Field guide
The BC drivinginstructor checklist
Every document a BC instructor needs, with the rule behind it, plus the pre-trip and the twelve skills. Free to print.
Your ticks stay on this device.
71 items, 8 groups, each with its source.
The checklist
Your licence to teach
Everything else on this list depends on this one licence.
No person may act, or purport to act, as a driver training instructor without one. It is separate from your driver’s licence, and ICBC mails it to you.
MVAR 27.04(2)
A driving school posts and keeps posted, at each place of business, the school licence and the instructor’s licence of every instructor teaching there. Teach at two schools and each one needs a copy.
MVAR 27.06(1)(b), (c)
An instructor’s licence expires on the last day of the 24th month from issue. Renewal is a new application, so start months ahead. Lapsed, you cannot teach and no school can employ you.
ICBC · MVAR 27.04(2), 27.06(6)
The school’s register of its instructors holds the class and number of each instructor’s driver’s licence. Yours too, even if you own the school.
MVAR 27.06(4)(c)
They go in the school’s instructor register. Write each one down on the day.
MVAR 27.06(4)(c)
From October 19, 2026, it cuts the novice stage from 24 months to 18 if taken as a learner under 25. At 25 or older, novice is 12 months either way. ICBC plans to phase out the GLP instructor course, no date set.
ICBC · BC Gov, July 20, 2026
The school behind you
BC does not allow driving instruction outside a licensed driving school. If you work for yourself, you are the school.
At each place of business.
MVAR 27.06(1)(b)
One address where notices can be served on the school and where the school’s records are kept. If it changes, ICBC has to be told in writing within 10 days.
MVAR 27.06(8), (9)
For each one: name, class of driver’s licence, driver’s licence number, a copy of the driver training instructor’s licence, and the dates of any refresher training. Employed or contracted, both count.
MVAR 27.06(4)(c)
The rule asks for a name, not a number.
MVAR 27.10(2)(f)
Whatever you teach from, be able to show it.
MVAR 27.06(12)
The DTC# on ICBC’s school licence application identifies your school’s file. Division 27 does not ask you to display or record it, and it is not an instructor credential.
ICBC MV2441 · MVAR 27.06(2), (4)
Not a Division 27 duty, but it renews every year and it can lapse.
Not Division 27
A school returns its school licence to ICBC within 10 days of ceasing to carry on business, and returns an instructor’s licence to that instructor immediately on ceasing to employ them.
MVAR 27.06(7), (11)
The car
The vehicle duty is a register of every car a student has trained in.
For each one, a copy of the registration and proof of insurance. That includes a borrowed car, a rental and the replacement after a trade-in.
MVAR 27.06(4)(d)
Your insurer decides what the policy covers. Read it before the first lesson.
MVAR 27.06(4)(d) · your insurer
Note the renewal month somewhere that will remind you.
MVAR 27.06(4)(d)
Division 27 names registration and insurance, not a safety inspection. If your insurer or municipality asks for one, the duty is theirs.
Not Division 27
The written statement before training has to disclose how many people can be in the vehicle during that student’s lesson time and their reason for being there. Decide the rule, then write it down.
MVAR 27.06(2)(d)
ICBC or its designate may inspect vehicles used for the operation of the driving school. The school has to know which vehicles those are.
MVAR 27.06(5)(b.1)
Division 27 lists nine things a student record must contain, and the vehicle is not one of them. If you record it per lesson, record the car used that day, not the car you drive now.
MVAR 27.06(4)(a)
Before the first lesson
One written statement. The regulation names seven things it must contain.
A driving school gives it to every student. It must contain:
- the name and address of the driving school
- the fees for enrollment, tuition, services, equipment and vehicle rentals
- the extra charges that student might incur
- how many people can be in the vehicle during their lesson time, and why
- the actual amount of practice driving time in each lesson
- the actual fee for each lesson
- the refund policies of the school
MVAR 27.06(2)
Keep the version each student signed, so a new fee sheet does not rewrite an old agreement.
