Your Instructor and The Road Ahead

Your instructor is a self-employed franchisee (‘your instructor’) of The Road Ahead (‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’).

The Road Ahead acts as an agent for your instructor in receiving your payments for driving tuition other than payments made directly by you to your instructor. Where The Road Ahead makes bookings with, or supplies any information or documentation to you, or processes any payments for your sessions, they act as the agent of your instructor.

The contract for driving tuition is solely between you (‘you’) and your instructor.

 

Agreement to the Terms and Conditions

By using any services of The Road Ahead and its Instructors, you agree to be bound to the Terms and Conditions as defined below.

 

Tuition

Public road tuition is only available to persons who meet the following criteria:

• Aged 17 or over or aged 16 or over and in receipt of the higher rate of Disability Living Allowance (mobility component); and
• hold a valid UK driving licence; and
• legally entitled to drive in the UK.

 

Sessions

You and your instructor are responsible for agreeing on all matters relating to the timing, location and duration of individual sessions.

You must notify your instructor of any matters which affect your ability or entitlement to have driving tuition, for example, but not limited to, any lack, or loss, of a valid UK driving licence.

Some instructors have CCTV systems within their car. These systems can record both inside and outside the car, at all times.

The use of the CCTV system could be, but not limited to, accident recollection, training and crime prevention.

 

Payments and Session Bookings

• Payment is due for the booking within 48hrs of the booking being made, or the session start time if this is sooner. This will confirm the booking in the instructors diary and secure your place.
• All payments for ongoing sessions must be made in advance.
• An admin charge can be applied, if your payment is late based on the terms above. This is a fixed rate of £10 per session.

 

Cancellation of Sessions

If you wish to cancel, reschedule or shorten a session a minimum of 48 hours prior notice must be given. If your instructor cancels a session without giving this minimum period of notice your instructor shall rearrange the session. Cancellations must be made directly between you and your instructor.

If you do not give notice you will be charged at the below rates;

• 48-25hrs Notice – 50% of FULL planned lesson cost
• 24-0hrs Notice – 100% of FULL planned lesson cost
• If the instructor has attended your address for the session, any further pre-booked sessions may be forfeited.

Regardless of the timeframe, if sessions are continually rescheduled/cancelled/amended the instructor reserves the right to remove you from their diary.

 

DVSA Driving Test

The practical driving test is operated by the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency, which is a part of the government.
The DVSA are not linked to The Road Ahead, and any fee’s that they charge are separate from the instructor fees.

DVSA

• Any student-led changes, amendments or cancellations of a driving test within 3-4 working days, will incur a DVSA fee of the full test rate. This is not controlled by The Road Ahead.
• Driving tests on a Saturday incur an additional DVSA fee of £13
• The DVSA can cancel or change the date of a driving test with less than 24hrs notice. If this is the case, you are still liable for your session with your instructor. They will, however, complete a form with you, to enable you to recover this money from the DVSA if the test was changed within 3 working days of the date.

The Road Ahead

• The Road Ahead and instructors will endeavour to ensure your readiness for your driving test
• As part of the session model, it is both the instructors and student’s responsibility to identify learning requirements in readiness for the driving test
• As responsible ADIs we have a duty to ensure that every driver we present for the test, not only displays the required driving skills but also a mature, responsible attitude towards driving and other road users.
• Your instructor reserves the right to reschedule your test if you have not shown, consistently, the standard of driving required or have cancelled sessions that were required in order to raise standards. This decision is never taken lightly. It is each ADI’s responsibility to ensure that well-prepared drivers are presented to the DVSA and failure to do so can affect the provision of the ADI licence to the individual instructor.

 

Price Changes

The cost of prepaid tuition is based on the session price at the time of booking and, with the exception of the circumstances set out below, will be honoured for 6 months thereafter irrespective of any price increase that may occur between the date of booking and when the sessions are taken. Any unused sessions remaining after 6 months have elapsed shall have any session price increase applied prior to the sessions which shall become payable by you.

Circumstances where, if you have prepaid, you will be either be required to pay an additional amount beyond the cost of your pre-paid sessions or receive a refund of some of your prepayments (as applicable):

1. Where you have moved postcode area and requested reallocation to another instructor because your current instructor does not operate in the new postcode area, you will be required to cover any difference in the hourly rate between those instructors where your new instructor charges a higher hourly rate or, where your instructor charges a lower rate, you will be refunded the difference.
2. Where you have requested to switch instructors within the same postcode area and your new instructor charges a higher hourly rate than your previous instructor, you will be required to pay the difference in the hourly rate or, where your instructor charges a lower rate, receive a refund of the difference.
3. Where you have requested to switch instructors in the same postcode area and your new instructor charges a supplement (for example an additional fee for tuition in a car with automatic transmission), you will be required to pay any such supplement.
4. Where you have not undertaken any sessions for a period of three months and have been reallocated an instructor after a price rise in tuition has taken place you will be required to pay the difference in price for your remaining sessions.
5. Where you have purchased sessions with a trainee instructor and, at your request, you are reallocated to a fully qualified instructor you will be required to pay the difference in the hourly rate between those instructors.

