Becoming a Driving Instructor

BSM Needs Driving Instructors

2011-01-11T12:16:00.000Z

Having qualified as a driving instructor you will either work independently, or take out a franchise with a driving school.

Today I got a letter from the British School of Motoring (BSM) advising me that they had a queue of learner drivers waiting to take lessons with them, and that they would introduce these pupils to me if I joined them as a driving instructor. They were even kind enough to tell me that they would give me a 25% discount on their driving school franchise fees for the first 8 weeks after I've signed up with them.

Well British School of motoring, thanks, but no thanks, I would rather be an independent instructor, and not have to be stressed at finding enough pupils to pay a high weekly franchise fee which could be high with BSM if the tend continues with them as when I first enquired about joining them.

The reason I got the sales letter from BSM is because they can buy ADI details from the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). Maybe the next letter I will get will be from their closest rivals asking me if I would like to offer AA Driving Lessons to the many customers they also have!

Just in case you are wondering if there are not enough driving instructors already working for BSM, there are, but the more they get, the more money they can make from them, and the stronger the brand gets. They make more money from instructors, than they do with learner drivers, hence the marketing drive to recruit more ADIs or train new PDIs.

Red Driving School Future

2010-02-24T08:18:00.004Z

As someone interested in becoming a driving instructor you will probably have heard about one of the largest UK adi training organisations red driving school going into administration. The good news is that a buyer has been found for LVG ltd and red driving school will continue to trade as normal, however one continues to wonder what the future holds especially since the new owners have said they don't intend to make any changes to the way the company operates.

The main source of income for red driving school is its instructor training programme, but the problem is that it hasn't been getting good publicity recently since it appeared on the ITV tonight programme, also the ADI market is being saturated with too many teachers especially with the credit crunch biting hard and a fall in the number of people taking DSA practical driving tests, so sooner than later the volume of those signing up for these training courses will dry up, and since the driving school arm of LVG ltd is not heavily promoted, they could go into financial difficulties again.

Only time will tell what the future holds for LVG ltd and red driving school, in the meantime hopefully those who have already have paid upfront for ADI training will now be able to complete ADI parts 1, 2 and 3.

Driving Instructor caught on mobile phone during lesson

2010-02-12T11:30:00.003Z

I got a call from a test candidate who needed my help because their driving instructor had been caught on their previous lesson by the police taking a mobile phone call, and with a DSA car assessment not too far away did not want to continue with the same ADI!

I don't understand how after spending so much money, time and effort to become a DSA approved driving instructoryou would risk your means of living just for the sake of a lesson or two!

Instructors can not have more than 6 points on their licence if they want to continue to be on the DSA register of approved instructors, so it is important that you don't break speed limits, run red traffic lights or get caught using a mobile phone either while driving, or giving paid tuition to learners.

So if you are currently training to be an ADI, bear this in mind, as normal drivers need 12 points to be banned, but for you, your licence is your bread winner and it is 6 points and the end of the road.

Driving Instructor Tip practical car tests

2010-01-19T14:40:00.003Z

Here is a quick tip that you should use once you've successfully become a driving instructor and start to have learner driver pupils who are taking the practical car tests with you.

ALWAYS take payment for the driving test at the beginning when you pick up the candidate from their home, not at the test centre or after they have passed or failed.

I have adopted this policy since I had difficulty getting payment from a learner driver once after failing to pass their driving test. In this particular case the candidate was trying to give me less money than we had agreed during previous lessons.

Today while picking up another pupil, I asked for the driving test fee in advance as was now my policy as an instructor, and the candidate took out some money, but was short (despite me telling them yesterday how much I charged for the lesson the hour before and car hire for the actual test), and had to go back in to the house to get extra cash.

As a driving school owner trying to earn a living, you can not afford to be short changed everytime to take someone for a test, because first of all you may never see them again (pass or fail), secondly these little shortages add up over a year, and finally your time is important, so if the learner driver needs to go to the cash point, do it in their time on the way to the test centre, not after when you have another lesson appointment with another client.

All the best with your driving instructor training, and wish you the best with your career.

Becoming a Driving Instructor for free in UK

2010-01-15T16:53:00.006Z

Someone asked me today if it was possible to become a qualified driving instructor for free here in the UK.

Well the simple answer is no, the person asking was unemployed, on benefit, and thought that there might be a government funded scheme that would allow him to untake the 3 test ADI training course for free as a kind of incentive to getting off the unemployment statistics list and back to work.

