Answers about booking, matching and money

Only for an intensive course. Find an Instructor is open to any learner, including complete beginners with no test date. An intensive course is scheduled around a practical test you have already booked, so a confirmed test date and test centre are required.

Once your DriveBooked fee is paid, your booking enters matching. It is offered to verified independent instructors whose recorded transmission, coverage area and test centres suit your booking. The first suitable instructor to accept is assigned atomically — a booking can only ever be accepted by one instructor. For Find an Instructor, matching escalates in priority after 7 days and again after 14 days, and you reach a decision point after 28 days where you choose to continue or request a refund under the refund policy.

The matching window depends on how close your practical test is: 31+ days before the test — up to 28 days to match. Requests with fewer than four days before the test cannot proceed to payment automatically; they are held for manual review first so we do not take a fee for something we cannot deliver.

Only after an instructor has accepted your booking. Until then no instructor has your personal details and you do not have theirs. Once accepted, the details are released in your DriveBooked account and by email.

You pay only the DriveBooked fee at checkout — £49 for Find an Instructor or £149 for an intensive course. Tuition at £45 per hour is arranged and paid directly with your independent instructor, not through DriveBooked.

Your booking moves through the published matching windows above. If we reach the end of the window without a match, the booking is marked accordingly and the Cancellation & Refund Policy governs the outcome, including any refund of the DriveBooked fee.

No. You can book as a guest and we email you a secure link to claim the booking into an account later. If you are signed in when you book, the booking attaches to your account automatically.

Yes, you choose transmission during booking, and matching only offers your booking to instructors whose recorded transmission matches your choice. Automatic availability varies by area and is stated honestly on each location page.

Nothing is deducted from your hourly rate by DriveBooked. Learners pay you the tuition at £45 per hour directly; DriveBooked is paid separately by the learner for arranging the booking.

No. You stay independent. You see bookings that match your recorded transmission, selected DVSA test centres and availability, and you choose which to accept. The first instructor to accept a booking is assigned it.

Your own instructor details (including your ADI or PDI information), the areas and DVSA test centres you cover, your transmission, and your availability. DriveBooked records a verification status separately from what you tell us.

We record non-personal page activity: the page path, a coarse traffic source such as Google, Bing or an AI assistant, and funnel milestones like starting a booking. We do not set advertising cookies, we do not build a profile of you, and we do not record your IP address or full referring URL in that log.

Your personal details are released to an instructor only when they accept your booking. DriveBooked staff can see booking records for support and operations. Full detail is set out in the Privacy Policy.