The Trailer Towing Training Centre - www.towingtrailers.co.uk

Short version: do not use the trailer towing training centre (4tcltd) part of the Integral Group  in south Croydon it’s a complete money making scheme for the owner. Their so called training is a shocking waste if time and money.

Full version: The day started well meeting in a really nice local café (the Director of the Integral group also owns this and to be fair it does a really good fry-up), but after the breakfast it all went downhill rapidly.

I was booked in for the one day course at £345 plus test fee (£115) and use of my own vehicle (diesel £70). With them who are part of the Integral groupI spent nearly all the morning sitting in the café repeating the full online driving theory tests on my phone (none of which are needed as there are only 19 separate questions you can be asked during the test), as directed by my in very lose terms “instructor”, while he was working in the café serving people and preparing food.

A couple of hours later when we finally started the practical training I was given very brief verbal instructions on how to reverse the trailer. This was followed by two attempts at doing it myself, before moving on to the hitch and unhitch. Again there was brief instructions on how to hitch and unhitch the trailer, this was then followed by two practical attempts.

After this we went on a ten minute road drive around the block were he assessed my driving. He stated that if I drove like that on the test there would be no problems.

On returning to the café I was told that a family friend of the instructor was going to escort me to my test near Brighton (45 miles away!). And I was to put their large magnetic learner sign on the roof of my car. To my horror I discovered that while driving to Brighton this sign had slid down the roof of my vehicle and scratched it quite badly!!!

All the way to the test centre (1 hour 15 min drive each way) I was given conflicting advice from the instructors family friend. When we got close to the test centre he didn’t even know where the test centre was or how to get there, so after driving around the block a few times I managed to found it myself (not at all a nice experience just before your driving test).

After finishing the test and returning to the café in Croydon I showed the instructor the damage on my car and asked for some money back to help get it repaired, to which he replied “good luck with that”.

At the end of the day I did pass my test with only 1 minor but I put this 100% down to the standard of my own knowledge and driving skills and nothing to do with the training.

So from this experience all I can say is steer well clear of the trailer towing training centre in Croydon and the Integral Group in general. Unless you want to waste both your time and money. You will learn a lot more from watching the online videos on YouTube and they are free.