The only way you can train to become a driving instructor without putting up the money yourself is by using what is called a career development loan, which while no free, allows you to pay for the course upfront and not have to make any repayments within the first year it is taken out.

Career development loans can be very expensive to pay back and should not be used for ADI training since there is no guarantee you will qualify!. Even if you do qualify within the one year interest free period, there is virtually no possibility of you earning enough to cover entire loan, your franchise fee and have money left to live on and pay the bills. I can tell you this as an instructor who knows how long it took to build up a business from scratch.

My honest advice to you is find another career to get involved with if you are looking for a good source of reliable income, nobody is going to train you free to become a driving instructor, they will take your money to do so, and once qualified, they would ask you for more, offer you a franchise and continue to bleed you even if they don't supply you with enough learner driver pupils (it is all in the multi-page contract you will sign).

Driving Instructors Snow loss of Income

2010-01-14T10:37:00.003Z

Many people thinking about becoming a driving instructor in the UK might not be aware of how the current adverse weather of falling snow, icy roads and cold temperatures can affect the instructors income, after all those adverts claiming you can earn £30,000 a year want you to believe all is rosey in the world of an ADI.

Well from the week just before christmas 2009, various parts of the UK have been having heavy snow falling which has led the DSA to cancel many driving tests, and while some instructors have been able to continue to give various driving lessons, they have seen a drop in instructor income due to cancellations of tuition for beginners, those practising manuovers and those that had practical driving tests booked. December and early January is usually a bad time for driving instructors due to most people diverting money for christmas activities and presents, but having to then be forced to cancel the few sessions with learner drivers that are willing to pay at this quiet time is really tough, and not something that those ADI training organisations will tell you about the life of being a driving instructor.

With the credit crunch dealing it's own blow, 2009 has not been a very good year to be a driving instructor. I'm hoping that the weather improves for the better soon, so that we can try and recoup some of the income we've lost over the last 3 weeks of so, and survive this big winter freeze hitting the UK.

ADI Check Test and BSM Fiat 500

2010-01-02T08:14:00.000Z

One of the requirements of remaining an approved driving instructor is that the DSA have to conduct an ADI check test every couple of years to onfirm the instructors ability to teach learner drivers.

DSA examiners have been compalining about the lack of space in the BSM fiat 500 bubble car. An for his reason BSM will be going back to using Vauxhall Corsas as its driving school car.

The ADI check test which normal lasts about an hour involves the DSA SE-ADI observing a driving lesson being carried out, and a grade then being issued to the instructor depending on how well they have performed. Anything between 4-6 allows them to remain on the DTI ADI register, anything lower, and another check test will be required, and failing to improve could result in removal.

Many BSM driving instructors will be delighted with the news, as the Fiat 500 was never popular with them, even though it was a hit with many customer learner drivers.

Being driving instructor is stressful

2009-06-30T18:29:00.004+01:00

In the current UK economic climate of credit crunch, becoming a driving instructor or even working as a qualified ADI is a lot of stress and hassle.

Not only do you have to work hard to keep your business afloat by aggresively marketing your driving school, you have to deal with learners looking for very cheap lessons which are not profitable for you, considering petrol costs, insurance, road tax and the fact that you also have bills to pay, and you can only work so many hours in a day before you are totally exhausted without much time left to give to your family.

Due to the lack of driving instructor shortage, many ADIs are resorting to looking for second jobs to suppliment their income, from teaching maths, to driving vans, manual gardening tasks, etc it is really a tough life being a driving instructor at the moment.

This is not made any easy by the fact that the like of red driving school, BSM, AA are constantly advertising for people to train and join an already saturated driving instruction market. Personally anyone qualifying as a new ADI at this time has his/her work cut out, especially if this is going to be their main source of income. A lot of work, stress, worrying and uncertaintity is ahead and it will take determination not to give up in the first year of operating the school/driving instructor business.

Driving Instructor risks

2009-06-04T17:28:00.004+01:00

One of the minor drawbacks to being a driving instructor is that like any other business, you are taking a risk, and therefore your income is very unpredictable but also you might have to pay for unavoidable issues.

Recently my driving school car broke down due to a mechanical failure of the clutch, something that I couldn't have prevented, considering I had the car for only 2 months and that it had been given a service shortly before I acquired it.

