Driving Lesson Policies, Terms & Conditions

Contents

About Us

Customer Services Team Contact Details and Availability

Driving Lesson Terms & Conditions

Driving Lesson Payments to Bill Plant Driving School

Booking Fees

Gift Vouchers

Terms & Conditions

RoadHow App Terms & Conditions

Complaints

Sexual Harassment or Inappropriate Behaviour

Refunds

Payments made via the BPDS Bookings Team

Payments made directly to your driving instructor

Reallocations

Test Covers

Appeals Policy & Procedure


About Us

Bill Plant Driving School operates one of the largest driving schools in the UK with over 650 DVSA registered driving instructors based across England, Scotland, and Wales. We offer pupils the ability to purchase driving lessons with our self-employed, franchised driving instructors via both our website (billplant.co.uk) and through our Head Office Call Centre between 9am-6pm, 7 days per week. Payments can be made using a debit or credit card.

We are a registered company in England. Our company registration number is 09134159. Our registered office is Canalside House, 7 Charter Road, Ripon, North Yorkshire, HG4 1AJ.

Personal data, and/or information about you, that you provide to Bill Plant Driving School and/or your Instructor may be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which can be found here.

Customer Services Team Contact Details and Availability

Bill Plant Driving School’s Customer Services Team can be reached via phone, email, social media, or via our Contact Us Form using the following details:

The team can be reached on the following times:

  • Monday: 9am-5pm
  • Tuesday: 9am-5pm
  • Wednesday: 9am-5pm
  • Thursday: 9am-3:30pm
  • Friday: 9am-5pm

Driving Lesson Terms & Conditions

By submitting your driving lesson enquiry and booking through the Bill Plant Driving School website or over the phone via our Head Office Call Centre, or by booking lessons via the Total Drive App, you are agreeing that you understand and accept the Terms and Conditions related to the provision of driving lessons with your Bill Plant Driving School Driving Instructor.

Your driving instructor may also ask that you sign a copy of our Driving Lesson Terms & Conditions, which can be found on the inside cover of the last page of your Pupil Handbook.

All pupils should be aware that all Bill Plant Driving School’s Instructors are self-employed franchisees of the company whose lesson prices are set independently at the discretion of individual instructors.

Bill Plant Driving School is not liable for any payments made by the pupil directly to the Instructor, as these monies are not paid to Bill Plant Driving School.