Practice
Name, driver’s licence number and class: the first three fields of the six-year record.
MVAR 27.06(4)(a)
Nor do ICBC, the Motor Vehicle Act or BC privacy law ask for one when a 16 to 18 year old enrols. ICBC’s DTC205 has one signature line, the student’s. A guardian’s signature does make fees collectable from an adult.
MVAR 27.06 · ICBC DTC205
BC consumer protection law treats prepaid lessons as a future performance contract, with set contents and a copy for the buyer. Miss an item and the buyer can gain a long right to cancel. Read the current Act.
Consumer protection law, not Division 27
It is one of the seven items, so it must be in writing before a student pays.
MVAR 27.06(2)(g)
Records, and how long they live
Nine fields for each lesson, kept for six years.
A record of students trained, including, for each lesson:
- the student’s name
- their driver’s licence number
- their class of driver’s licence
- the date of the lesson
- the time of the lesson
- the length of the lesson
- the name of the instructor for that lesson
- the subject taught
- the type of training and the fee charged
MVAR 27.06(4)(a)
On the record itself. A lesson from 4:00 to 5:00 PM is written 16:00 to 17:00.
Practice
Late starts and early finishes included.
Practice · MVAR 27.06(4)(a)
ICBC recommends Class 7 learners log about ten of their sixty practice hours after dark.
ICBC guidance, not Division 27
Enrolment consent, and a student sign-off on the lesson record if your school asks for one.
Practice · BC Electronic Transactions Act
Three years for records created before that date. Plan for the records to outlast the software you keep them in.
MVAR 27.06(4)
The same address where notices are served. Know where your software stores student data.
MVAR 27.06(8)
BC’s Electronic Transactions Act accepts electronic signatures and records if the record can be retained, displayed and printed. A PDF you can print on demand fits.
BC Electronic Transactions Act
If changing your price or your car changes what prints on last March’s lesson, it is no longer a record of last March. To test it, change one setting and print an old lesson.
Practice
Correct a signed record with a dated addition beside the original.
Practice · BC Electronic Transactions Act
Within 10 days of a request, and in the form requested, a school updates or gives further detail on the information in its licence application or on the records Division 27 requires it to keep.
MVAR 27.06(10)
That course has its own records duty, in the form ICBC specifies: each student’s practical and theoretical assessments, who completed, who got a declaration of completion, and the declaration.
MVAR 27.06(4)(b), (4.1)
Money, privacy, and the device it all sits on
CRA and BC’s privacy law apply too, and so does the device your records live on.
To each person supplied with driver training: a written itemized statement of the services provided or the rental charged, and a receipt for each payment made. Cash included.
MVAR 27.06(3)
Driving lessons carry GST. You must register once taxable sales pass $30,000 in one calendar quarter, or over four in a row. Say on your fee sheet whether your prices include GST.
CRA, not ICBC
Fees collected, fees outstanding, business kilometres, the cost of the car. Not Division 27, but CRA expects it.
CRA, not ICBC
Names, birth dates, licence numbers, driving notes. Under BC’s Personal Information Protection Act, say what you collect and why, keep it secure, show a student what you hold, and handle corrections.
PIPA, not Division 27
When a student or parent asks, hand over that student’s file and nobody else’s.
PIPA
Six years is the minimum. Once it passes, delete what you no longer need.
PIPA · MVAR 27.06(4)
A screen lock on every device, and a second sign-in step on the account that holds the records.
Practice
Written consent from the student, a reason you can state, storage you control and a date to delete it.
Practice
At the curb: the pre-trip, twelve points
Run it with the student, not for them. They need the habit on their road test.
Class 7L or 7N, on their person, before the car moves.
Practice
Nothing lit. If something is, the car does not move.
Practice
Enough for the route, plus a detour.
Practice
Set for this student: full pedal reach, clear sightlines, headrest behind the head, not the neck.
