If you're a driving instructor with a question about running a business, tax, mindfulness, training or anything else, you're in the right place. Find out how to get in touch with them through ADI Network.

How to Get Expert Help with Your Business

Thanks to ADI Network's partnership with Intelligent Instructor+, you've got the knowledge of experts in ADI training, mindfulness, accountancy and more at your fingertips — and they're ready to answer any questions you have.

We have a host of talent with different specialist areas who are ready to answer your burning questions - all for free when you join ADI Network.

Tommy Sandu is our expert in Business Advice. He runs Smart Learner Driving School, a hugely successful, and award-winning driving school in the Midlands. 

Tommy is highly respected within the industry, with fresh ideas and innovative ways of engaging with both learners and instructors. A regular presenter of webinars and conferences. His knowledge will help you make your business more efficient and successful.

Ray Seagrave is our expert in Training. As an advocate for coaching and client-centred learning, Ray is an industry award-winning trainer and public speaker. 

A Grade A (51/51) ORDIT Instructor trainer and Grade A ADI, his passion is helping ADIs and PDIs develop their client-centred teaching and coaching skills to deliver the national driver and rider standards around safe driving for life.

Ruedi Preiss is our expert in Electric Vehicles. He's a passionate ADI who runs a driving school that has been an early adopter of electric vehicles. He often shares his experience with others, and is very passionate about the future of the driving tuition industry.

San Harper is our expert in Mindfulness. She is a well-respected mindfulness expert, well known for her knowledge and experience. An ADI for 18 years, San is now of a Grade A standard and is a qualified fleet trainer.

Having been a former taxi assessor for the Blue Lamp Trust and a former trainer for speed awareness courses on behalf of Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership, San Harper is the calmest person behind the wheel!

Andrew Drewary is one of our experts in Road Safety. He's a multi-award-winning road safety specialist and collision/incident investigator with 23 years of experience. Andrew has managed the investigation and analysis process for over 40,000 road traffic collisions.

His specialist areas are in: Collision and incident investigations, driver and management training, policy writing and public speaking.

Charlotte Le Maire is another expert in Road Safety. She's a motor criminal and regulatory lawyer and barrister and is frequently instructed to provide critical advice in the immediate aftermath of a serious/fatal incident.

Charlotte's specialist areas are in: Defending drivers and employers after serious or fatal road collisions and incidents, driver and management training, policy writing and public speaking.

Amy Hartley is our expert in Tax & Accountancy. She joined FBTC Accountancy Services in 2011 since then she has helped driving instructors through all phases of their business, ensuring guidance and support when needed.

If you're a driving instructor looking to improve your pass rate, you should consider switching from a teaching style of instruction to coaching. Find out how to get started and why it's important on ADI Network.

Coaching vs Instructing

You've probably heard of the latest trend in the driving tuition industry: coaching rather than instructing. It might sound confusing given that you're a driving instructor, but it's more than just a buzz word that will disappear faster than it arrived.

The word 'instruct' usually means the act of telling someone else what to do. Think back to your time in education, and you'll remember your teachers telling you what you need to know. All you had to do was take notes and remember what you were being told.

Now you're no longer in school, do you know what equation to use to work out the radius of a circle? For most people, the answer will be no. One of the core reasons for that is because everyone has a different learning style, and instruction doesn't really take that into consideration.

It's easy to zone out or struggle to pick up skills that are just being told to you, and a lot of people struggle with learning something new until they apply it themselves.

Coaching is more of a collaborative effort between yourself and the learner. You're still sharing your knowledge and taking on a mentor position, but there are a few key differences.

To be an effective coach, you should focus on asking questions to allow the learner to reach the answer themselves. It's also important to listen, reflect and paraphrase to show you understand and to make sure you're on the same page with the learner.

A regular contributor to ADI Network, Ray Seagrave is a national award winning driving instructor, who has since moved on to ADI training.

He has 25 years of experience in of working in senior business marketing management positions, which has developed his skills around building rapport with clients. He is also qualified as a Fleet Driver Metrics Coach and accelerate instructor trainer and teaching ADIs 'Coaching for Driver Development' all over the Midlands.

Ray has a passion for personal development, improving driver safety and the development of the driver training industry, which shines through in the work that he does with Intelligent Instructor & ADI Network.

Learn more about coaching

Coaching vs Instructing: The Difference

If you're a driving instructor looking to improve your career and business skills, look no further. Discover how ADI Network's free webinars from industry experts will help.

Driving Instructor Webinars

As we all know, driving instructors tend to work for themselves, and spend most of their time delivering lessons with customers.

Unlike most jobs, driving instructors don't get much chance to spend time with their colleagues, which is a vital way to learn and develop.

The nature of work as a driving instructor means you can sometimes be left feeling isolated and unsupported. You want to develop your career — but how? Let us answer that for you.

