Terms and Conditions

Issue 1 – March 2021

 

By taking lessons with Scotts Driving School, you automatically agree to these Terms & Conditions.

 

Lessons & tests

• You must inform your instructor if there is any reason why you cannot drive safely or legally. This includes the loss of your valid driving licence, and also includes but is not limited to, being under the influence of drink or drugs, including prescribed medication that may affect your ability to drive.

• Please ensure that you are medically fit to drive. If you have any medical condition and you are not sure if your ability to drive is affected, please speak with your doctor and the DVLA to report any notifiable medical condition. 

• You must be able to read a number plate from a distance of 20.5 metres.

• Your instructor reserves the right to refuse to take you to your driving test if you haven't told them when your driving test is and therefore they are unavailable, if you haven't moved your driving test date when they advised you to, or if they believe you are not up to test standard and therefore unsafe to be driving their tuition car by yourself on test. Your instructor will discuss this within plenty of time and discuss the options available to you.

• If your instructor books your test for you, the test will belong to Scotts Driving School and we reserve the right to cancel your test at any given time. Once you have paid for your test, the test will then belong to you and we will only cancel or move it upon your request. 

 

 

Cancellations & Punctuality

• If you cancel your lesson with less than 48 hours notice, you will be liable for the cost of your lesson.

• When your instructor arrives for your lesson, they will text you and/or ring you. If you have still not arrived or contacted them within 10 minutes, your lesson will be cancelled and charged as above.

• If you are late for your lesson, your lesson time will be reduced as your instructor cannot be late for their next lesson. You will still be charged the full price of the lesson, as this is considered 'cancelling' part of your lesson with less than 48 hours notice.

• If your instructor is late to your lesson for reasons such as the above, you will still receive the full lesson time, either on that day, or extra time on an mutually agreed date.

• If your instructor has to cancel your lesson through no fault of their own, for circumstances such as mechanical breakdown of the tuition car, bad weather which may affect your ability to learn safely, heavy traffic, or the previous pupil’s lesson or driving test has overrun for unavoidable reasons, and it means they cannot arrive at your lesson within good time, they will rearrange your lesson for the next available, mutually convenient, date and time.

• If your instructor feels your behaviour or attitude whilst driving is threatening, dangerous, or compromises safety, they reserve the right to cancel the lesson in progress and any future lessons and any refunds will be given in line with the refund policy as outlined below.

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Payment & Refunds

• Your hourly lesson rate & block booking rate is as agreed at the time of booking. Current lesson prices can be found HERE.

• We accept payments in the form of bank transfer, in car card payment, or cash.

• In car payments at the start of each lesson that are made via debit or credit card will incur a £1 transaction fee to cover transaction costs incurred.

• Payments must be made before the lesson starts. 

• Block booking payments must be made up front and at least 48 hours before the first lesson commences.

• Pay-as-you-go lessons which are made via bank transfer must be paid before the start of each lesson.

• We cannot issue a refund for any lessons already taken. If you are dissatisfied for any reason, please see the Complaints section below.

• If you have paid for a block booking and wish to discontinue lessons for any reason, any lessons already taken will be charged at the standard hourly rate (see pricing on website) your instructor can refund the remaining hours at the rate at which you paid.

• Any block bookings which are not cancelled in writing within 6 months are not eligible for a refund without prior written approval from Scotts Driving School.

• If the instructor cancels lessons for any reason, a refund of any remaining credit will be made without any penalty or admin fee. The refund will be calculated in line with the hourly rate.

 

Example: You pay £555.00 for a block of 10x 90 minute lessons. You complete 4 lessons and then decide to cancel the remaining 6. The 4 lessons taken will be charged at £60 each totalling £240. You had paid £555.00 now minus the £240 for lessons delivered . A refund of £315.00 will be issued.

If the INSTRUCTOR were to cancel the remaining lessons in the example above, the hourly rate is calculated as £36.67 - the remaining lessons at 90 minutes is 9 hours. 9 x £36.67= £330.03 is the refund.

 

Accidents & The Law

• Your instructor will make every effort to avoid damage and accidents, and we do not anticipate that accidents will happen as you are learning to drive, however if an accident does happen and they believe you were driving in a dangerous manner or ignoring their instructions and actual damage is caused to the tuition car, you may be expected to contribute towards the repairs cost (ie. tyres).

• Your instructor will make every effort to avoid you breaking the law or committing any traffic offence – you are under their close supervision during every lesson and they may use controls such as verbal or physical control such as giving verbal instruction, taking the steering wheel or using the dual control pedals where necessary to avoid dangerous situations or accidents. However, your instructor and Scotts Driving School cannot accept any responsibility of you breaking the law – this includes speeding, traffic offences, regulations, or laws that you could break whilst driving. Any fines or penalties are legally the sole responsibility of the driver. It is an offence on your instructor's part if they fail to give the driver’s details to the police when asked to provide information as to who was driving at the time of an offence.

• All of our instructors have Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance.

 

Data Protection

• In line with the GDPR, by you taking driving lessons with Scotts Driving School, you automatically consent and agree to us holding your personal information, such as:

• - Name, address, contact information, and date of birth

• - Driving licence number

• - Records of driving progress

• - Medical conditions that affect your ability to drive

• - Driving test information 

• - Pictures taken during driving lessons or upon passing your test (with your permission)

• - Receipts of payments

• - Dash-Cam footage which may record in-car audio

• - Etc

• We hold your information in line with the Data Protection Act 1998 and GDPR rules. 

• We hold your information for the purpose of being able to provide good quality driving lessons to you.

• Your instructor holds your information securely, which is either locked away securely, or secured on phones, tablets, or computers which are all password protected.

• Your information is stored on the Total Drive app which is kept secure. We use Total Drive to book your lessons, store your contact information, record lesson progress and information, record payments etc. 

• We can assure you that we do not pass your information on to anyone without your prior permission and agreement. If there is a need to share your information (such as changing driving instructors and sending your progress to them, booking tests on your behalf with the DVSA etc.), we will inform you first, explain who we are sharing the information with, why we are sharing the information, and ensure that you give us your consent and permission.

• Every instructor has dash cams which are always recording external footage and audio for the protection of yourself, the instructor and the public. If your instructor wishes to use any recorded lesson footage for other uses (such as training aids), you will be asked to sign a form. 

• You have the right to see any information we hold about you.

• You have the right to ask us to destroy any information we hold about you.

• Once you pass your driving test, or if you wish to discontinue lessons with us for any reason:

• Your account on Total Drive will be made inactive and kept inactive for 5 years before being permanently deleted. 

• The reason we keep records for 5 years is in case you need any of that information again for any reason, and also for our tax and accounting purposes. 

Scotts Driving School is registered with the Information Commissioners Office, reference ZA934379 , under Mr Scott James Williams. 

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Complaints

• We hope that you are happy with your driving lessons and instructor, however if you would like to raise a complaint, your first step would be to contact your driving instructor to see if you can resolve it between yourself and your instructor.