If you are running a driving school in the UK, you need to get it insured. Running a driving school is like managing any other business, and like all businesses, insurance is required. The premises of the driving school, the fleet of cars and the people you employ need to be insured. As the instructors are going to be taking their students out on the road, you will need to be insured against accidents and damage to public property.
Insurance companies are eager to sell insurance, and in their eagerness they may sell you an insurance policy that does not cover all your risks. So before rushing into getting an insurance policy make sure they specialize in driving school insurance. The students that learn how to drive also need to be covered by the driving school insurance. The majority of those who enrol in driving lessons are youngsters and will not have any insurance cover. You may be employing approved driving instructors and provisional driving instructors.
When taking out driving school insurance, the insurance company will want to know how many PDI and ADI instructors you employ. ADI instructors may have ADI insurance and similarly PDI instructors may have PDI insurance. However as a driving school you have to get insurance, both ADI insurance as well as PDI insurance for your instructors. For the students, the day they go for their driving test will require 1 day test cover. This is a mandatory requirement of the UK motoring authority. Your fleet of dual control training cars and the rest of the fleet will need to be insured.
Make sure that all the requirements are covered in the driving school insurance policy that you are going to purchase. Make sure you get the driving school insurance from an insurance company that knows about driving school insurance. Ask the insurance company that you are thinking of taking a policy with to provide references. Talk to owners of other driving schools and find out how satisfied they are with the insurance company. Also check up on what is covered in the driving school insurance policy.
As a driving school, your instructors and learners are going to be driving on public roads. At some point in their training, they need to be adequately covered in case they have an accident. Some ADI instructors are provided ADI insurance by their association and may not require a double cover. But do make sure that their ADI insurance is valid. You will get a better deal if you have ADI and PDI qualified instructors, and not part time drivers.
The driving school and all that it has, needs proper insurance. So make sure that you are safely and fully insured. Evaluate the insurance companies before committing and read the fine print before signing. You may think that you are fully covered, and it’s only when there is an untoward incident that you come to know that it is not covered. So don’t get caught in such a situation. Double check that your driving school insurance covers all the aspects and people in your business.
Eric Token is a freelance insurance writer that specialises in driving school insurance. For more information about driving school insurance and 1 day test cover visit today.