ADI Network has partnered with Intelligent Instructor+ to bring you tonnes of video and written content about every aspect of being a driving instructor.

If that wasn't good enough, members of ADI Network get free access to monthly webinars from experts across the industry.

From mindfulness to lesson planning, standards check tests and business advice, there's something for everyone no matter your experience level.

Self-Care and Setting Boundaries by San Harper

More webinars are announced every month, so keep an eye on your inbox and the app to find out what you'll be learning next.

Can't make it to the webinar? Don't worry — you can catch up on all webinars for free on the ADI Network app.

What webinars are available?

Learn at Home from Industry Experts

A good driving instructor doesn't just help their learner pass their driving test. It's important to teach good habits to ensure they're a safe driver for life. Find out how with ADI Network!

How Driving Instructors Can Create Responsible Drivers

Driving instructors know better than anybody that young drivers are the most likely to be involved in a road accident. But did you know an 18-year-old is six times more likely to crash than their parents?

Ability comes with experience, so it’s logical to assume that somebody driving for 1 year is more at risk than those with 10+ years of experience behind the wheel. However, when you zoom out and look at the wider stats, only 20% of new drivers aged between 35-44 and 16% over 55 are involved in an accident during their first year of driving.

In comparison, a whopping 26% of new drivers aged between 18 and 24 are involved in a crash in their year as a driving ‘fresher’, so it’s clear to see that age isn’t just a number when it comes to road safety.

In this article, we’ll look at why young drivers are more likely to find themselves in an accident, and what you can do as an instructor to help them stay safe.

Why are young drivers more likely to crash?

Road safety charity Brake found that people aged 17-19 are involved in nearly a tenth of all serious and fatal crashes in the UK, despite only making up 1.5% of driving licence holders. This amounts to an average of 1,500 young drivers being killed or seriously injured in the UK each year. These figures are seriously worrying but help to shed some light on why car insurance is so high for teenaged drivers.

So why are younger drivers most likely to be in a crash? It can be boiled down to 3 main reasons:

After passing their test, a lot of young drivers are pumped full of adrenaline and excitement to get out on the open road. In other words, they’re on top of the world and feel like they can take on any challenge.

This isn't a wise attitude to have when driving. Over-confidence is one of the biggest factors that lead to young people being involved in a disproportionate number of accidents.

You can hardly blame somebody who’s recently passed for lacking experience. After all, they’ve probably only spent around 50 hours behind the wheel before taking the test. And, according to the ROSPA, it takes around 1000 hours to experience most challenges that the road offers and be considered ‘experienced’ — so most young drivers have a way to go before hitting those numbers.

The first thing many in their late teens-slash-twenties do with their new pink licence is take their mates out for a spin. This is all harmless fun — if the driver concentrates on the road and doesn’t let things going on inside the car distract them.

And then there are mobile phones. Young people, as we all know, are glued to their smartphones, and this habit can easily creep in while driving. They might think “it’ll only take a second” to skip a song or check their notifications, but that second can be the difference between life and death.

Distraction combined with inexperience and a dash of over-confidence = a recipe for disaster.

So now we know why young drivers are more likely to be involved in a bump than other age groups, let’s look at how we as ADIs can help to impart sensible driving habits on them.

We’ll start with the most obvious, but something still worth saying — being a positive example to our learners is crucial. As their instructor, you’re probably the most authoritative driver in their life. Most teens will let what their parents say go in one ear and straight out the other (I’m sure you’ve experienced this, one way or another!) — but you’ve got the advantage of being a fresh voice of influence.

Speak to your students about the dangers of speeding. Tell them stories of drink or drug drivers who ended up in jail, or worse, dead. Never let your emotions get the better of you during lessons, so they learn to stay cool in every situation.

One factoid that can really hit home with young men is that more young women die as passengers than drivers. Nobody wants to put their girlfriend’s life in danger by showing off and driving carelessly.

Arrange lessons in as many conditions as possible

This is easier said than done, especially when students are eager to pass or are taking an intensive course. However, it’s usually possible to arrange at least a few hours of driving in the dark and/or rainy conditions (this is the UK, after all!).

Extra care needs to be taken when driving in adverse conditions, and you’re the best-placed person to teach learners exactly what they need to do.

They might not like to hear it. They might even see it as stunting their newfound freedom. But black box (a.k.a telematics) insurance can be a real lifesaver while also helping to save a bit of cash.

Most young drivers dread taking out their first policy, and many will ask you for your advice on how to limit the costs. Try to encourage a black box insurance policy — your learner will drive with more care in their first year of driving, helping to build vital experience in the meantime.

Most recent passers will be glad that they don’t have to pay for driving lessons anymore (no offence to us ADIs, I’m sure!), so many young drivers could turn their noses up at advanced or PassPlus training. However, it’s worth the discussion, especially as PassPlus can also help to drive insurance costs down.

