Driving Instructor time is not valuable

One of the not so good things about being an ADI, is that a lot of learner drivers do not value the driving instructors time. The most common way they show this is by canceling a booked driving lesson at very short notice (I've had someone call me 10 mins before tuition was due to begin), or not bothering to even turn up for the lesson (a no show). We all know that things can happen, and there might be genunie reasons for not being able to turn up for or make an appointment, but as a driving instructor you will get to know your learner pupils, and you will soon know those who are serious about their learning value your time and will only cancel a driving lesson if they absolutely need to.

On the other hand, being a driving instructor, you will soon discover that there are some learner drivers who thinks the world revolves around them, and that they are doing you the ADI a favour by taking tuition with you, and therefore you are at their beckoning call, and if they don't feel like a lesson, then they can cancel when ever they like!

So what can the driving instructor do to make sure his/her time is valued and respected by learner driver pupils?
Have a cancellation policy. Let every new learner driver you take on for tuition know what your cancellation policy is, and enforce it, charging for any late notices (it could 24, 36 or even 48 hour notice required). This is not going to be easy, and you will have to decide if you can tolerate late cancelations just because you need the pupil to stay with you. As always, your decisions will be business based, and if you are having a lot of wasted journeys to a pupils house without being compensated, then maybe you need to cut your losses and get rid of that person that is wasting your driving instructing time.

Encourage pupils to pay for lessons in advance. You can do this by offering a discount over those that don't, for example a 50p or £1 pound difference if you pay for the next lesson in advance, while this might not seem a lot, over a learner drivers course of preparing for the driving test, this could add up to a fair amount. People will value the instructors time more if they are likely to lose money for late driving lesson cancellations, than if they don't have anything to lose.
You can also offer a more appealing discount for block advance payments.

Prioritise your instructing time according to your pupils attitude, making sure that you only book learner drivers that are likely to cancel into slots that you can't fill otherwise.

As a driving instructor you will meet many different types of people, professionals who know the value of people's time, students, people who are being forced to take lessons by parent's etc in the end you have the ultimate decision of managing your time, allocating it to the people that value it most first.