Terms of Business
By taking lessons with us you automatically agree to these Terms & Conditions.
LESSONS, MEDICATIONS & 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 & DVLA to report any notifiable medical condition. If you carry any medical device, for example an Epipen, Glucagon tablets or Inhaler (list not exhaustive), please inform your instructor, so that in the event of a medical emergency they can assist you.
You must be able to read a standard number plate from a distance of 20 metres away.
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 they are therefore unavailable. If you haven’t moved your driving test date when advised or if they believe you are not upto 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 Pebbles School of Motoring 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.
We offer free access to theory test revision & support with Driving Test Success, please enter your name and email here to gain free access.
CANCELLATIONS, SICKNESS & PUNCTUALITY
If you cancel your lesson for any reason including sickness giving no less than 48 hours’ notice, you will be liable for the full cost of that lesson, this lesson will need to be paid for prior to any future lessons being booked or undertaken, if not paid for already by means of a block booking.
When your instructor arrives for your lesson if you are more than 15 minutes late for the start of your lesson 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 can not 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.
If your instructor has to cancel the 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 pupils 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.
PAYMENT & REFUNDS
Your hourly lesson rate and 10-hour block booking rate is agreed at the time of booking. Any change to the cost of lessons will be communicated by messaging the pupil using the Total Drive app, for pupils who pay weekly they will receive four weeks' notice. For pupils who pay by block payment, the increase will be due when the next block booking payment is payable.
Lesson payments must be made by at least 24 hours prior to the lesson commencing.
Block booking payments must be made upfront and before the 1st lesson commences.
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, your instructor can refund the remaining hours at the hourly price you paid for them.
ACCIDENTS & THE LAW
Your instructor will make every effort to avoid damage and accidents and we do anticipate accidents may happen as your learning to drive, however, if 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, for example damage to Tyres & Alloy wheels.
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 speed limiters and 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 Pebbles School of Motoring Ltd 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 instructors’ part if they fail to give the drivers details to the police when asked to provide information as to who was driving at the time of an offence.
All of our Pebbles School of Motoring instructors have Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance.
SUPERVISION OF LESSONS IN YOUR OWN VEHICLE
Your instructor will carry out a visual inspection of your car prior to any lesson to check its roadworthiness and for any damage and will take pictures where necessary as evidence. You will be required to verify the following with your insurance company.
a) You are still insured to drive with a driving instructor supervising you.
b) Your driving instructor is insured to drive your car under your policy should the need arise.
c) You are insured to use your car to take the test in.
By accepting and signing our Terms of Business you are confirming that this has been verified with your insurer and that you are happy to proceed on this basis.
Your instructor will make every effort to avoid any damage or accidents in your own car, however, we do anticipate that accidents may happen as you learn to drive. Pebbles School of Motoring Ltd does not accept any liability for any damage, accidents, or personal injury. An insurance claim to recover such costs would need to be pursued with your own insurance company. Any fines or penalties are legally the sole responsibility of the driver of the vehicle, not your driving instructor. By signing & accepting our Terms of Business you are confirming you are happy to proceed and accept these terms.
PROVISIONAL LICENCE
You must inform your instructor as soon as possible in the event of any endorsements applied to your provisional licence due to any traffic offences, accidents or in the event of disqualification during your lessons or private practise.
DATA PROTECTION
In line with the GDPR, by you taking driving lessons with Pebbles School of Motoring Ltd, you automatically consent and agree to us holding your personal information, such as:
Name, Address, Contact information and date of birth.
Driving licence number.
National Insurance number.
Records of driving progress.
Medical conditions that affect your ability to drive.
Driving test information.
Pictures of your Driving Licence on-line record.
Pictures of your Driving Licence.
Pictures taken during driving lessons or upon passing your test (with your permission).
Copies of receipts for payment of your lessons.
We hold your information in line with the Data Protection Act 1998 & 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 our phones, tablets, or computers which all require either a password or finger print recognition to access the device.
Your information is stored within the following programmes, Xero, Excel and TotalDrive which is kept secure. We use Xero, Excel and TotalDrive to record your contact information, lessons, progress and record payments etc.
We can assure you that we do not pass your information onto 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 you give us your consent and permission.
Every instructor has a Dash Cam fitted 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 consent to this prior to any footage being used.
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:
Any progress booklets will be given back to you where possible, or kept for 5 years before being destroyed.
The reason we keep records for 5 years is in the case you need any of that information again for any reason, and also for our tax and accounting purposes.
Pebbles School of Motoring is registered with the Information Commissioners Office, ref ZA850640, under Pebbles School of Motoring Ltd.
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 yourselves. All of our instructors inform Pebbles School of Motoring of any complaints made immediately.
Should you not feel able to talk to your instructor, or are not satisfied with the outcome, please contact Tracy Bennett at Pebbles School of Motoring on 07939 388788, or alternatively email tracy@passwithpebbles.com and Tracy will do her best to resolve the situation, or can sign post you to the appropriate place if required.