This is an old post. Nowadays (2022), you do not need to register separately to allow your ADI number to be used. It comes as part of the package when you access the instructor booking system, and has done for several years. However, if your pupils book their own tests, they still need to use your ADI number if you want to avoid overlapping tests. They can leave it blank as long as you are happy the date/time they are booking fits your diary, but if they use it then it helps you for any that YOU might be booking.
When you book your test using the DSA online booking facility, there is a box which asks for your instructor’s ADI number. On one of the forums frequented by student types, someone asked what it is.
I love this reply:
…its only asked for so your instructors pass/fail rate can be adjusted i think, but when you take your test they write it on the sheet
I wish people who don’t know the answers to questions wouldn’t keep trying to guess like this! People go away believing it.
Every ADI has an instructor number, and it is printed on their green badge. However, it is not a requirement that the green badge be displayed when someone takes their test, and many ADIs deliberately take it out so the examiner can’t record their number on the driving test report form. The radicals take it out just to be awkward, and people who want their pass rate to look artificially high (plus those who aren’t confident in their abilities as instructors) also remove it. I always leave mine in unless I am taking a pupil to test who I haven’t actually taught (and I stopped doing that years ago).
The reason the booking system asks for an ADI number is so that when pupils book their tests, the system can check against that number and prevent them booking a test at the same time as someone else’s with the same instructor. It’s potentially a good idea.
However, you (the ADI) have to register to make use of it, and a small criticism of the DSA (now, DVSA) is that although they may dream of a paperless society they are still as bureaucratic as hell. I’ve never had the inclination to follow the convoluted (last time I looked) registration process through. (Edit: this article was written in 2012, and as of 2014 is it much easier using the Business Gateway system).
Another reason for not bothering to use it for test bookings is that I simply tell pupils not to book a certain date or time, and they don’t. You can’t get simpler than that. And for 40 weeks of the year I have a maximum of one test per week. There are a few weeks where I might have up to three, but the density of test bookings isn’t sufficiently high to justify a complicated system to manage it for me.
And the last problem – which is actually the answer to the usual query when someone encounters that box when booking their tests – is that if you just leave it blank then you move on to the booking stage. You don’t need to fill it in, and if an ADI hasn’t registered it will return an error anyway. But this means that even if the instructor has registered, a pupil could leave it blank or type it in wrong (i.e. someone else’s number) and you’d still end up with a double booking.
Perhaps one day it will be a mandatory requirement, but it isn’t at the moment.
What is the ADI Number when I’m booking my test?
Explained above. Unless your instructor has specifically given you the number, just leave it blank.
I changed my instructor – should I change the ADI number I used to book my test?
You may as well leave it. The DSA will pay it no heed. All it does is stop your previous instructor automatically getting a test booking in that same time slot. It just isn’t worth the hassle.
What will happen if I used the wrong ADI number when I booked my test?
Nothing. Don’t worry about it. On the off chance the examiner mentions it, just explain what happened. It has nothing to do with your actual test.