WyeDrive

06/10/2026

Parents of learner drivers, this one's for you 🚗

Are you taking your son or daughter out for practice but quietly worried you're doing it wrong? Worried you'll pass on bad habits, or that the rules have changed since you passed?

You're not alone. With lessons hard to come by, costs going up and test waits dragging on for months, more parents than ever are being asked to help.

That's why I've written KEEP Your Hands Off the Dashboard.

After 22 years as a driving instructor, I've put everything a supervising driver needs to know into one straightforward book:
✅ What your child's instructor is actually working on
✅ How to make your practice sessions back that up
✅ How to stay calm in the passenger seat (and keep your hands off the dashboard!)
✅ How to give them the best chance of passing first time

Grab your copy here: https://amzn.eu/d/0ciIRXm7

Know someone with a learner in the family? Tag them or share this post 👇

02/10/2026

For Sale - AUTOMATIC Ford Fiesta

One of our former pupils is selling their car due to an upgrade.

Ford Fiesta Eco Boost Zetec Turbo Auto.
3 Door Hatchback. Colour Grey. MOT Test June 2026. First Registered June 2018.
Mileage 28258 miles.
Serviced each year. New tyres and new battery 2025.
In excellent condition. Price £7,700.

Message if you are interested and we will connect you with the seller.

18/09/2026

Interesting piece from the BBC about learner drivers turning to YouTube and TikTok in an attempt to reduce the cost of learning to drive.

I understand why.

Driving lessons are expensive. Telling learners that the answer is simply to have more professional lessons doesn’t really address the problem.

But there is another resource available to many learners that I don’t think we make enough of:

Private practice.

Parents, partners, grandparents and friends can provide something that’s increasingly expensive to buy — time behind the wheel.

The difficulty is that while we train the learner, we don’t train the person sitting next to them.

Someone who passed their test 20, 30 or 40 years ago can suddenly find themselves supervising a learner driver.

What should they practise?

Should they introduce something new or reinforce what the instructor has already taught?

When should they intervene?

And how do they avoid inadvertently creating confusion between professional lessons and private practice?

This was one of the reasons I wrote KEEP Your Hands Off the Dashboard.

It wasn’t written to replace professional tuition. Quite the opposite.

I wanted to help parents and supervising drivers make better use of the hours between professional lessons.

Because perhaps there’s a more useful conversation to be had about affordability.

Not:

Professional lessons OR YouTube/TikTok/private practice.

But:

Professional instruction + informed private practice + good quality supporting resources.

There is some excellent driving content online. There is also content that is outdated, misleading or simply wrong.

So perhaps the challenge isn’t stopping learners looking elsewhere to save money.

Perhaps it’s helping learners — and the people sitting beside them — recognise what good looks like.

And if we can make private practice more productive, we may also be able to make learning to drive more affordable.

That feels like a conversation worth having.

Learner drivers turn to YouTube and TikTok to cut costs - but instructors warn of risks

One learner says social media clips saved her money, but there was also misinformation online.

09/09/2026

Are you teaching your son or daughter to drive?

Actually… perhaps teaching is the wrong word.

Over the years at WyeDrive, we've spoken to hundreds of parents who are giving their learner valuable extra practice between lessons.

And we've heard the stories too.

“Dad keeps telling me to do it differently.”

“Mum grabs hold of the door every time we get to a roundabout.”

“My instructor says one thing, but my parents learned something completely different.”

And, of course…

“I can't drive with them. We just argue.”

The strange thing is that we give learner drivers professional tuition, books, apps, videos and resources.

Then we put Mum, Dad, Grandad, an older sibling or another supervising driver in the passenger seat and basically say:

Off you go. Good luck.

Nobody really teaches them what to do.

That's why Craig has written KEEP Your Hands Off the Dashboard.

And despite the title, it isn't really a book about keeping your hands off the dashboard.

It's about understanding the role you play in helping someone become a safe driver.

How do you give useful extra practice without becoming a second driving instructor?

When should you say something — and when should you keep your mouth firmly closed?

What happens when what you were taught 20 or 30 years ago is different from what their instructor is teaching today?

How do you deal with nerves — theirs and yours?

How do you work with their driving instructor rather than accidentally undoing what they've been working on? The book makes that partnership explicit: instructor and supervising driver should be working towards the same goal, not working in parallel or against one another.

And perhaps most importantly, how do you have conversations about the things that aren't measured by whether they can parallel park?

Risk. Responsibility. Friends. Peer pressure. Showing off. Driving tired. The decisions they'll make when nobody is sitting beside them.

Because eventually the lessons stop.

The L plates come off.

And there is a moment when you watch them get into the car, close the door and drive away on their own.

That's really what this book is about.

Not teaching someone how to change gear.

Helping to raise a driver you trust when you're no longer in the passenger seat.