  1. Pupils must be aged 17 years or older to be able to take driving lessons in accordance with UK law.
  2. Pupils must certify that they hold a valid driving licence to drive Bill Plant Driving School’s tuition vehicles. Pupils must inform their Instructor immediately if they receive any endorsements on their driving licence during the period they are receiving tuition.
  3. Pupils must provide their Instructors with a minimum of 24 hours’ notice to cancel a driving lesson. Should the Pupil fail to give the Instructor adequate notice, then the Pupil is liable to pay the full driving lesson fee.
  4. Pupils should make payment for each lesson of instruction to their instructor prior to the driving lesson(s) taking place.
  5. Pupils should make any cheques for driving lessons payable to their Instructor, not Bill Plant Driving School, and will only be accepted with a valid cheque guarantee card.
  6. Bill Plant Driving School and its Instructors reserve the right to change the hourly lesson rate at any time for new driving lesson bookings. Instructors should ensure that they provide reasonable prior notification to Pupils.
  7. Pupils and their Instructors must pre-agree the duration of any driving lesson(s). If for any reason outside the Instructor’s control it is not possible to deliver the full duration of a driving lesson, any remaining time will be added to a later driving lesson. It is the responsibility of the Pupil to ensure that this is logged within the pupil handbook or through another written medium.
  8. Instructors reserve the right to rearrange lessons at short notice in the event of mechanical breakdown or other difficulty outside their control.
  9. Pupils must pass the DVSA eyesight check before starting their driving lessons. Instructors are required to cancel driving lessons should Pupils fail this assessment.
  10. Instructors are at liberty to refuse to proceed with a driving lesson if he or she has reason to believe that a Pupil is in any way under the influence of drink or drugs.
  11. Instructors will endeavour to teach their Pupils the correct driving skills according to the recommended syllabus issued by the DVSA within the minimum number of driving lessons required.
  12. Pupils should be aware that their Instructor’s primary objective is to promote road safety and in doing so, they may be required to take control of the vehicle. Instructors will make every effort to instruct Pupils to the highest standard but can in no way be held liable for any errors that Pupils may make whilst driving unaccompanied by their Instructor, either before or after passing their driving test.
  13. The Instructor will accept no liability for accidents, injury or damage to any Third Party caused by the Pupil’s recklessness or negligence during a lesson.
  14. Driving tests may only be arranged with the prior agreement of both the Instructor and the Pupil.
  15. Instructors reserve the full right to withhold the use of their tuition vehicle for a driving test.
  16. Pupils must make a payment to their Bill Plant Driving School Instructor directly for use of their tuition vehicle and time spent travelling to and from the test centre for a driving test. Payment for sitting a practical driving test is paid directly to the DVSA, however this does not include the use of a tuition vehicle.
  17. Any complaints are to be dealt with in accordance with the ADI (Approved Driving Instructor) Code of Practice.
  18. If the Pupil consents, the Instructor may take photographs / videos of the Pupil after their Driving Test and request a Customer Review. The Pupil will receive the review request via SMS or email sent by either the Instructor, Bill Plant Driving School, or Third-Party Review companies such as TrustPilot.
  19. Nothing in these Terms and Conditions will affect any statutory rights you may have as a consumer.
  20. Instructors may set their own additional driving lesson terms and conditions for their Pupils, beyond those stated here. These will only be valid should the pupil physically sign an agreement to them.
  21. Bill Plant Driving School reserves the right to change and amend these Terms and Conditions at any time without prior notice. In the event that any changes are made, the revised Terms and Conditions shall be posted on billplant.co.uk.

Driving Lesson Payments to Bill Plant Driving School

Pupils are able to prepay for their initial driving lesson(s) through the Bill Plant Driving School Bookings Team. Bill Plant Driving School are not contracting with the pupil directly but are simply facilitating payment for services to be provided to the pupil by the Instructor. The payment facilitation process operates as follows:

  1. Payment is made by a Pupil to Bill Plant Driving School.
  2. Funds are held in a ‘Pupil’ bank account separate from Bill Plant Driving School’s daily banking activities.
  3. Bill Plant Driving School notifies the Instructor of the booking at the time it is processed.
  4. The Instructor confirms with Bill Plant Driving School that the booking has been arranged with the pupil.
  5. Pupil payments will be transferred to the Instructor within 3-5 working days.

Booking Fees

A booking fee of up to £9.99 (including VAT) is payable in relation to any payment made on the Bill Plant Driving School website (billplant.co.uk) or via the Bookings Team, including but not limited to driving lessons and gift vouchers.  The fee is charged for administering the booking process on behalf of the pupil and their instructor, for administering the funds in the separate ‘pupil’ bank account, and for transferring funds to the instructor.

Gift Vouchers

Bill Plant Driving School Gift Vouchers are applicable for a set number of driving lessons with their allocated instructor, and thus cannot be redeemed for cash. Gift Vouchers can only be purchased via the Head Office Call Centre.

Terms & Conditions

  1. Gift Vouchers must be redeemed within 6 months of purchase. Extensions are subject to the absolute discretion of Bill Plant Driving School.
  2. Gift Vouchers are non-refundable, except in the event that no Bill Plant Driving School instructor has been able to be allocated to the learner driver prior to the expiry date, upon request by the recipient within 7 days of the gift voucher’s expiry.
  3. Driving Lessons must be taken within 12 months from the date the Gift Voucher was activated.
  4. Bill Plant Driving School cannot guarantee the availability of its driving instructors at any given time, including specific driving instructors, tuition vehicles, or driving lesson times.
  5. Individual instructors are self-employed franchisees and as such, as able to determine their own lesson prices. Any overspend relative to the instructor’s lesson price can be used towards the cost of future driving lessons subsequent to those obtained through the Gift Voucher.
  6. Gift Vouchers should be kept safe, as they cannot be re-issued if lost or damaged as the unique reference number is required for redemption.
  7. Gift Vouchers are only redeemable for lessons purchased directly through Bill Plant Driving School. They cannot be transferred, redeemed for cash or used to pay for lessons with the instructor independently.
  8. Gift Vouchers will be rendered void after the expiry date advised to the purchaser at the point of purchase and specified on the gift voucher itself. Extensions to the expiry date are agreed at the absolute discretion of Bill Plant Driving School.
  9. Payments for gift vouchers incur a £4.99 (inc VAT) service fee, alongside an additional £2 cost for the packaging and posting of gift vouchers upon request.

