SID Terms and Conditions

The majority of courses go without a hitch, but please read and understand the Terms And Conditions below prior to booking, so we both know where we stand and how the course works.

All bookings are accepted on the STRICT understanding that the pupil has read, understood, and accepted the terms and conditions outlined below.

By booking a course of driving lessons with Specialist Intensive Driving (SID) you are indicating that you have read and understood the terms and conditions and that you agree to be bound by them.
•‘you’ means the person named on the booking form as the pupil
•‘we’ ‘us’ means The self-employed instructor
•‘the driving school’ ‘SID’ means the driving school administering the provision of the driving course, booking the tests, and allocating you to a self-employed subcontractor who is a registered DVSA driving instructor.
•‘the instructor’ means a driving instructor acting on his/her own or on behalf of a driving school when providing the course

Terms & Conditions.

Each course is for the total amount of hours booked. The total hours of the course booked includes the time required for taking your practical test and driving home at the end of the course. Additional hours can be booked with your instructor at the agreed hourly rate (this can be agreed upon between you the pupil and your instructor). Also please note: courses are not guaranteed to be completed over one week, larger courses 30 hours or more may be completed over two weeks, subject to instructor availability.
If transport to the theory test center is required during a lesson, this will form part of your lesson time, from when you arrive in the car until we drop you off home after the theory test. Transport to the theory center will be arranged only if requested, as your instructor will need to make sure the lesson times sync up with the test time.
All pupils must pass the legally required eyesight test (20.5m or 67 ft). This will normally be conducted by your driving instructor on the first lesson, should you fail the eyesight check the course would have to be abandoned until you have corrected your eyesight. Any agreed hours booked in with the instructor would be lost.
If your instructor feels that you are not ready to take your practical driving test at the end of the course, due to safety reasons, then you the pupil will not be allowed to take your driving test. If this is the case you will lose your test fee and will not be offered a refund of any unused hours or any deposit or test fees.
The prices quoted on the course guide include the test fees required for your course, which we book and organise for you.
Free retests do not include instructor time. We book, pay and arrange the practical retest only, instructor time can be arranged for the retest at an agreed hourly rate.
Start Dates and Deposit Refunds: All deposits made are non-refundable, as when we receive the booking we are already carrying out work sourcing and booking tests and allocating a driving instructor, which includes tuition and car hire for your lessons and driving test ( as per reg. 28 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013).

Partial Refund – We may offer a partial refund on courses if we have failed to allocate a driving instructor but we have booked you a driving test that you want to keep. Refund payment is 50% of course deposit minus any tests booked in, if a test hasn’t been booked in then that test fee is also refunded.

We will automatically search for the following week to complete your booking if we are unsuccessful in booking you for the first choice week.

Another reason that we cannot refund a deposit once it is allocated is that driving instructors are self-employed businessmen and women and cancellation of the course leaves the driving instructor without any income for that week once we have already reserved them for you as requested on booking. Courses may be rescheduled for a later date that you can attend at the driving instructor’s discretion.

If the instructor falls ill or cannot complete the course, for whatever reason, you will only be refunded for course hours not used.

Due to the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19), we expect a degree of flexibility between instructor and pupil, bearing in mind government advice on when lessons can be conducted and test centers being open. Courses may need to be re-arranged due to circumstances out of the instructors, or schools control and there will be no right to request a refund of the deposit if coronavirus and its effects on test centers, instructor or pupil health, or start dates based on the backlog at the test centers or with the instructor is the main factor causing issues, and the ADI can rearrange the course for a later date.

