Driving Instructor Bodies Urge UK Government to Act on Key Issues

Two bodies representing the UK's driving instructor profession sent separate letters to government ministers warning that rising fuel costs, the threat of fuel rationing, and recent changes to the driving test booking system risk compounding one another into a serious crisis for learners and the profession alike.

The National Associations Strategic Partnership, known as NASP, submitted a joint letter to ministers on 30 March 2026, signed by three of the sector's leading organisations: the Driving Instructors Association (DIA), the Motor Schools Association (MSA), and the Approved Driving Instructors National Joint Council (ADINJC). NASP warned that a potential fuel supply crisis could seriously disrupt driving tests and lessons across the UK. The letter highlighted how fuel rationing could reduce test availability, limit tuition, and make it harder for learners to attend appointments.

With waiting times already under pressure, NASP warned the system has little capacity to absorb further disruption, and the consequences for learners, instructors, and road safety could be significant.

The DIA did not stop there. The Driving Instructors Association, together with Diamond Advanced Motorists, submitted a separate joint letter to ministers setting out concerns about the potential impact of rising fuel costs and any future fuel rationing on driver and rider training, testing, and wider road safety. Although DIA contributed to, and is a signatory to, the wider NASP letter, this additional submission was made to ensure the specific concerns of DIA and Diamond were fully represented. It reflects not only the breadth of DIA's diverse driver and rider trainer membership, but also Diamond's broader client base across advanced and occupational driver training. The letter makes clear that any disruption to fuel availability could have a serious effect on the ability of instructors, trainers and examiners to carry out their work.

Fuel costs sit at the heart of the self-employed instructor's business model. Every hour of tuition requires driving, often across wide geographic areas, and any sustained increase in pump prices or rationing scheme feeds directly into operating margins. Prices for driving lessons have risen in recent years due to fuel costs and increased demand.

The fuel concern arrives alongside a separate and equally contentious dispute over the driving test booking system. NASP, representing the professional driver training sector, wrote to government ministers raising serious concerns about recent changes to the driving test booking system, arguing that effectively excluding Approved Driving Instructors from the booking platform risks weakening the role of instructors as professional gatekeepers in the learning-to-drive process. NASP argued that this could increase pressure on learners to book tests before they are fully ready, potentially affecting road safety and undermining the expertise of regulated instructors.

NASP claimed some instructors have already left the industry following the changes, while intensive driving schools reported significant disruption.

The dual lobbying effort reflects an industry navigating multiple pressures at once. For learners, longer waits and higher lesson costs are already a reality; a fuel supply shock would tighten that squeeze further and threaten to shrink the very pipeline of new instructors needed to clear the backlog.