Terms of Service
Last updated: 18 August 2026
These terms set out the basis on which Zola Driving School Ltd introduces learners to driving instructors, and the basis on which you use this website. Nothing in them affects your statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Where anything below conflicts with those rights, those rights win.
Who you are contracting with
- Registered name:
- Zola Driving School Ltd
- Company number:
- 17369994, registered in England and Wales
- Registered office:
- Wellfield Road, Crumpsall, Manchester, M8 5GD
- Contact:
- info@zoladrivingschool.co.uk · 07377 886828
Our instructors are self-employed and run their own driving tuition businesses. That affects who your contract is with, and it is worth being clear about it up front.
Your contract for driving lessons is with your instructor, not with us. We introduce you to an instructor covering your area; they teach you, in their own vehicle, under their own insurance, on their own terms. We are not a party to that contract and we do not provide driving tuition ourselves.
We do not take payment for lessons. All money for tuition is paid by you directly to your instructor. We never collect, hold or process payment, and we will never ask you for card details.
None of that means we disappear once you have been introduced. If something goes wrong, tell us. We will help sort it out even though the contract is not ours.
Who can take lessons
To learn to drive you need to be 17 or over — or 16 or over if you receive the enhanced rate mobility component of Personal Independence Payment — and hold a valid UK provisional or full driving licence, or an appropriate foreign licence valid for learning here.
Your instructor will need to see your licence before your first lesson and may not be able to start until they have.
Learners under 18
We teach plenty of learners who have just turned 17, and we want parents and guardians to feel comfortable about it.
Where the learner is under 18, we ask that a parent or guardian arranges the booking and the payment with the instructor, and gives their consent before lessons begin. A parent or guardian is welcome to be kept informed about lesson arrangements at any point, and to ask questions of us or the instructor.
Every instructor we introduce you to holds a current enhanced DBS certificateas well as their DVSA badge. Contact between an instructor and a learner under 18 should be about lesson arrangements, and should use the instructor's business number rather than personal social media accounts.
If you ever have a safeguarding concern, contact us straight away on 07377 886828 or at info@zoladrivingschool.co.uk. We take concerns of this kind seriously and will act on them.
Enquiring and booking
Enquiring through this website is not a booking. We pass your details to a suitable instructor in your area, and they contact you directly. A contract is formed only when you and that instructor agree lessons between yourselves.
Prices
Prices shown on this site are guide prices. Because instructors are self-employed, each one sets their own rates, and the price that applies to you will be confirmed by your instructor before you commit to anything.
The DVSA theory and practical test fees are paid by you directly to the DVSA and are never included in a lesson price.
Paying for lessons
You pay your instructor directly, by whatever method they accept. Always ask for a receipt, and make sure you are clear on their prices, cancellation terms and refund terms before you hand over any money. Your instructor should set these out for you before taking payment.
Paying in advance. If you want to buy a block of lessons, we ask every instructor we work with not to take advance payment for more than 10 hours at a time. Longer packages should be paid for in stages as your lessons are delivered. This keeps down the amount you are out of pocket at any one time. If an instructor asks you for more than that up front, please tell us.
A word on fraud. We never ask you for payment and we never send bank details. If you receive a message from anyone claiming to be Zola Driving School asking you to transfer money, it is not us — do not send anything, and call us on 07377 886828.
Cancelling and rescheduling lessons
Lesson times are arranged directly with your instructor rather than through an online booking system. To move a lesson, contact them as early as you reasonably can.
Instructors generally ask for at least 48 hours' notice: a lesson cancelled with less notice, or missed entirely, may be charged in full, because the slot cannot usually be offered to another learner at short notice. Any such charge should be a reasonable reflection of what your instructor has actually lost, and we ask instructors to use their discretion in genuine cases of illness, bereavement or emergency. Your instructor's own terms apply, and they will give them to you before you book.
If your instructor has to cancel, you should be offered the next available slot or your money back for that lesson, whichever you prefer. Where conditions such as ice, snow or flooding make a lesson genuinely unsafe, it should be rearranged at no charge.
Refunds
Because your instructor receives and holds your money, refunds are handled by your instructor. We do not hold your payment and cannot issue a refund on their behalf.
If you have paid in advance for lessons you have not yet taken and you decide to stop, you should be refunded for the hours that have not been delivered, less any lesson properly chargeable under the section above. Hours you have already taken are not refundable, since the tuition has been provided.
If your instructor becomes unable to continue teaching you — through illness, injury or otherwise — they are required, under our agreement with them, either to agree alternative arrangements with you or to refund you for every hour you have paid for and not received.
Where that happens, we will do our best to introduce you to another instructor for the rest of your tuition. Any arrangement with that instructor is a new agreement between you and them, on their prices and terms.
