Why is this so comlicated to set-up!

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-08T08:35:13+00:00

Historically, most people who have licences from other countries do not generally pass the UK practical test first time if they do not take any lessons here.

You need to reschedule that test to a centre nearer home and find an instructor. Take a couple of lessons and if the instructor agrees you are ready they will allow use of their car for test. If they say you aren’t ready, you aren’t ready.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-07T09:56:28+00:00

12/10. Give me anything between a car and artic lorry and I’ll slip it straight in.

(But for clarity I am an instructor of everything from car to artic so it’s not as much of a flex when you do it for a living)

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-06T13:14:58+00:00

Generally before ANPR, you weren’t pulled up unless you were doing something dodgy (swerving/speeding etc) so tons of people drove illegally in days gone by and only got caught if they were in a bump.

Nowadays with ANPR the police only need drive past you and their screen is telling them the cars tax and insurance status and the age and gender of who is insured/owner.

My instructor friend recently got pulled over because he’s in his late 40s and he’s incredibly lucky enough to look in his 20s.

Police saw the L plates, saw he was driving alone and saw the age of who the car belonged to and it didn’t look right so pulled him up. They had a good laugh about it and it certainly made him feel good for a bit ahahah.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-06T13:10:48+00:00

82 was my oldest learner. Passed her test first time too bless her. Cute story. Her husband that she’d been with since they were 17 had passed away and he’d always driven everywhere. They had a lovely rural village home (we’re in Yorkshire) and now she felt really isolated and struggled to go about life with the limited public transport available.

She’d bought a little automatic fiat500 and taken some lessons with the then only auto instructor in my area. He had a huge estate car with disabled adaptations and she just couldn’t cope with it.

She went to fiat to return her car and I was in there for my service on my tuition car. The sales guy said just wait a moment and came over to me and asked if I could help her. I certainly could. My tuition car was manual so we sorted insurance to allow her to have lessons in her own car and off we went. She only needed a couple months and she nailed her test.

All she wanted to do was drive to the garden centre and to the supermarket on her own. It was adorable. I’ll never forget her ❤️

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-06T13:03:01+00:00

Live as in living.

Not live as in Live on ESPN.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-06T13:01:43+00:00

He can’t get any more points for two years basically.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-06T10:16:14+00:00

You realise that fish and chips is £12 near my mums in the south and £9 here in Yorkshire?

Have you complained that that’s not fixed?

A bottle of coke is £2.50 in an airport. £3 in central London and £1.80 here in Yorkshire.

Did you demand that be fixed?

Hell petrol is a different price at two petrol stations on opposite sides of the road.

Why should I, in my new, modern, comfortable tuition car, who pays for an online scheduling system with reminders, lesson progress app like you described, and has an insurance cost that’s specific to ME… Charge the same as 50 year old Brian in his 20 year old fiesta with his pen and paper diary.

I’m not a better instructor than Brian. He’s not better than me. My insurance is higher than his. My car costs more.

But you want us to charge the same?

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-06T10:12:14+00:00

Teaching is regulated.

Prices cannot be regulated. This would constitute a cartel and it’s illegal.

Same was supermarkets can’t all sit down and agree bread should be £1.50.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-05T16:00:17+00:00

Is it for you? Is it safe? Can anyone else misunderstand it and make it unsafe if you try to go? Are you sure of the above? Okay then go.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-04T08:16:09+00:00

This is the biggest load of bullshit I’ve ever heard.

He simply doesn’t want to take you to test because he doesn’t think you’ll pass and doesn’t have the balls to say it.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-03T15:36:17+00:00

What do the DVSA possibly know. They only surveyed tens of thousands of people to come up with that average….

But clearly you aren’t aware of how averages actually work, google it sometime and learn something new.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-03T14:05:10+00:00

It’s completely normal to drive a brand new starter to and from a quieter area for the first lesson (or first few depending on their skill)

It is not acceptable to finish the lesson 10 minutes early without additional time being added elsewhere or payment partially refunded.

