Driving instructor insurance brokers & PDI insurance

If you are new to the industry, you may not understand how driving instructor insurance works.

Unfortunately, comparison websites don’t offer quotes and your most common insurers, such as Admiral, Direct Line, and Elephant, don’t offer instructor insurance. This means you will have to go through the painful process of calling some of the brokers listed below, who will provide you with a price for your insurance. All the numbers listed provide ADI and PDI insurance, except for DCL which only insures ADIs. We don’t work directly with any of the listed insurance companies.

The ones listed with an asterisk seem to be the most popular, so it might be worth calling them first.

• Adrian Flux*
  0800 369 8590
• Arthur J Gallagher
  0800 612 3635
• C&A Mackie*
  0141 423 8555
• DCL
  0208 773 5261 – Only insure ADI’s, who must have a minimum of 2 years’ experience
• DIA
  0800 458 0823 or 0800 988 9255
• Insurance 4 Instructors
  01603 301 770
• Master Cover*
  0208 236 3600
• Park Insurance
  01454 411 187
• Instructor Cover Plus*
  0845 600 1300 or 02920 629 413
• Policy Wave*
  0333 332 7750
• Towergate (Waveney)
  01603 753888

Optional extras you may want to cover

• Protection for dual controlled replacement vehicle – if you own your own vehicle this may be worth considering. Be sure to check the small print. Many companies will only provide a replacement vehicle for accidents and not mechanical. If you are hiring or leasing a vehicle, this may not benefit you as for both you will be covered for maintenance/mechanical.
• Cover for partner or spouse – many insurance companies include this if the person is over 25 years old and has your permission to drive the vehicle.
• Public liability insurance – for a small fee you can protect yourself against any unforeseen claims against you for an injury, loss or damage to themselves or their property through some kind of negligence.
• Be sure to find out what the compulsory excess is and the voluntary excess is before committing to any ADI insurance company.

How does PDI insurance work?

You can enquire and purchase PDI insurance before your badge has arrived. Your broker will usually advise that you will need to send a copy of your PDI licence into the insurer once it has arrived. If you don’t do it within 30 days, then they will threaten to cancel your insurance.

You must not start the teaching for reward element of the insurance before the start date stated on the PDI badge.

Some brokers will insure you to drive your car for social and domestic leading up to the start date on your trainee licence badge and you can teach for reward thereafter. This is useful for those who already have their own vehicle prior to their trainee licence badge arriving.

As a PDI, your trainee licence badge is valid for just 6 months. There are situations and occasions where you may want to apply for a second licence and, if you are working with driveJohnson’s, we will help you apply for a second trainee licence. If it isn’t done correctly, the DVSA will refuse your request for the second licence. The moment your licence expires, your insurance will be cancelled or downgraded to just social and domestic use. Please check with your insurer or read your insurance documents.

If you are a PDI looking for a franchise or you would like to change your driving school franchise because you don’t think you are being looked after, check out our PDI franchise page as we can probably help you.

Reasons your PDI/Insurance might be high

According to confused.com, car insurance has increased by 58% in the last year. The data can be viewed here: car insurance price index.

The main reason for car insurance going up is:

• More cars on the road since the pandemic, therefore more accidents.
• The cost of parts and labour has significantly increased since the pandemic.

Things you can do to lower your insurance potentially

1. If you are renewing your insurance, it’s worth revaluing your car. If your car was valued at £10,000 in March 2023, how much is it worth one year later with more miles on the clock? Most insurers don’t mention this.

   If you keep the value at £10,000 and you have an accident and your car is a write-off, you will only get the market value of your car, not what you valued your car at.

   For example, if you have a Ford Fiesta 2020 year car with 50,000 miles and you say it’s worth £10,000 but there are many similar cars on Autotrader for £7,000, it’s worth telling your insurance company the new value when you renew. This can often reduce your insurance by more than £100. In a nutshell, don’t overvalue your car.

2. If you have another car which has your no-claims bonus attached to that insurance, you can try two things:

   1. See if it pays to move your no claims to your instructor insurance
   2. Many instructor insurance brokers offer a mirroring scheme, in which you can get a percentage off your instructor insurance by mentioning you have no claims discount assigned to another car. Although you won’t get the full 60%, sometimes they start by offering 30% off, which can be a significant saving.

3. Try to be accurate about the mileage you will do each year. You don’t want to restrict yourself, but ask if there is a difference between doing 25,000 miles a year and 35,000 miles a year.

   If you are a qualified ADI, you will know roughly what mileage you do each year. If you are a PDI, then we recommend quoting the following:

   • 15,000 miles a year for 10 hours of teaching a week plus personal use.
   • 23,000 miles a year for 20 hours of teaching a week plus personal use.
   • 30,000 miles a year for 30 hours of teaching a week plus personal use.
   • 38,000 miles a year for 40 hours of teaching a week plus personal use.
   • 46,000 miles a year for 50 hours of teaching a week plus personal use.

   This is a rough guide to help you estimate your annual mileage for places such as Milton Keynes, Bedford and Northampton where a 10-15 mile commute is often needed between pupils.

   If you are providing driving lessons in London, you will typically drive fewer miles but will likely spend more time stuck in traffic.

4. Get a dash cam. Prevention is better than cure. As a driving instructor, the chances of being hit from behind are very high. Unfortunately, the risk of an accident related to lane discipline is just as high if your teaching area is very busy or has many roundabouts. Why does this matter if it’s not your fault?

   Here is why:

   We have had numerous instructors who have been hit from behind, and the defendant has told their insurance company that the learner put the car into reverse. We have had a few instances where the defendant has said the learner rolled back on hills too, when in fact the learner was stationary and hit from behind.

   When it comes to roundabouts and changing lanes, this is always a grey area for insurers when both parties don’t admit fault. This often results in a 50/50 split when proof such as a dash cam cannot be provided.

   For more information on how to prevent non-fault accidents, click here: How driving instructors can avoid a non fault accident.