and determine that a driver’s actions constituted aggressive driving behavior.
Incidents involving road rage will also commonly result in an adjudicative order for Aggressive Driving Course attendance.
If your court paperwork indicates that you have been ordered to attend an 8-hour Aggressive Driving Course, you need to enroll in an “8-hour Aggressive Driving”. This course is not the same as a 4-hour Basic Driver Improvement or 12-hour Advanced Driver Improvement course. Just to make that clear in case you take the wrong course.
My Recommended Online Florida 8-Hour Traffic School Courses
Below you will find my top 3 recommendations. I have listed them in order with my top recommendation being on top. I wanted to provide you with a few different options though, because the “best” is really up to everyones personal taste. I’ll get into the differences below each recommendation.
iDriveSafely
If you check out any of the other reviews of online traffic schools I have on this site, you’ll see a common trend. I almost always recommend iDriveSafely as the best course to sign up with. They aren’t approved in all states, but they have been approved as an online Florida 8-hour Traffic School course for many years (along with the 4 and 12 hour courses and even online drivers ed in Florida). This is simply a proven company. They’ve been around since before online traffic schools even existed. Their online traffic school courses have had a combined 5,000,000+ students go through their program (probably closer to 6 million now). I’ve actually toured their corporate office and saw first hand their 24/7/365 U.S. based customer support staff. You also get a bunch of great features like the ability to log into and out of the course whenever you want (they keep track of your progress), some videos and animations to help keep things at least mildly interesting, the entire course is mobile / tablet friendly, etc. Not to mention, you can get it done in exactly 8 hours and not a second longer. All in all, you really can’t go wrong with these guys.
Improv Traffic School
This is another online traffic school that I frequently recommend, but it’s an especially important recommendation in the state of Florida. The state of Florida requires all online 8-hour traffic school courses to have a course timer. That means, you can’t just blow through the course in 20 minutes. Each page is actually timed. Let me tell you, this is BRUTAL. There’s nothing like finishing a page, only to see that the timer has 10 more minutes on it. Ugh! Well, with Improv Traffic School, you might actually enjoy the experience. This is the same company that owns the countrywide chain of Improv Comedy Clubs. Basically, they got a bunch of comedians together in order to create a traffic school course that is entertaining. They actually did a pretty good job with it! You also get all the other stuff you’d want like 24/7/365 customer support, mobile-friendliness, etc. This is a great option if you have a goofy sense of humor.
Go To Traffic School
Go To Traffic School has also been around forever. Well ok, not forever, but this is one of the first (if not the first) online 8-hour traffic school programs approved in Florida and they’ve had literally millions of people go through their courses. Recently, Go To Traffic School was updated, so they have gained a bit of a boost lately with my recommendations. I’ve always liked Go To Traffic School because they guarantee to be the cheapest course you can take online. If you find a cheaper one, they will match or beat that price. My hangup has always been how outdated their traffic school courses were. Fortunately, they have fixed that issue with recent updates. So if you’re just looking for the cheapest way to get your 8-hour traffic school requirements out of the way, this would be an excellent option.
Conclusion
I hope you found the above recommendations to be helpful. I completely understand that you aren’t taking traffic school by choice, so I attempted to recommend the courses that will just get it done in the least painful way. I can’t promise any of the above courses will be super awesome and exciting, but if you have to take a traffic school, you might as well know which ones are the fastest, easiest, and cheapest. Any of the above recommended traffic schools will get the job done.