None of this limits your rights if something has gone wrong. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, lessons must be carried out with reasonable care and skill; if they are not, you are entitled to have that put right or to a price reduction. Because your contract is with your instructor, those rights are exercised against them — and we will help you raise it.
Your right to cancel
Where lessons are arranged at a distance — by phone, WhatsApp or email — you generally have a legal right to cancel within 14 days of the contract being formed and to receive a refund, without giving a reason. As your contract is with your instructor, that right is exercised against them, and instructors we work with are required to honour it.
If you ask for lessons to start inside those 14 days and then cancel, your instructor may charge for the lessons already taken, in proportion to what has been provided.
What we check before introducing you
Any instructor we introduce you to will hold a valid DVSA-issued ADI badge, or be a trainee working under a Licence to Practise, and will display that badge in the windscreen — you are welcome to ask to see it at any time. We will always tell you which of the two your instructor is.
They will also hold a current enhanced DBS certificate, a valid driving licence, and insurance covering driving instruction, and will teach in a roadworthy, dual-controlled vehicle that is taxed, MOT'd and insured for tuition. We ask for evidence of all of this before we introduce anyone to a learner, and again when it falls due for renewal.
What we ask of you
- Hold a valid UK provisional (or full) driving licence and bring it to your first lesson.
- Meet the DVSA eyesight standard, wearing glasses or contact lenses if you need them to drive.
- Be fit to drive — not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, including prescribed medication that affects your driving, and having told the DVLA about any notifiable medical condition.
- Follow your instructor's directions in the vehicle at all times.
- Treat your instructor with respect. Tuition vehicles are strictly no smoking and no vaping.
Your instructor may end a lesson immediately, and charge for it, if you attend unfit to drive, cannot produce a valid licence, or behave in a way that puts anyone at risk or is abusive or discriminatory.
Insurance
Instructors' vehicles are insured for learner drivers during lessons, so you do not need to arrange cover of your own to take a lesson. That cover applies only during lessons in the instructor's vehicle. It does not extend to private practice in a friend or family member's car, which you must insure separately.
Test day car hire
Where you hire your instructor's car for your practical test, that arrangement — and any charge for it — is between you and your instructor. The vehicle is provided for the test slot and the warm-up drive you agree with them.
Neither we nor your instructor can be held responsible for a test cancelled by the DVSA, for a test the examiner declines to conduct, or for the outcome of your test. If no vehicle can be supplied for a confirmed test slot, your instructor should refund the hire in full.
No guarantee of a pass
We do not guarantee that you will pass your driving test, and we make no claim about the number of hours you personally will need. Your instructor will give you an honest view of your progress, but the test is conducted and marked by the DVSA and its outcome is outside our control.
Where we publish pass rates for local test centres, those are the DVSA's own published figures, attributed and dated. They describe the test centre, not our learners.
Our liability to you
We do not exclude or limit our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.
Subject to that, and because we introduce instructors rather than provide tuition, we are not responsible for:
- the driving tuition itself, its quality, or the way it is delivered;
- your instructor's vehicle, its condition, roadworthiness or insurance;
- any accident, injury, loss or damage occurring during a lesson;
- any payment you make to an instructor, or any refund owed to you by them;
- any dispute between you and your instructor;
- whether you pass your driving test, or tests postponed or cancelled by the DVSA;
- an instructor's availability, or the continued availability of any particular instructor.
We are also not liable for losses that were not reasonably foreseeable — for example a missed test fee, time off work, or travel costs.
Complaints
If something goes wrong, raise it with your instructor first — most things are sorted out quickly and directly.
If that does not work, contact us at info@zoladrivingschool.co.uk or on 07377 886828. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to resolve it within 28 days.
We will listen, take it seriously, raise it with the instructor and try to help the two of you reach a resolution. Where an instructor falls short of the standards we expect, we will stop introducing learners to them. What we cannot do is compel an instructor to refund you or pay you ourselves, because we do not hold your money and are not party to your contract with them — helping does not make us a party to it.
You keep your right to pursue the matter with your instructor directly, including through the small claims process. A complaint about an instructor's conduct can also be made to the DVSA, which regulates approved driving instructors.
Your information
When you enquire, we collect your name, contact details, area and lesson preferences so we can respond and introduce you to a suitable instructor. We pass those details to the instructor we introduce you to, so they can contact you. We do not sell your data.
We handle your information in line with UK GDPR. Our privacy policy explains what we hold, why, and your rights, including how to see or delete it. Your instructor is separately responsible for the information you give them directly.
Website
The content, logo and branding on this site belong to Zola Driving School Ltd. We take care to keep the information accurate, but prices, availability and area coverage change — guide prices are always confirmed by your instructor. Where we link to other websites, we are not responsible for their content.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms from time to time. The version published here when you enquire is the version that applies to that enquiry. The date at the top shows when they were last updated.
Governing law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and disputes may be brought in the courts of England and Wales. If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in your own courts.