If the learner isn’t thrilled with the idea of post-pass driving tuition, see if their parent/guardian is more open to the idea. If that still gets you nowhere, you could try to incorporate motorway tuition into their regular driving lessons. This way, the learner gets important motorway and high-speed driving practice without feeling as though they’re paying extra or being treated like a baby.

How about sharing these tips with your learners? You can help to keep them safe and, eventually, save a few pennies on their insurance! Share this article on how young drivers can stay safe with your learners and recent passers.

How Driving Instructors Can Help Learners Become Responsible Drivers

We’re going to look at what it means to be a DVSA-approved driving instructor and why it’s so important you become one.

What Does It Mean to be ‘DVSA-Approved’?

One of the most important steps that a driving instructor has to make is taking their Part 3 exam and becoming an ADI. 

If you're a new driving instructor, you might be wondering what it means when a driving school tells you that it employs ‘DVSA-approved’ instructors. We’re going to look at what it means to be a DVSA-approved instructor and why it’s so important you become one.

The DVSA is responsible for carrying out driving tests, safety tests, and roadside checks on drivers and vehicles. And that’s not all they do. The agency also approves people to be driving instructors and makes sure that they provide high quality training.

If an instructor is DVSA-approved then it means that they have been qualified and registered by the DVSA. By law, only DVSA-approved instructors are allowed to charge for their services. These instructors are known as PDIs (Potential Driving Instructors) and ADIs (Approved Driving Instructors).

In order to become an instructor, every trainee goes through rigorous coaching, background checks and passes 3 tests. PDIs have already passed 2 of the 3 tests and completed 40 hours of training with a qualified instructor, so the DVSA approves them to start teaching learners to build up their teaching experience. Let’s look at the process of becoming a DVSA-approved instructor below.

How does an instructor become DVSA-approved?

In order to practice driving on the roads, learner drivers must be supervised at all times. Learners can’t just practice with any old driver. Anyone looking to supervise a learner must first meet a few stipulations set out by the DVSA. Supervisors must:

Be qualified to drive the type of vehicle being used to supervise the learner (manual or automatic)

Have held a full licence for that category for at least 3 years

Now, that’s just for anyone looking to supervise a learner. To actually start charging learner drivers for tuition, aspiring instructors must apply to become an ADI. During this application process, candidates must get a criminal record check. Applications can be refused if someone has:

Been convicted for any non-motoring offences

Candidates are also unlikely to have their application accepted if they have been: convicted of a sexual, violent, financial or drug-related crime, or banned from working with children. Once aspiring instructors have met the legal requirements, the qualifying process can start. In order to officially join the ADI Register, candidates must first earn their stripes as an ADI.

In order to join the ranks of DVSA-approved instructors, you must pass three tests.

Part 1:  Theory: The theory test is made up of 100 multiple-choice questions and 14 hazard perception clips. Candidates are allowed unlimited attempts.

Part 2: Driving Ability: The driving test involves candidates driving safely in various road and traffic conditions, all the while displaying a good knowledge of the Highway Code. Candidates are only allowed three attempts.

Part 3: Instructional Ability: The instructional test involves candidates being observed by an examiner whilst giving a one hour driving lesson to a student. Candidates are only allowed three attempts.

As you can see, the DVSA makes sure that instructors are put through their paces before they’re approved and added to the ADI Register. If an instructor uses up all of their attempts on Part 2 or 3, they’ll have to start the process all over again (once it’s been two years since they first passed Part 1).

Registering as a DVSA-approved instructor

Once an instructor has passed all three tests, they can officially register as an ADI. But the DVSA makes sure instructors don’t rest too easy on their laurels, which is why registration only lasts for four years. In order to re-register, ADIs have to pass a standards check. The aim of this is to ensure instructors continue to provide high quality teaching in accordance with DVSA standards and regulations. Instructors can end up removed from the register if they:

Don’t meet the DVSA’s required standards

Fail to attend the standards check when asked to

If an ADI doesn’t get it right the first time, they’re allowed two additional attempts. If they’re still not successful, they will need to take their ADI tests again. And that’s not all! When renewing their registration, ADIs have to get a new criminal record disclosure check. They must also still qualify as being a ‘fit and proper’ person. In other words, they need to maintain a good record.

Why is it so important that I become a DVSA-approved instructor?

As you now know, driving instructors have to jump through a lot of hoops in order to qualify for the ADI Register. It’s not enough that they have to pass three gruelling tests, they also need to re-register every four years and prove to the DVSA that they’re still worth their salt.

If you’re teaching as a DVSA-approved instructor (or a PDI that’s nearly finished their training), then you’re practically guaranteed to be giving high quality tuition that’s up-to-date with DVSA standards. Providing high-standard lessons will increase your local reputation and you'll receive more enquiries as a result.

