Is anyone/does anyone know a driving instructor.

[Split_Pin]

have been thinking about becoming a Driving Instructor for some time now. I love driving, cars and talking to people. This sounds pretty anal, but I loved lerning to drive and studying the highway code, and I always like to analyse different driving situations when I'm on the road.

 

Anyway I am now pretty passionate about following this through, but I have some doubts about the instructor training courses that are available.

 

I have read that some Driving Schools are actually thinly veiled organisations that make their money from selling overpriced courses which make big promises about passing and earning up to £30,000 a year, but which in fact deliver training of a very poor quality and leave students heavily out of pocket. I have also heard that the franchise fees can be high, despite their failings to deliver a sufficient number of pupils to the instructor.

 

My question is, does anyone have any experience of becoming a driving instructor, or know someone who has undertaken the course? Who did they train with and was their experience good or bad?

 

Fiancee_L and I want to start a family after we get married next year, but I need to buy a bigger house first. I therefore dont want to squander some of my deposit on a course and then not be able to move house.

 

Can anyone help?

[Pillock]

I've heard bad things about RED, and the one a few years ago who had yellow Minis. Both take on far more instructors than they need, and actually use unqualified instructors to instruct the instructors. If you see what I mean. The yella mini people actually went bust whilst a mate was learning with them, he was a couple of grand out of pocket but had paid on credit card so last I heard he was getting it back.

 

There are good ones, but they're not the ones wasting tens of thousands of pounds on TV adverts. Maybe try going straight to BSM/AA/RAC and see if they recommend a certain "way in"?

[fiatdaft]

i think its a hard game,unless you are well established and have a good name you would prob work more hours than me, i kinda know a guy from grangemouth who is with red,he still has to do a few other jobs aswell to get by.where u thinking of moving to? couple for sale up here.

 

anyway,nice transit camper appeared down yours aswell!

[Mr Lobster]

Heard similar about RED. I know someone who spent a fair bit on training to be an instructor only to pack in when she realised that it wasn't actually a way to easy money after all.

[pogweasel]

That "Red" thing seems to be a blatantly obvious scam.

Pay a load of cash up to them for "training", then over-the-odds for a liveried Coarser, and YOU COULD EARN UP TO £500 A WEEK.

Well, whoop, de shit.

I reckon that after you've shelled for their car, then they have creamed a bit more off somewhere, because they are bound to, you'd have to work about 100 hours a week to make that.

I don't know how much driving lessons cost nowadays, but you are not dealing with society's most affluent sector... It was a tenner an hour in my day, even if it's £20 an hour now, take off insurances, fuel, costs to RED / AA / RAC franchise scams etc, really not worth the bother, and that's before you have been subjected to terrifying n00b driving.

[Split_Pin]

That pretty much backs up what I read on the driving course review sites. Good to hear some opnions 'from the horses' mouth, as it were. Thanks folks. Sounds like my office job, whilst boring, is a least a steady income.

 

anyway,nice transit camper appeared down yours aswell!

 

Oh yeah, meant to tell you about that! Its mint, even the bottoms of the back doors are spot on! It hasnt moved since it appeared though. Bet the battery is as flat as a pancake now!

[Guest]

Is it possible to set up one of those female-only driving schools whilst being a bloke? It would be a top-notch way of meeting vulnerable 17-year-old girls.

[Split_Pin]

Lmao. 'Diamond School of Motoring' or something.

[michiel]

I've just seen Happy Go Lucky - no way, driving instructor is not for me. You might get a Poppy as a client...

[CreepingJesus]

You could try this lot. I know a guy who joined up as a qualified, but inexperienced instructor. The couple of times I've spoken to him in passing, he seems happy enough with his lot. They've been around long enough now, not to be a fly-by-night operation, and do seem to be very ambitious. And Kirkcaldy's only half an hour or so from you! Or 40 mins, realistically.

[Cavcraft]

Think my lad* is paying £23.50 per lesson at the moment with a discount if he pays for ten or more in one go. I bet insurance is fucking frightening then you have too depreciation of the car which will need to be new/almost new I would think, then you're up against anyone else in the area doing the same.

 

Hirst is on to something here though, I reckon you should advertise your payment methods as 'Cash, cheque, Postal Order or in kind' then put some (very) small print disclaimer saying 'all in kind payments to be made by birds between 17-40 and no fugly mingers.

[Spiny Norman]

I'd stick my money into something else if I were you.

 

It's true that nowadays BSM, Red, AA and one or two others have just jumped on the bandwagon of training ADIs rather than doing L driver training.

I trained with BSM about 15 years ago and even then it cost the best part of £2k and it was just a conveyor belt of new trainees being slung into whatever branches they could find a space.

When you went in you were universally hated by everybody because you were taking some of the business away from the 'old hands'. I don't imagine it'll be any different nowadays, or anywhere else.

 

Most people leave after a while to go it alone.