Once a deposit has been received, the pupil has a period of 3 months to complete the course from the date that the pupil has selected to begin the course, should we not hear from the pupil for a period of 3 months (e.g if you have lost interest in completing the course) then any remaining deposit is forfeited and test fees lost.
If the theory certificate is expiring and the pupil is unable to sit a practical driving test before the expiration of the theory certificate, then we will offer to pay for a free theory retest. however, the deposit is non-refundable but an extra theory will enable you to continue and complete the driving course.
Once the course hours have been organized into the driving instructor’s diary, if a pupil then cancels any driving lessons and it is less than 1 full clear week from the lesson due date, then those lessons will be forfeited and time lost. We cannot rearrange a course once you have agreed to the times with the driving instructor at short notice.
If a pupil books additional hours with the instructor and then cancels or fails to show, then these lessons will be charged and payable to the driving instructor at his / her standard hourly rate.
When taking a crash driving course it is not normally possible to drive continuously, therefore, short breaks can be arranged between you and your instructor at both parties’ discretion, whenever either of you feels that rest is required.
Your intensive driving course includes break times and time to rent/hire your driving instructor’s vehicle for the practical test and drive you home / back to your agreed meeting point at the end of the test.
SID delivers driving courses ourselves and works as a booking and administrative agent for driving instructors and schools registered with us, who teach intensive and semi-intensive driving courses in the UK. They are subcontracted with our driving school to provide an intensive driving course, with SID providing the administration required for the subcontracted driving instructors. This means that we provide driving courses ourselves and we also undertake activities on behalf of the individual driving schools or driving instructors. We are paid commission off the customer who books the course for successful bookings.
1. A ‘successful booking’ is when we allocate an ADI and the Instructor and pupil agree to begin the driving course. Lessons will be arranged once viable (this could be several weeks or several months before your start date)
  Please note: Where any covid restrictions are in place this point supersedes any other term, please refer to the term ” Due to the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19)
All courses are booked and based on advice on average learning capabilities from past client experience and are a rough guide only. No guarantees can be implied by any advisor or instructor. You should be prepared for extra tuition if it is felt that it is required before you are allowed to safely attend the driving test.
A practical driving test cannot be booked until the pupil has successfully passed the theory test and we have been informed of the theory pass number.
Practical test availability is subject to tests made available by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). All attempts will be made by us to secure a practical test local to the pupil, however, the instructor reserves the right to choose any test centre they deem appropriate for the pupil. If no test slots become available for the final day of your course then you may save a few hours and return another following week to take your test, once a suitable test slot has been found. Test centres may be closed on weekends and bank holidays. We cannot guarantee a test for any specific day but normally get one at the end of your course week or early the week after if the test center is fully operational. Please be aware this may require more of your time to complete the driving course at a later date than you originally planned.

17.1. COVID-19 may also cause a delay in booking theory & practical tests. In the event your test is canceled, we will rebook for the next available slot that suits you and the instructor, please note, you won’t be able to ask for a refund if this does happen.

17.2 Due to COVID-19, Please do not start lessons with your instructor until government advice is that driving lessons can be conducted, failure to follow these rules will put yourself or your instructor at risk of prosecution. There may be exceptions for key workers, so please keep abreast of the changes on the government website.

The contract of the Crash Course / Intensive Course is between the pupil and the driving instructor. Any disputes or claims should, therefore, be taken up with the instructor first and not SID. We cannot be held liable for any compensation claim from a pupil, nor can it be held responsible for any traffic violation on the part of the pupil or the instructor. SID often acts as a booking agent and is paid on commission off the instructor for successful bookings.
The deposit (initial part payment) for the course is payable on booking a course to SID, which is for booking the appropriate tests in advance, searching for and reserving a local driving instructor, and for the ongoing administration required. The deposit is not the full balance and is in part commission for SID for providing these services.
The remaining balance of any course is payable directly to the subcontracted driving instructor who is teaching you and is for the lesson fees. The instructor may request payment several days (normally one to two weeks) before the course is due to start to ensure that the pupil is intending to go ahead with the course and will not let the instructor down at the last minute.

Failure to be able to pay for the remaining course balance on the first lesson or when requested will result in immediate course cancellation, you will lose the deposit paid. Should you pay the remaining balance to SID, then we would only be acting as an intermediary and would transfer the money to the allocated instructor you are paying for the driving course.

If we cannot allocate you a driving instructor 2 weeks before your estimated completion date, you would be entitled to a full refund. (If we have booked your driving test and you want to keep the test we have booked for you, then we may charge up to £150 as an admin fee if you wish to keep that test in place)
In the unlikely event of the instructor’s vehicle breaking down during the course, a refund of the outstanding lesson time and outstanding test fees will be made if an alternative instructor cannot be arranged. Lessons taken will be charged at the instructor’s standard hourly rate.
SID and your driving instructor cannot be held liable for any losses resulting in course cancellation or test cancellation due to any of the following reasons – driving course or driving test cancellation due to bad weather, for example, snow, ice, or fog; examiner illness, examiner strike, instructor illness, vehicle breakdown & sudden product recall on vehicles. Where possible your instructor will arrange another date to finish the course in the event of any of the above scenarios. The DVSA has a procedure to claim for out-of-pocket expenses in these cases.

24.. Please do not make any travel or accommodation arrangements if you are not taking the course with a pick up from home until the course is confirmed directly with your appointed driving instructor.

Please do not book time off work until you have spoken to your appointed instructor and discussed and confirmed your schedule.
All bookings are estimated & test dates until confirmed directly with your driving instructor. Should an instructor be unavailable for your desired start week, we would automatically search for a start the following week until the course is allocated.
If the pupil falls ill and cannot continue the course for any reason, we would look to re-organise the course for a time when the pupil is fit and well again. If you fall ill and need to cancel any lessons without a week’s notice, these hours may be forfeited unless the instructor states otherwise. If your instructor falls ill and cannot complete the course, or for whatever reason, only hours not used are refunded.