RoadHow App Terms & Conditions

  1. Upon purchase, Bill Plant Driving School will provide the pupil with a one-use code to be redeemed against a 3 –month subscription to the RoadHow mobile app.  
  2. The RoadHow product is not eligible for a refund as its own entity or redeemable for cash.  
  3. If the whole Driving Lessons Package is cancelled by the pupil within 14 days of purchase, the RoadHow product is able to be cancelled and refunded upon request. 
  4. After 14 days from purchase, the RoadHow product is non-refundable. 

Complaints

If you wish to make a complaint, please contact the Bill Plant Driving School Customer Services Team via email, or through one of the other channels listed above.

If you are a Bill Plant Driving School pupil, you will first need to provide us with the postcode or phone number given at the time of your initial booking, so the team are able to locate your record on our systems.

If you have never booked your lessons via Bill Plant Driving School and have only ever made payments directly to your driving instructor, then the team will require further details regarding your lessons and driving instructor.

If you are not a Bill Plant Driving School pupil but wish to raise a complaint about one of our instructors, the team will ask you for some information, such as the car registration plate number, to help us identify the instructor in question.

The details and nature of all complaints are noted and raised internally for review. If the complaint requires further investigation, the team will aim to get back in touch with you with an update or outcome within 7 days.

Should you not be satisfied with the proposed resolution given to you by the Bill Plant Driving School Customer Services Team, we will provide you with the contact details for the relevant external body for you to escalate your complaint to if appropriate. We may provide you with a form of compensation in exceptional circumstances at our absolute discretion.

Sexual Harassment or Inappropriate Behaviour

We have a duty of care to all our employees, franchisees and pupils to ensure they are able to work and learn in a safe, comfortable environment, free from inappropriate behaviour including harassment, or any verbal or physical misconduct.

Our commitment to providing a safe environment, particularly in relation to pupils taking lessons with our franchisees is underpinned by our rigidly enforced processes as follows:

  1. All of our franchisees are subject to a police DBS check to ensure they have no criminal convictions before they are able to become a Bill Plant Driving School franchisee.
  2. All franchisees are required to declare to Bill Plant Driving School immediately any new or pending criminal or driving convictions. Failure to do so could result in immediate termination of their franchise agreement with Bill Plant Driving School.
  3. All franchisees are required to declare to Bill Plant Driving School immediately if they become aware that they are the subject of any allegations which could be interpreted as sexual harassment or inappropriate behaviour. This includes any allegations made against the franchisee when not on driving lesson duties. Failure to do so could result in the immediate termination of their franchise agreement with Bill Plant Driving School.
  4. The complainant should be advised that Bill Plant Driving School will investigate their complaint and request the provision of any supporting evidence that substantiates their allegations. Bill Plant Driving School, dependent on the evidence received, may be able to take direct action at this point in time.
  5. In all eventualities, the complainant should be advised to report the matter to the DVSA and the police. Bill Plant Driving School will cooperate with the DVSA and the Police in their investigation.
  6. Should the complaint be upheld by the Police or the DVSA, the franchise agreement will be terminated with immediate effect, and the outcome shared with the Police or the DVSA as appropriate.
  7. Where a complaint is upheld, the relevant franchisee will be required to disclose to Bill Plant Driving School the names and contact details of all of their current pupils in order that they can be contacted by Bill Plant Driving School to make them aware that the franchisee no longer represents or is affiliated with Bill Plant Driving School.

