We arrange intensive driving courses, and we are straight about how they work

Learning to drive in the UK has quietly become a two-year project for a lot of people. One lesson a week, a six-month wait for a practical test, and a bill that creeps past two thousand pounds without anyone ever quoting you a total. Meanwhile the industry sells "from £30 an hour" and hopes you do not read the footnote.

We built Fast Track around the opposite idea: tell people the whole price, tell them roughly how many hours they actually need, put them with an instructor who is genuinely free in the next few weeks, and then get out of the way so the instructor can teach.

That means we say no fairly often. If you have had two lessons and want a 10-hour course with a test next Friday, we will tell you it is not realistic rather than take the money.

Every instructor who takes work through Fast Track Driving Lessons goes through the same five checks before we send them a single learner. First, the ADI badge: we take the badge number and check it against the DVSA Approved Driving Instructor register, and we re-check it every year on renewal. An expired badge means an instructor comes off the network the same day.

Second, the DBS certificate. Driving instruction is a one-to-one activity in a private space, often with 17 and 18 year olds, so we ask for an enhanced DBS check and will not accept a certificate more than three years old without a fresh one. Third, insurance: fully comprehensive cover with dual-control tuition endorsed on the policy, and we ask for the certificate rather than taking someone's word.

Fourth, the car. Dual controls, a valid MOT, and a vehicle that meets DVSA test requirements — because a car that fails the examiner's checks means a wasted test slot and a wasted fee. Fifth, and least mechanical: a conversation. We ask how they teach an emergency stop, what they do when a learner freezes on a roundabout, and how they handle a pupil who is not ready for test. The answers tell us more than any certificate does.

Instructors who are still qualifying — Potential Driving Instructors, or PDIs, on a pink trainee licence — can be excellent teachers and are often more available at short notice. Where a PDI is offered, we label it clearly on the booking. You should always know which you are getting.

We arrange courses across England, Scotland and Wales, with the deepest instructor coverage in and around the larger urban areas — Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Merseyside, Greater London, central Scotland and South Wales. You can see the towns we currently cover on our areas page.

If your postcode is not listed, it usually means we do not yet have an instructor with free diary space nearby rather than none at all. Send us your postcode through the contact form and we will tell you honestly whether we can cover you and roughly when.