Written by WyeDrive's Craig Preedy, a Grade A Approved Driving Instructor with more than 22 years' experience, KEEP Your Hands Off the Dashboard is available now.

You were there when they took their first steps.
Be as confident when they move their first wheels.

If you've got a learner driver in the family, this one was written for you.

06/09/2026

Yesterday, WyeDrive received a one-star review from somebody who has never had a driving lesson with us.

The review followed a telephone conversation.

The caller lived outside the area, had booked a driving test in Hereford and wanted an instructor and car for the test. He had already driven thousands of miles in the UK on an international licence and felt he needed only a few lessons.

He later passed with two driving faults.

Good. Genuinely.

But that doesn’t make the advice he received during that telephone call wrong.

This week alone, we have received six or seven similar enquiries. People book a test in Hereford, sometimes travelling a considerable distance to take it, and only afterwards begin looking for an instructor willing to provide a car.

They frequently don’t want lessons. They want access to the instructor’s vehicle for the test.

That isn’t a driving lesson. It is car hire—with the instructor expected to accept all the professional and financial risk that comes with it.

No responsible instructor can judge somebody’s driving from the number of miles they claim to have covered. Experience matters, but mileage doesn’t tell us whether their driving is safe, legal or consistently at the standard required.

That requires an assessment.

If somebody is confident that their driving is already at the required standard, they can take the test in their own suitable and properly insured vehicle. If they want to use an instructor’s car, they must accept that the instructor will need to see them drive and be satisfied before agreeing to it.

That isn’t an attempt to sell “hours and hours” of unnecessary lessons. It is a reasonable professional boundary.

There is a wider issue here too.

Local learners are struggling to find tests while increasing numbers of people book appointments wherever they can find them, then arrive in the area looking for an instructor and vehicle at short notice. Instructors cannot abandon existing pupils to service tests booked by people with whom they have no working relationship.

Call it test tourism, desperation caused by the waiting-list problem, or an unintended consequence of a broken booking system. Whatever we call it, it is becoming a serious problem.

A test booking does not create an entitlement to an instructor’s car.

And a refusal to provide one without assessment is not poor customer service. It is professional responsibility.

04/09/2026

Sadly, due to lack of response, this event on 9 September has been postponed. We will look at providing a new date soon

23/08/2026

We are getting many phone calls from people out of area who are booking short notice driving tests. WE ARE NOT A CAR HIRE SERVICE. These short notice tests often lead to fails which simply backs up the driving test waiting time even more! Local pupils, desperate and ready for test are being left out and frustrated.

15/08/2026

“Passing your test isn’t about luck — it’s about knowing what examiners are really looking for. 🚗

Come along to “ARE YOU TEST READY?” — a local evening built to get Herefordshire learners walking into test day calm, prepared and confident.

✅ Why people actually fail
✅ How to handle nerves
✅ Last-minute prep that works
✅ Live Q&A

📅 Wed 9 Sept | 7-9pm | Kindle Centre, Hereford
💷 £20 | Free parking

Know a learner driver gearing up for their test? Tag them below or share this with them — it might be the difference between pass and fail. 👇”

31/07/2026

🚨 Your driving test is booked… but are you actually ready?

Great driving lessons build safe drivers. This evening is designed to help you make the most of everything you’ve already learned.

Whether you’re learning with WyeDrive or another driving school, ARE YOU TEST READY? LIVE has been created to give you the knowledge, confidence and understanding that could make all the difference on test day.

This isn’t about learning to drive.

It’s about understanding the driving test.

Join us for an engaging evening where we’ll cover:

✅ What driving examiners are really looking for.
✅ The most common reasons candidates fail.
✅ How to manage nerves and perform at your best.
✅ What to expect before, during and after your test.
✅ Last-minute preparation that genuinely works.
✅ A live Q&A where you can ask anything.

I’m delighted to be joined by Sophie Sergent, a former DVSA Driving Examiner, who’ll share the examiner’s perspective and help explain exactly what happens behind the clipboard.

Whether your test is next month or just around the corner, you’ll leave with greater confidence, a clearer understanding of the test, and practical advice you can put into practice straight away.

📅 Wednesday 9 September
🕖 7:00pm – 9:00pm (Doors open 6:45pm)
📍 Room Q, Kindle Centre, Hereford
🅿️ Free parking
🎟️ £20 per person

Places are limited, so if you’ve got a driving test booked, don’t miss it.

👉 Book your place today:
AreYouTestReady.eventbrite.co.uk

Tag a friend, son, daughter or colleague who’s got their driving test coming up—they’ll thank you for it.

31/07/2026

🚨 We’ve been working on something for months…

It’s not more driving lessons.

It’s not another online course.

And it’s unlike anything we’ve offered before.

If your practical driving test is coming up, make sure you’re back here at 7:00pm tonight.

We think it’s going to help a lot of learners in Herefordshire.

👀 See you at 7.