Refunds

Refunds may be issued if you have made a payment for driving lessons with Bill Plant Driving School and no longer wish to continue or if your instructor is unable to continue teaching you and there are outstanding lessons that you have paid for.

Refunds are processed differently for payments made via the Bill Plant Driving School Bookings Team and for payments made directly to our self-employed franchised driving instructors.

Payments made via the BPDS Bookings Team

If you purchase driving lessons through the Bill Plant Driving School Bookings Team or via the Bill Plant Driving School website, your contact details will be sent on to your local driving instructor who will be in touch with you directly to schedule your driving lessons.

Payments made via this method are thereafter transferred to your driving instructor from Bill Plant Driving School once your instructor has verified that they have both received the booking details and that your lesson(s) have been booked in with you.

If your instructor has not verified the lesson(s) that you are wanting to be refunded, Bill Plant Driving School will advise you of this and process your refund when you first contact us with your request, as the money will not have been transferred to your driving instructor. The refunded amount should be returned to you within 3-5 working days to the same card that you originally paid with.

If your instructor has verified the lesson(s) that you are wanting to be refunded, or if some lessons from a block booking originally paid to Bill Plant Driving School are outstanding, the Bill Plant Driving School Customer Services Team will advise you that we will first need to retrieve these sums, as the money will have already been transferred to your driving instructor.

Please note that if you cancel your block-booking payment part way through, your instructor is entitled to charge their full hourly rate for the lessons that have gone ahead. As the discounted lessons are based on purchasing a larger number of lessons, your refunded amount may be lowered to reflect this.

The Bill Plant Driving School Customer Services Team will request that you provide any evidence that shows the lesson(s) in question have not taken place. This could take the form of screenshots of correspondence between you and your instructor. At the same time, the team will contact your driving instructor to confirm that a refund is due.

Upon receipt of your evidence, and/or your driving instructor confirming that a refund is due, your refund will be processed within 3-5 working days of Bill Plant Driving School having retrieved the funds from your driving instructor. We will aim to reclaim these funds as soon as possible, keep you updated if there are any delays, and advise you once the refund has been received and is on its way back to you.

In the event of a dispute, the team would request that your instructor provide evidence that the lesson(s) had taken place. If no evidence can be provided within 7 days, we will look to issue a refund on their behalf.

Payments made directly to your driving instructor

For driving lessons purchased through your instructor, it is important to note that as all our driving instructors are self-employed franchisees, any payments, including those in the Total Drive App, made directly to them will have been retained by them personally and not transferred to Bill Plant Driving School.

While we cannot accept any responsibility for any payments you make directly to your instructor, we will do our utmost to assist you as required. As a first port of call, you should contact your driving instructor directly with your refund request, as they should be able to personally refund you.

If your instructor does not return your contact for any reason, or if a dispute or delay arises, please do let the Bill Plant Driving School Customer Services Team know. We will aim to contact your instructor to request that they either arrange a refund as soon as possible or provide you with the reasoning as to why they feel a refund is not due.

If this does not resolve the issue, please get back in contact with the Bill Plant Driving School Customer Services Team and we will look to escalate your refund request at the earliest opportunity.

Reallocations

In the event that you wish to switch to a different driving instructor, the Bill Plant Driving School Customer Services Team will endeavour to arrange this for you, provided we can accommodate your preferred transmission and location. If the instructor we have allocated you upon initial booking via Bill Plant Driving School cannot take you on, we will send your details on to another local instructor on your behalf. If the other local instructors offer a different rate to what was originally purchased, we will get in touch with you to discuss the options available. In the event you do not wish to switch your booking to a different rate, we will be able to issue a full refund.

If you are looking to switch instructors part way through a block booking purchased directly via Bill Plant Driving School, your original instructor must first issue a refund for any outstanding lesson(s). The Bill Plant Driving School Customer Services Team will request that you provide any evidence that shows the lesson(s) in question have not taken place, such as screenshots of correspondence between you and your instructor. At the same time, the team will contact your driving instructor to confirm that a refund is due.

