Protect Instructor Income

One of the things about being a driving instructor is that the money you earn is never predictable for a certain, so it is important that you as an ADI do everything to protect your main means of earning you livelihood, your driving school car!

Without your car, or everytime your vehiclec is off the road, you as a driving instructor are losing money, not just because your income is stopped, but because you stil have outgoings like the weekly franchise, car finance payments or leasing fee. Even if you are with a national driving school that can replace your car within 24hrs as part of your franchise agreement, you would still lose some driving lessons, and in this industry, every penny counts!

It is important there as a new driving instructor, that from the word go, you do not take un-necessary risks with you school car. If you are picking up a new learner driver, and are not sure of their previous experience, you should either drive to a queit area before allowing them to drive your car, or be extra vigilant untill you've established what level they are at. Don't just take a learner's word for it, just for the sake of 1 hour's lesson fee, you don't want to have to loose your car for a day due an incident you could have prevented.

The same thing applies to your normal driving lessons, while most people think instructors just sit in the passenger seat and give directions, you need to make sure that you are 2 steps ahead of the learner driver, anticipating their moves, using either Q&A to find out what they are thinking, or if not enough time telling them what to do, and if the reaction is not fast enough, taking action. This is your income we are talking about, at best the pupil will say sorry give you £25 or what ever the cost of the lesson is and leave you to pick up the pieces of any unfortunate incidents that might happen while learning to drive.

What about insurance? Yes drving instructors do have insurance, but don't forget there are always excesses to pay, especially if the claim is an own fault, and you therefore will lose income that week rather than earning it. Thse are some of the things that many ADI's don't find out when starting out in this business, and learn the hard way.

I wish you all the best in your new career being a driving instructor, but do everything in your power to protect your ADI income.