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Who can supervise a learner driver?

By Paul Baxter, 29th January 2025

Are you thinking about letting your learner driving borrow your car to help them get some extra practice – here’s what your need to know.

You’re the supervisor

As the learner driver supervisor, you must be aged 25 or over* and held a full UK driving licence for more than 3 years.

Although you’re not driving, the rules of the road still apply to you, therefore you:

Must pay attention at all times.
Must not be on your phone.
Cannot be over the drink limit or on drugs.
If you need to wear glasses to drive, you must wear your glasses.

*some insurance companies may allow supervisors who are aged 21 or over, but with The Green Insurer, the supervisor must be aged 25 or over.

Learner driver supervisor checklist

Before setting off on your trip we’d recommend you take the following actions:

1. Make sure the learner has the correct insurance.
The last thing they want are points on their license before they’ve even passed! The learner driver must have the correct insurance in place, either as a named driver on your insurance policy or have their own learner driver insurance (if they don’t have their own insurance you can get a quote today).
2. Make sure your L plates are on the front and back of your car.
The L plates should have a red letter on a white background, they should measure 178cm x 178cm – having the wrong L plates can get them up to 6 penalty points.
3. Talk to the learner driver.
Ask them questions about what they’ve been learning, are there any areas they want to practise more or are their things they’re not confident with yet.
4. Pre-plan your journey.
Plan and agree the journey with the learner, this can help avoid any scenarios they’re not yet comfortable with such as hill starts. Remember you’re there to help build the learner driver’s confidence and let them practice. You don’t want to put them off driving, so try to remain calm and encouraging.
5. Driving lessons with a professional instructor can be expensive and hard to find.
There is a shortage of driving instructors and driving examiners. We recommend taking lessons with a qualified instructor and supplement this with driving practice with a parent in other experienced driver in their car. This ensures that the learner driver gains more experience and confidence, and that they embed and remember what they have learnt in their driving lessons.

6 top tips for supervising your learner driver

1. Remember you’re there to supervise not to teach!
One in 10 parents admitted that teaching their child to drive led to frequent arguments that strained their relationship. As the supervisor give yourself and the learner as much time as possible and ask questions rather give orders. For example rather than saying “go right at the roundabout” ask them “to take the third exit at the roundabout” and ask them which lane they need to be in? The question will take longer to say, but you’re prompting what the learner needs to do next, you’re allowing the learner to be in control of the situation and you’re creating a conversation. If the learner doesn’t know you can help them.
2. Read up on the DVLA DT1 guide.
This will help you understand what driving examiners are looking out for when your learner does their driving test. You can find the DVLA DT1 guide here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/guidance-for-driving-examiners-carrying-out-driving-tests-dt1/1-car-driving-test .
3. Set goals with the learner.
Start with small achievable goals and keep setting new goals as they get more hours under their belt and grow in confidence. Setting goals will build trust between you and learner driver.
4. Talk to their driving instructor.
Their driving instructor might be able to give you advice on the regular routes they take and what manoeuvres they need to practise., They will be able to tell you which places are quiet and safe to practise and what they’ve been teaching so can work with them rather than undoing what they’ve been teaching.
5. Establish a stop command.
If you want the learner to do a sudden or emergency stop, tell them how you’ll do it. For example let them know that it will be a quick loud shout and that you’ll slap you hand on the dashboard, and do a demonstration. What you want to do is avoid any confusion, i.e. you say “do you want to stop on the left when you see a space?” and they’ve slammed on the brakes because you said “stop” – the stop command should eliminate any confusion and prevent this from happening.
6. Talk to each other.
Ask each other how they think it’s going, is it a positive experience for both of you? If it’s not going well for either you then look for an alternative solution – remember the main goal here is for the learner driver to gain experience and grow in confidence not to measure how good you are as a driver or supervisor.