Practising with Family or Friends

Supplementing your professional lessons with supervised practice can significantly improve your chances of passing your driving test.

Who Can Supervise You?

You can practise driving with family or friends. Anyone you practise your driving with (without paying them) must:

• Be over 21
• Be qualified to drive the type of vehicle you want to learn in – for example they must have a manual car licence if they're supervising you in a manual car
• Have had their full driving licence for 3 years (from the UK, the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein)

Important Rules

You can be fined up to £1,000 and get up to 6 penalty points on your provisional licence if you drive without the right supervision.

It's illegal for:

• Your friend or family member to use a mobile phone while supervising you
• You to drive on the motorway when practising with family or friends

Insurance

You need your own insurance as a learner driver if you're practising in a car you own. Your family member or friend will usually be covered on this.

If you're practising in someone else's car, you need to either:

• Make sure you're covered by the car owner's insurance policy as a learner driver
• Take out your own insurance policy that covers you driving in the car as a learner driver

Some insurance companies require the person supervising you to be over 25 years old.

You can get an unlimited fine, be banned from driving and get up to 8 penalty points for driving without insurance.

Recording Your Practice

You can download a form to record any practice you do without your driving instructor.

Our Recommendation

At Fresh Start Driving Academy, we strongly encourage students to practise with family or friends between lessons once they reach the appropriate level. Research shows that students who combine professional lessons with supervised private practice consistently perform better on their driving test.

Content sourced from GOV.UK under the Open Government Licence v3.0.