 

Transferability of Sessions

You cannot sell or transfer sessions that have been purchased in your name to any other person.

 

Limitation of Liability

Your instructor and/or The Road Ahead are not liable to you for any loss or damage caused where, and to the extent that:

• there is no breach of a legal duty owed to you by the relevant person or body;
• such loss or damage is not a reasonably foreseeable result of such a breach;
• any such loss or damage, or increase in the same, results from any breach or omission by you
• any such loss or damage results from circumstances or matters outside of the reasonable control of the relevant person or body.

Your instructor and/or The Road Ahead shall not, in any event, be liable for losses relating to any business interests you may have including, without limitation, lost profits, lost earnings, loss of opportunity or business or business interruption.

Your instructor and/or The Road Ahead shall not, in any event, be liable for any infringement of law, or penalties that occur when you are driving including, without limitation, speeding fines and points, contravening a red traffic light.

You are reminded that The Road Ahead are party to the contract for driving tuition itself, which is between you and your instructor. This does not affect any liability that your instructor may have for any loss or damage you may incur which is caused directly as a result of any breach (including negligence) by it or them of any legal duty owed by it or them to you.

Nothing in these terms and conditions will affect any statutory rights you may have as a consumer.

 

Insurance

Your instructor will carry the appropriate motor insurance, should you be involved in a collision as a learner driver while in control of driving the instructor’s tuition vehicle, whilst with a registered instructor or examiner.

 

Damage to the School Car

During sessions, your instructor will make every effort to avoid damage to the car. However, if your instructor considers that you were driving in a dangerous or unpredictable way during a session and actual damage is caused despite best efforts made, you will be expected to pay half towards repairs (up to the level of excess on the instructor’s insurance policy). This will be discussed at the time of the damage.

In addition, during driving tests, the examiner will not prevent you, the candidate from hitting the kerb or causing other similar minor damage to the car. Therefore, all damage caused by you whilst on test will be charged to you (up to the level of excess on the instructor’s insurance policy).

 

Law Applying to Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales and are subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

 

Customer Care

Your contract is between you and your instructor.

In the rare event of any problem arising, you should resolve this with your instructor immediately. We recommend no further sessions are taken until the matter is resolved.

In the unlikely event that you are unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion, we will be happy to investigate further until the matter is resolved. Please note that we will require evidence of any financial transactions and session times before we are able to investigate.

If you still feel dissatisfied, you may contact the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency on 0300 200 1122 who may be able to help you further.

 

Collection and Use of Data

Any personal data you provide will be held securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.
We will use your personal data for the purpose(s) for which you have provided it. It may also be used for marketing, research and statistical purposes and crime prevention.

We may, however, need to disclose personal data to a third party so that the service you requested could be provided. Where this happens, we will endeavour to ensure that any recipient of your data will treat it with the same level of protection as we would.

Your data may be disclosed to regulatory bodies for the purposes of monitoring and/or enforcing compliance with any regulatory rules/codes.

If you give us information about another person, in doing so you confirm that they have given you permission to provide it to us to be able to process their personal data (including any sensitive personal data) and also that you have told them who we are and what we will use their data for, as set out in this notice.

In the case of personal data, with limited exceptions, you have the right to access and if necessary rectify information held about you by formal written application to your instructor, who is registered as a data controller.

By providing us with your personal data and contact details, you consent to the use of that data and to your being contacted by The Road Ahead company, by post, telephone, email, SMS or other electronic means, to inform you about products and services which it considers may be of interest to you. However, you can contact your instructor in writing at any time to suppress some or all The Road Ahead products.

 

Business Details

The Road Ahead
Office: 103 Glebe Cresent, Rugby, CV21 2HQ
Call: 07792 549 230

 

Changes to the Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions can change at any time without prior notice. Your instructor will advise you that a new set of terms and conditions are available on the website. The new terms and conditions will be in effect from when they are written, not when you receive them.

 

Changes made to the Terms and Conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic

Please speak directly to your assigned Instructor about changes made to the provision of driving sessions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

You may be required to wear a face covering during your session.

You may be required to pay electronically prior to your session to avoid passing money.

The cancellation policy may be temporarily altered, so that short notice cancellations are not charged if the cancellation is due to yourself, or a household member, having Covid-19 symptoms OR being isolated due to ‘Test and Trace’.  If you cancel a session for the aforementioned reasons, you will be unable to rebook a session for 14 days unless you can produce a negative test result. If you have a practical test booked within this time your instructor will reschedule the date to be after the 14 days.  If you cancel or reschedule a session for any other reason the cancellation policy remains as detailed below.

 

Version 2020-09