FAQ's

This is a difficult question for us to answer, as all students will learn at their own pace. The national average is around 45 hours of tuition with an instructor. Although this is a statistic published by the DVSA and we have found that these figures can vary greatly from one learner to the next. Some students will learn a lot quicker, whilst others may take longer.

Yes, we offer block booking discounts on our regular lesson prices. If you buy a block of 10 hours you will receive a discount. More information on our current lesson rates and block booking discounts can be found here.

Yes you will need to have received your provisional licence before booking your first driving lesson. If a lesson is booked in with an instructor and you do not have your licence, the lesson cannot go ahead. By law, we need to see your licence on your very first lesson.

No, you can start your lessons at any time, and you do not have to have passed your theory test before you start your practical lessons. We offer access to the Theory Test Pro Programme for all our learners. Many of our learners have found revising for the theory while having practical lessons actually helps them understand aspects of the theory better. We would recommend that you study your theory whilst taking your practical driving lessons.

Yes, if you have any preference at all on who you would like to learn with, please let us know, and we will do everything we can to try and fit you into their diary as quickly as possible.

Your first lesson will be based on your current level of ability. Generally, if you have never driven before, your instructor will drive you to a suitable location to ensure your safety whilst getting used to the car. This might be in a car park or on a quiet road. You will then go through with your instructor setting the car up so that you are comfortable and in the correct position to drive, your instructor will then explain some of the basic controls of the car. We aim to get everybody driving on their first lesson, the focus being on moving off and stopping safely. Depending on the length of the lesson and your previous knowledge/experience you may start looking at gears and junctions too.

This depends on your diary and the instructor’s diary, for example many of our learner who study have week 1 & week 2 timetables. This means they need a different lesson time or day each week. Our instructors will do their best to accommodate your availability each week to ensure you receive a weekly lesson.

We do not offer 1 hour lessons, especially to those looking to learn in a manual car. The minimum lesson length with Drive like a Boss is 90 minutes. We have found 90 minutes to be a good solution for lesson length. 60 minute lessons are not long enough for you to practice and experience enough time in the car. Our learners do a mixture of hour and a half and two hour lessons.

We always encourage private practice if this is an option available to our learners. The more time you spend practicing is going to help your ability and confidence. Ideally we would recommend you wait until you have mastered the control of the vehicle and can safely negotiate moving off and stopping, and junctions, before going out for private practice. Remember that your car doesn’t have dual controls like the instructor does.

All of our driving instructors are self employed, we would not make this decision for them. You are very welcome to ask them directly. When taking driving lessons, please remember you are not only paying to use the vehicle, you are paying for the instructors knowledge and expertise too. For example if you hired a plumber to fix your boiler, but brought in your own toolbox and asked him to use your tools and then discount the price accordingly, it probably wouldn’t happen!

Some drivers go though each imdividual gear, for example when coming down the gears coming down 5-4-3-2-1. This is a habit that has stuck with some drivers from when they originally learned to drive and was commonly taught well into the late 1990s. But it’s not generally good practice to use the gears in this way when driving modern cars. In fact it is definitely less fuel efficient therefore costing your more on fuel, not to mention worse for eco driving.

Over the years, the motor car design and engineering has improved. Compared with cars of even thirty years ago, modern vehicles are lighter, more powerful and more aerodynamic.

These changes (and others) mean that the driving method that was essential in older cars is not necessary for modern driving.

Because cars used to be heavy and braking systems were not as efficient as they now are, it was necessary to use the gears (or to be more precise, the engine compression) to help to slow the car down.

The combination of efficient braking systems and lighter vehicles now means that drivers can slow down without the need to change to a lower gear. Cars have very good brakes, we should be using our brakes to slow and our gears to go!

Gear changes are only required when power is needed to keep the car moving. Specific gears can be used in different situations to vary the effect of the gas pedal on balance and handling.

This means that if you are stopping, you don’t need to change gear until after you have stopped. This is the preferred method of the UK Driving Standards Agency and all advanced driving organisations. It is not necessary to change gears in sequence going up or coming down.

Yes we do, although not all of our instructors offer Pass plus. Over the years Pass Plus has become less popular. You no longer receive the same discount that you did before when undertaking Pass Plus. Most insurance companies have favoured black box insurance. Many of our learners opt to take an additional motorways lesson once they have passed their driving test.

Provided your driving instructor has said that you are at test standard and ready for test, yes the instructor will ensure their car is available for your use on the day of test.

On the day of your driving test your driving instructor will pick you up in plenty of time so that you have time to warm up and practice things like your manoeuvres and the show me tell me questions. What you do is up to you, everyone is different and has different needs. You will then take the driving instructors car out on your test, your instructor will wait for you to return. You pay for a minimum of 2 hours to cover the time before your test, the test itself and then being taken home afterwards (hopefully with a pass certificate in hand!).

Our manual lessons are a minimum of 90 minutes (hour and a half). 1 hour lessons do not allow enough time and are not cost effective in the long run to give you enough time to master the control of the vehicle. Once you start your lessons, your instructor might offer you a 1 hour lesson in addition to you normal lesson, or if you are unable to get a test for example, but when you first book, you cannot book 1 hour.