• The Institute is concerned with road safety and driver education.
  It believes that thorough training by competent professional instructors plays an important part in road safety by raising driving standards.
  

• It seeks to keep its members informed about developments in road safety and driver instruction.
  

• The Institute supports continuing education for ADIs, for example, through seminars and courses, and is in favour of the NVQ.
  

• The Institute hopes that some of the work of ADIs will be with full licence holders so that these drivers retain and develop their driving skills.

The Institute acts as a pressure group. It has successfully campaigned for the compulsory registration of professional driving instructors, the raising of entry standards for registration, and for the inclusion of parking manoeuvers in the L test.

It produced a definitive document entitled Teaching deaf people to drive by the late Elwyn Reed MBE F Inst MTD, which can be downloaded from here as a PDF file. The Institute was involved in the administration of the register of ADI training establishments and with the harmonisation of driving tests within the European Union.

The work of the late John Milne MBE F Inst MTD resulted in the accreditation of the NVQ in Driving Instruction level 3.

It is likely that the DfT (Department for Transport) will continue to look at the effectiveness of the present system of driving training and testing. The Institute offers the means by which those with national knowledge and experience can meet and consider the best way to respond to the change which may affect the industry.