Upon receipt of your evidence, and/or your driving instructor confirming that a refund is due, we will aim to retrieve these funds as soon as possible and allocate them towards future lessons with your new instructor. The team will get back in touch with you to discuss the reallocation options available to you, or to advise that a refund is on its way back to you if no other instructors are available.

Should you wish to change instructors after the lessons purchased with your initial booking have gone ahead, please note that any payments made to your original instructor directly cannot be transferred. We will still endeavour to find a new instructor to continue lessons, but you will be required to pay for the first lesson(s) with them upfront. Provided you did originally book through Bill Plant Driving School, the booking fee would not be charged.

Please note that if you cancel a block booking payment part way through, your instructor is entitled to charge their full hourly rate for the lessons that have gone ahead. This may result in the refund amount being lower than expected.

If your driving instructor has left Bill Plant Driving School, we will have requested that they send us a list of current pupils who will be needing a new instructor to take over for their lessons. We also ask that the departing instructor make us aware of any driving tests these pupils may have booked. Once the Customer Services Team receive this list, we will contact each pupil, prioritising those with tests, to advise on the instructors available.

Bill Plant Driving School cannot guarantee the ability to find a new instructor for a pupil under any circumstance.

Test Covers

Test covers enable existing Bill Plant Driving School pupils to find an alternative driving instructor to take them for their driving test if their original instructor cannot take them. Bill Plant Driving School reserves the right to refuse searching for test cover if the pupil’s original instructor informs us that the pupil is not safe on the roads or that proceeding with the test could be dangerous in any way.

Requests should be made via the Bill Plant Driving School Customer Service Team. If a non-Bill Plant Driving School student contacts us requesting a test cover, they will be directed to the Bill Plant Driving School Bookings Team instead.

Pupils should always look to book their driving tests after checking with their instructor first that they are available, however we also understand that requiring a test cover is sometimes unavoidable due to unforeseen circumstances.

In all cases, we will ask for your driving test details and thereafter contact potential instructors, providing them with this information. If an alternative instructor is found who can accommodate your driving test, the Customer Service team will pass along your given contact details to them, so they are able to make arrangements with you directly. The Customer Services team will also advise you that they have done this.

Bill Plant Driving School cannot guarantee the ability to find test cover under any circumstance. We are also unable to offer compensation for test fees paid, as payment is made to the DVSA and not Bill Plant Driving School or your Instructor.

Appeals Policy & Procedure

Introduction

This policy is aimed at learners, who are enrolled on or have taken a qualification delivered by Bill Plant Driving School. It sets out the process you should follow when submitting appeals to us and the process we will follow when responding to enquiries and appeals. 

It is also for use by our staff to ensure they deal with all appeals in a consistent manner.

Bill Plant Driving School Responsibility’s

Bill Plant Driving School will ensure that it’s staff and learners are aware of the contents of the policy.

If an individual wishes to appeal against a decision taken by Bill Plant Driving School, it must first of all go through our appeals process. If still unhappy with the decision, they may contact the relevant awarding organisation.

Appeals Process

The following procedure has been developed in order to assist candidates in making an appeal against any decisions made by Bill Plant Driving School.

1. A learner should contact Bill Plant Driving School in writing to place an appeal, within 10 working days of notification of a decision.

2. The written appeal should state details of the decision to which the learner is appealing and the reasons for disagreeing within the decision.

3. Bill Plant Driving School will review the details of the appeal and discuss the grounds for the original decision with relevant staff.  Guidance may be sourced from external parties if necessary.

4. Following the review, Bill Plant Driving School will write to the learner to either.

  • amend our original decision in light of the new rationale/evidence being put forward and which has now been reviewed.

OR

  • to confirm we stand by our original decision and in doing so the rationale for these decisions.

5. Should the learner still disagree with the decision; arrangements will be made for the appeal to be reviewed by a Senior Manager or external party. Details will be supplied in writing to the learner.

6. Following a review, if the learner is still unhappy with the decision, they may contact the relevant awarding organisation if applicable.

Contact us

If you have any queries about this policy, please contact [email protected]


Last Updated: 15th November 2022