You Can Drive

You Can Drive is an independent and expanding driving school. Our friendly, patient and knowledgeabledriving Instructors started providing professional high quality driver training in 1998 buildingconfidence with New Drivers and Refresher courses for qualified drivers. You Can Drive instructors have many years of experience teaching both manual and automatic vehicles.All our driving instructors are qualified and registered by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency(DVSA) and have had an enhanced DBS (Criminal Record Check). You Can Drive’s first priority is the safety and progress of our students, we encourage students to grow their knowledge and ability at a pace that suites them, we want all our students to not only pass the legal DVSA driving test, we strive to ensure students have what they need for their whole life behind the wheel, our instructors really care.

B Newten
5 Star
Richard is very knowledgeable and has an adaptive teaching method to suit the learner. He is patient and gives clear instructions but also works with you to best tailor the sessions to your needs. My confidence with driving has significantly increased as a result of Richards teachings - thank you Richard :)
Monday 4th July 2022

Melvin Shinu
5 Star
Great driving instructor and would recommend to anyone wanting to learn to drive. Always on time and very professional. Richard makes sure you understand how and why you need to do something to be safe on the roads. Just a great guy overall!
Tuesday 18th January 2022

abigail bing
1 Star
I was encouraged by people I know to leave a review, as they said my experiences were ones they'd want to know about when choosing a driving instructor. I feel quite anxious about another possible interaction with Richard but I agree I should write something. I recently chose to stop learning with Richard after he shouted at me aggressively in a lesson. I was struggling with gear changes that lesson (it's generally a bit of a weak spot of mine and is something I'm focussing on with another instructor now). This was maybe my 6th lesson ever (not including the first where I only drove the car for about 30 seconds), so still a very new driver. I was told I need to change to third gear, and I did not feel safe to do it, traveling around bends with higher curbs and I was worried I would hit the curb or swerve as I have done in the past whilst changing gear. As we were travelling around 10-15mph, I thought I could do it after another bend ahead when I would pick up speed again. Richard told me 2-3 times to change gear, and before I could say anything about wanting to when I had gone past the next bend and that I was struggling, he hit the breaks suddenly with no warning which was very alarming and frightened and confused me as I then over-revved not knowing why I wasn't moving, he did the gear change and then shouted at me. Very alarmed, I (certainly not calmly) replied that I would have when I'd made it round the corner and I was feeling very anxious about it, and he very aggressively yelled over the top of me that he will "NOT ARGUE WITH STUDENTS", as though I was a 13 year old at school misbehaving. I honestly don't remember the last time I was shouted at like this. I don't know adults that think it's acceptable to shout at people like this. Just after this, the lesson became more upsetting after a bad experience with another driver being unkind, and when I burst into tears, Richard had the audacity to tell me I was crying because of that, and not the brutal mixture of that incident combined with the fact I'd just been aggressively shouted at. Since then, I've been learning with another instructor and I must say, I generally feel so much more calm. Learning with someone else has highlighted how uneasy I felt with Richard generally, both from being spoken down to and most likely the constant unease he would be rude or perhaps shout. He describes himself as a man who says what he thinks regardless, and generally I don't know if that's always helpful or easy to be around, and certainly not hugely professional. I have spoken to a lot of people about the incident and not a single person thought that was acceptable, and most were as shocked as I was. Learners struggle, make mistakes, and feel anxious, and shouting at them is certainly not going to make them want to learn or help them feel relaxed and comfortable on the road. There were so many other ways that situation could have been handled. After I asked for a refund for my remaining lessons (I had block booked) I asked twice for a picture of the paper time-log he kept, so I could see for myself how many hours I had left. This request has been completely ignored, as has my request for an explanation for how he calculates his refunds. I did not receive the full amount back (if I did have the amount of hours left he said); some has been kept and I'm not sure why or how that's been worked out. It is hard finding instructors currently, they're in huge demand, but even as such, I would not recommend Richard, particularly if you are an anxious driver in any way, as that incident hugely knocked my confidence both as a driver and also being in such a confined space with a stranger.
Monday 23rd May 2022

Daniel Longyear
1 Star
Richard and I had a disagreement over masking, which cost me my test date, at a time that there was a 6 month wait for tests. I'm not sure which part of "exempt" he didn't understand. I also needed my licence to be able to take my sick mother to doctor appointments etc, she has Parkinson's disease. Plus I was never refunded for the remaining time we had left which I think was 2 hours. Be incredibly careful when considering this man for your driving instructor. I ended up buying my own car, testing in my own car and passed 1st time with only 2 minor faults, so make of that what you will.
Monday 10th January 2022

Aled Owen
5 Star
Richard was a pleasure to learn to drive with. He provided detailed tuition that really helped me overcome the nerves of learning to drive. His stated aim of teaching people to become good drivers rather than just pass a test has left me in a good position to tackle to roads independently.
Thursday 16th December 2021