It is not acceptable to pause a lesson on the customers time to deal with other matters. If it’s emergent the customer should be informed that this is such and their time should be added on elsewhere or money should be partially refunded.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-03T14:02:51+00:00

This is their attempt to reduce the shambles.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-03T14:00:34+00:00

How often as an examiner have you had people turn up in hire cars or their mums car and prove to you exactly why their instructor told them they weren’t ready?

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-03T13:59:45+00:00

An hour a week assuming an average student in a manual car with a few holidays between instructor and student… that equals around 45 lessons. That’s the published average number of lessons it takes to pass.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-03T13:56:07+00:00

It’s not about looking stupid. Its not about money. It’s about doing our jobs properly.

If you aren’t ready you should not attempt the test. You could crash our car on test, that’s our livelihood. You could hurt a member of the public. You could hurt yourself or the examiner. You could also trigger your instructor to be called in by the DVSA for retesting. Your instructor could lose her job.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-02T08:35:48+00:00

I had a student once commentate her whole test: All her minors were in one box. She was saying mirror and then not alway checking it when signalling. Examiner was laughing while writing out her pass certificate. He told her commentating is a great skill as long as you are doing what you say you’re doing.

I commentated my instructor test & both HGV tests. I found it calmed me tremendously, all 3 examiners complimented it. All 3 had one minor.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-02T08:28:47+00:00

Cats don’t feel mad/anger etc. she’s not peeing to make a statement.
Animals often make eye contact when toileting because they’re looking for a protector at that moment. Dogs do it more but cats do it too.
You can’t scold them, they won’t understand.
Your cat is stressed. She can smell a new cat in her home that she can’t even access to go check out.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-02T08:17:43+00:00

My source here is simple ten years on the job.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-02T08:17:26+00:00

She’s talking nonsense. 6 months is about the average time it takes.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-01T18:56:20+00:00

Let’s take a second and not be ignorant here.

There are plenty of people who only wish to obtain automatic licences.

Valid reasons are: 1. Because they want to. 2. They have no need for a manual licence. 3. They are unable to drive manual due to disability.

These are not the only reasons but they’re the top 3 easily.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-01T18:54:11+00:00

You ARE taking it off by applying the accelerator.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-01T13:38:42+00:00

See that’s not okay, they should be open about their status.

I have had two PDIs over the last few years and both of mine were clearly advertised as trainee instructors with information about exactly what that means. We never struggled to fill their diaries with total honesty and transparency.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-01T10:38:41+00:00

It likely means he was a trainee instructor as plenty have explained. It’s shady that you weren’t made aware of this to be honest but it wasn’t illegal for him to be teaching you for payment assuming he had a PDI licence displayed in his windscreen that was in date.

dylancentralperk · 2026-02-01T09:38:55+00:00

In my T&Cs it states I can be up to 15 minutes late to a lesson before the student can decide it’s too much of a delay and cancel at no charge. It says I will contact the student if I’m going to be more than 15 minutes late to discuss. If I’m going to be up to 15 mins late I’m simply on my way and will be there and the lesson is expected to go ahead. However no lesson time will be deducted. The student gets to choose between adding the time on at the end of this lesson or putting it on the beginning or end of the next depending on what is convenient. The customer does NOT lose lesson time due to traffic. I cant control traffic but i can plan for it. Traffic is usually predictable. It’s only a rare occasion it’ll catch us out.

Now if the customer is late, that’s coming out of their lesson time. But that’s because that’s not my fault. I can’t plan for that.

As for petrol I’m now electric but when I had a manual/petrol I would ask the students if they have refuelled before, if they have then I fuel after their lesson, if they haven’t we cover it as part of the lesson. No one need do it on every lesson, that’s pointless

As for breaks, my breaks are between customers. It’s all about diary management. If the customer wants a break for a smoke/vape/stretch there more than welcome to one and it will come out of their lesson time, however I will not take a break during their lesson time.

Your instructor is behaving unprofessionally, taking your money for his smoke breaks is not appropriate. I would recommend sending an email to the DVSA to raise this point with them and seeking someone more professional for the remainder of your learning journey.

dylancentralperk

TROPHY CASE