 

Then they realise that all this bollox about £30k+ a year is just that, you'd need to work 70+ hours a week to actually clear that. And that's 70 hours of paid lessons, which doesn't include travel from one to the next, or no-shows, or whatever. And while they say you can tailor the hours to suit yourself, that only works if the hours you choose to work are 6-9am, then a couple of hours at lunchtime, followed by 4 till 10 at night. Plus 8 to 8 at weekends.

You know, when people with the wherewithal to pay for driving lessons will want them.

 

You get the choice of paying a franchise fee of (by now, probably ) £300-£400 a week, which gets you a car and the business. You have to pay for your own petrol, bargain on a gallon per lesson. Your 40 hour week now costs you about £600 before you've earned a cent. Or you can go it alone.

 

Don't think it'll be much better doing it for yourself though. Because of all these places doing ADI training the market is beyond flooded with ADIs which means everyone's scrabbling about for business, cutting prices etc.

Your new car will realistically last you a couple of years, during which time it'll have done over 60,000 hard town miles. A pizza delivery car has an easier time of it than a driving school car. I was servicing my Clio every 6 weeks when I was busy.

 

Sorry if that pisses in your beer, but that's the way it is for most folk. It can be quite good fun sometimes and you do definitely get a buzz when your clients pass their test, but it's not something I'd honestly recommend to anyone.

I let my last badge lapse in 2002.

[Split_Pin]

Not at all, thank you for the insight. I'm so glad I asked around and did a bit of reading on this before taking any further steps. It sounds like it would ruin my enjoyment of driving, as well as my pocket and would probably piss off the future wife due to me having to work all the time!

[Albert Ross]

You'd make more money and have less breakdowns organising sham marriages for Nigerian Bankers.

[Dead_E23]

My brother has been a franchised driving instructor for >15 years, enjoys it and is very good at it.

 

Unfortunately, it is a complete and utter waste of time financially - he barely makes minimum wage even in a good year. Even though he's in one of the more prosperous towns in the south east, people are not spending money on driving lessons. Also, there are way, way too many instructors for the number of pupils so most of the time he is sat on his ass doing nothing. I'd say it might make a good p/t job for a retired person or a housewife, but it's not something you can rely on for your main income.

[warren t claim]

If you do become a driving instructor then be sure to use a Triumph Herald with spinning mirrors.....

 

Seriously though, I was a motorcycle instructor for a few years and the training and regular assessments were pretty hard. Mind you I'm still thinking about opening a HGV training school though.

[Des]

always like to analyse different driving situations when I'm on the road.

 

Not sure that makes you instructor material in the modern world, that statement marks you out as a decent driver, you'll be wanting to make good safe drivers of your pupils rather than fast track them through a test. Perhaps you could go back in time a few decades, or what about specialising, teach disabled drivers, use an auto, get a selection of hand controls, big mirrors, etc. You'll have to faff about preparing the car to suit each individual but should be a tad more rewarding training people to drive for a good reason.

[scaryoldcortina]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBnTN6ReVA0

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Maybe theres a gap in the market for a 'shite driving instructor' - teaching the arts of absent-mindedly backing into stuff, bump starting, carrying out roadside repairs with cable ties, learning where to park when your starter's fooked, A-frame basics etc etc.

[Richard]

You could try this lot. I know a guy who joined up as a qualified, but inexperienced instructor. The couple of times I've spoken to him in passing, he seems happy enough with his lot. They've been around long enough now, not to be a fly-by-night operation, and do seem to be very ambitious. And Kirkcaldy's only half an hour or so from you! Or 40 mins, realistically.

 

I had a bad experience with them, partly my fault but not entirely. Suffice to say they are on my ever-growing list.

 

The experience did leave me with a load of books, which you will need if you do go ahead and I will gladly pass them on to you for little more than the cost of getting them to you.

[CortinaDave]

I've looked into this as well,, in that its something I reckon I'd enjoy, and given the massive squeeze on in radio at the moment as a career I need to look at alternatives unless I fancy a life on the dole.

 

I might pursue it as a part time thing, doing shifts on the radio as and when I get the chance and a bit of instructing to keep the cash coming in.

[seth]

If you do become a driving instructor then be sure to use a Triumph Herald with spinning mirrors.....

 

Nah! A60 with a massive, functioning steering wheel on the roof!

 

[Split_Pin]

It really looks as if I have avoided a piss-pauvre career move! Lol at Mr_Bol's idea too! And I have that Corgi A60 too!

[barrett]

Can't add much except that my old instructor, who is a family friend, was with AA but quit to go it alone because he just wasn't making enough as part of a big firm. Spend an absolute fuckload in buying a car and insurance etc, knowing that the lifespan of a learner car is greatly reduced (I imagine clutch/gearbox failiure is pretty commonplace). Last I heard he was still struggling, this time to actually find bookings as there are so many independent instructors out there it's just luck if someone happens to pick him.

 

On the other hand, the other bloke I know who does it is part of one of the big companies but seems to make a very healthy living from it and has no plans to stop doing it. He used to run his own restaurant and became an instructor because it was less stressful....