Almost all drivers have picked up bad habits since they first passed their test. The last thing a learner wants is to fail their test because they were taught how to do something against DVSA regulations. New DVSA-approved instructors, by comparison, know exactly what the DVSA are looking for and will teach a learner everything they need to know to pass their driving test.

If you're looking for extra work, adding yourself to the DVSA's website is a free way to gain more customers. If you're not sure how to get added, we've got everything you need here.

How to Add Yourself to the DVSA's Website

When looking for driving lessons, it's absolutely vital for learners to make sure their instructor is actually qualified. Only DVSA-registered instructors are qualified to teach and legally allowed to charge for lessons. If you end up learning with someone who doesn't have the right qualifications or training, you could end up endangering yourself and other road users. So it's crucial that you check your instructor is fully legal.

In this guide, we'll look at how you can check another instructor is approved by the DVSA, how to make sure you're on the DVSA's list of approved instructors, and what to do if you think you're learning with an illegal driving instructor.

Anyone offering driving lessons must be a Potential Driving Instructor (PDI) holding a valid trainee driving instructor licence, or an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI). If they're not, and they're still charging money for their lessons, then they're breaking the law. Only DVSA-approved instructors are legally allowed to charge for their services. Don't just take our word for it — GOV.UK lays this out in no uncertain terms on their website:

To legally charge anyone money (or monies worth) for driving instruction in a car, you must either:

Have a trainee driving instructor licence

It's illegal to charge someone for driving lessons if you're not qualified and registered, or if you don't have a trainee driving instructor licence."

Worse still, this problem isn't as uncommon as you may think — we found there were almost 1,000 reports of instructors teaching illegally between 2014 and 2019.

Do you want to check whether a new instructor in the area is qualified? The first thing you need to do is check the DVSA’s handy ‘Find your nearest driving instructors’ tool. This database contains a list of DVSA-approved instructors who have signed up to be listed. You’ll be able to simply type in your postcode and find instructors that are the closest to you. When you do, you’ll be able to see their:

And that’s not all. You’ll also be able to see if an ADI has committed to a voluntary Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme and if they have agreed to abide by the ADI Code of Practice (CoP).

Additionally, if an ADI has chosen to disclose it, you’ll see their Standards Check Grade. If an instructor hasn’t disclosed their grade, don’t assume this is because they failed their standards check! If ADIs don’t pass the standards check, they get two more tries before they have to retake all three ADI tests again. You can find out more about this in our guide to the process of becoming a driving instructor.

Can't find the instructor on the list? Before you start jumping to conclusions, we’d like to emphasise that this database is purely voluntary. In other words, ADIs choose whether or not they want to be included on the list. For all you know, your instructor could just prefer to advertise their services by word of mouth or their personal website. Fortunately, the DVSA database isn’t the only way to check your instructor is DVSA-approved.

What if I think an instructor isn't DVSA-approved?

If you can’t find your instructor in the DVSA’s database and you haven't been able to see their badge, it’s important not to panic or jump to conclusions. There might be a number of legitimate reasons explaining this.

If you don’t feel comfortable asking them to prove that they’re qualified (if you suffer from that awkward British politeness!) then you can get in touch with the DVSA and ask them to check for you. To help the DVSA with their search, you will need the name of your instructor and their ADI number (if you can). Then, get in touch with the DVSA’s customer support:

DVSA Customer Support adireg@dvsa.gov.uk  Telephone: 0300 200 1122 Monday to Friday, 8am to 4pm

Alternatively, if you’re pretty certain that you've come across an illegal driving instructor, you can report them to the DVSA’s counter-fraud and integrity team. Feel like you're going a bit overboard? The DVSA takes this matter very seriously and looks into every report. So, if you're reasonably sure, you should definitely get in touch:

DVSA Counter-fraud and Integrity Team cfi@dvsa.gov.uk Telephone: 0300 123 3248 Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm

While you're checking the DVSA's database of instructors, it's worth seeing if you're on there yourself. Like we said, it's completely up to you whether you want to be added to the list or not, but we'd recommend doing it.

Being on the DVSA's list of instructors means your current and future learners can make sure you're fully qualified, which will help them to feel more at ease during their lessons with you.

As well as that, a lot of learners use the DVSA's website when they're looking for driving instructors in their area. If you show up when a learner enters their postcode, you'll receive more business.

How to add yourself to the DVSA's database

You can give your permission to appear on the DVSA's database in a few taps. Just use your online user ID to update your ADI registration.

If you've already opted in and you've decided you no longer want to show up on the database, you can follow the same steps and update your preferences online.

If you've forgotten your password or user ID, or you're having any issues figuring out what to do, you can email the DVSA's customer service team at customerservices@dvsa.gov.uk.

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