Practice
Driver, passenger and rear-view, set after the seat, with the student sitting properly.
Practice
Every occupied seat, latch-tested. Yours too.
Practice
A look at all four and a thumb test.
Practice
Headlights, brake lights, both indicators, hazards. The student walks round while you press.
Practice
Both speeds, washer spray, rear defroster.
Practice
Oil, washer, coolant.
Practice
Pedal pressure before moving. Confirm the parking brake actually holds.
Practice
One quick test.
Practice
In the lesson: twelve skills to mark
Twelve core skills, marked the same way every lesson: introduced, developing, competent, proficient.
Did they run it themselves, or wait to be prompted?
Practice
Watch the head, not the mirror.
Practice
Right for the zone and the conditions, not just under the sign.
Practice
Space in front, and awareness of what is beside and behind.
Practice
Lane position, approach speed, and the crosswalk they turn across.
Practice
Gap judgement, and wheels straight while waiting, not pre-turned.
Practice
Scanning, right-of-way, and the decision at a stale green.
Practice
Signal, mirror, shoulder check, move.
Practice
Matching traffic speed by the end of the ramp.
Practice
Parallel, stall and hill parking. Reversing with eyes up, not on the camera.
Practice
Seeing the person about to step out, not only the one already crossing.
Practice
Signalling early enough to be useful, and cancelling after.
Practice
MVAR 27.06(5)
What ICBCmay ask to do
A driver training school must, during regular business hours and all other reasonable times, permit the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia or designate to
(a)visit premises used for the operation of the driver training school,
(b)examine all records and other material and equipment used for the operation of the driver training school,
(b.1)inspect vehicles used for the operation of the driver training school,
(c)attend and monitor the conduct of driver training lessons, and
(d)copy records and other material pertaining to the operation of the driver training school.
Note “all other reasonable times”: an inspection is not limited to business hours.
The software half
What copilotBC does about this list
copilotBC is a booking, lesson and records app for BC instructors. It handles the paperwork on this list.
The pre-trip, one-handed and offline
Tap through the twelve points, with or without signal. Reorder them or add your own.
Skill marks while you teach
One tap per skill during the lesson, with a voice note if your hands are busy. The marks become the report.
The student record
Prints the fields Division 27 names, with your name on every lesson, the night driving flag, an attestation block and the retention notice. Based on ICBC’s record format.
The statement and the receipts
An itemized statement of the lessons supplied and a receipt listing each payment recorded, aligned with 27.06(3).
The pre-training disclosure
The seven items, filled from your own prices and policies, archived as the version each student signed. Or use your own PDF.
Expiry dates
Instructor licence, vehicle registration, vehicle insurance: whether you hold a copy, and when it expires, with a notice 90 and 60 days out.
Six years, held open
A signed lesson freezes. Corrections are additions beside it. Records are not purged before the window closes, and student records are stored in Canada.
One student’s file, on request
A single student’s dossier exports on its own. A correction request is recorded as a dated annotation rather than an overwrite.
What it does not do
It does not store copies of your licence or insurance, track ICBC’s fees, or make your business compliant.
Questions
About this checklist
- Can I use this checklist in my own school?
- Yes. Print it, retype it, put your logo on it.
- Is this the official ICBC checklist?
- No. It is a working list based on the BC driving curriculum and the record-keeping regulation. ICBC’s own materials are the authority.
- Do I need a copilotBC account?
- Not for this page.
- How much of the pre-trip should the student do?
- More each lesson. Early on you narrate while they watch. Near the road test they run it unprompted, which is the first skill in group 08.
Close
Print it, then walk the car
Keep a printed copy in the car.
71items in eight groups.
Where this came from
Quoted duties are from Division 27 of the Motor Vehicle Act Regulations (MVAR), 2026 consolidation, and ICBC’s instructor forms and pages. Practice marks a habit. Not Division 27 items name their source.
This page is a guide, not legal advice. Rules change. Check the current text, and ask ICBC about your own licence.