The resultant effect of this driving school car breakdown for me as an instructor was 1.5 days loss of income (my leasing company only provided a spare car if off the road for 48hrs), one driving test refund plus a goodwill offer of 2 lessons, and a lot of stress, not to consider other ad hoc expenses like cab/bus fares to get to garage.
While some of these business expenses are tax deductible, your profit and loss margin is affected.

These are some of the things that those TV adverts don't tell you about being a driving instructor, not to talk about how unpredictible the driving instructor's salary is.

Driving Instructor Shortage - Doesn't Exist

2009-05-13T09:56:00.004+01:00

There is no driving instructor shortage in the UK, and I can't think there ever will be a lack of ADIs, so if you thought of becoming a driving instructor just because someone or a red driving school advert told you so, then keep your money and look for a different career.

The only people spreading the word about instructor shortages are training organisations who would like you to invest a few thousand pounds of your redundancy money or even take out a loan in the belief that there is so much money to be made from being a driving instructor (check the many websites on google offering instructor training, and it is one of their selling points).
They never tell you of the high drop out rate from the course due to either frustration or failure in one of the 3 examinations that the DSA requires you to pass. They don't even tell you upfront that there is a limit of 3 attempts on the last 2 qualification tests, and if you don't pass you have to start all over again.

So if the only reason you thought of becoming an ADI was because you were convinced there is a shortage of driving instructors, my advise to you is don't bother. On the other hand if you really want to teach people to drive, are willing to put in the hard work both in the training and in building your business up once qualified, then I wish you the best with a new career, it will be though especially since there is a lot of instructor competition out there, but if you are determined to succeed, then you will make it in the end.

Innovative Driving Instructor

2009-01-10T00:01:00.001Z

As a driving instructor you need to be creative and innovative when it comes to marketing your school or finding ways of generating additional income or indeed a steady flow of cash, as there is only so much you can earn from teaching learner drivers and taking them for driving tests. In fact the more money you make, the more hours you need to work, the less of a social life you will have, and your family (if you are married or living with someone) suffers.

While you will most likely always start out either buying a franchise or working as an independent driving instructor, if you really want to increase your income as an ADI, you will need to go beyond just teaching learners to drive a car. The usual next step in your driving school business development is being independent and getting so popular that you can get another instructor as a franchisee where you are paid a weekly fee for the use of your brand name and supply of pupils. As I mentioned before, there will be a time if you are good at your job and can market your services well that you'll no longer have enough hours in the day, which is when it is now viable to sell someone a franchise.

The other day I was doing some surfing on the internet when I came across an innovative way in which a driving instructor was trying to add an addional income stream to their business, and this did not involve having to give additional driving lessons. While I'm not sure the idea will work to a high degree, if it does, then the instructor has been able to carve out a niche in the learner driver market. Are you thinking of innovative ways of gettting more income as a driving instructor especially during these days of credit crunch. Examine your local market is there a need that you might be able to fill?

Driving Instructors aren't important!

2009-01-07T11:59:00.003Z

One of the downsides of being a driving instructor is that a lot of people don't think ADIs are important, or that their time is valuable.

Apart from late driving lessons cancellations, others think the instructor is running a charity, and expect to be given free lessons as introductory offers or that they are actually doing the driving instructor a favour by taking tuition with them.

I had a call the other day from a prospective learner driver, who left a message on my mobile phone saying that he had seen my website and was interested in having lessons with me.

I called him up, get a few details from him, then ask when would he like to start driving lessons, he then says as soon as possible, but first he would like me to come round for a 30 minute chat so he can see the car, and iron out a few issues. I respond that is not a problem as long as he is ready to pay for my time, to which he responds in that case leave it!

Does a learner expect a driving instructor to travel to their house, spend their time, petrol, wear and tear on a car just for a chat all for free because they might be taking 20 driving lessons? My experience in this industry has shown me that serious enquirers will have done their research, and would base their selection of driving instructor based on either recommendation, website information, and will appreciate the value of the services provided by ADIs.

How can you expect me to give you a discount on driving lessons just based on the fact that you promise to take 10 hours of tuition, and yet won't pay the money up front!

These are unfortunately some of the things you get as an instructor, and you need to consider this before signing up with those organisations that advertise how glorious it is teaching learners to drive. If you have a mortgage to pay, family to feed, this is of no concern to some learner drivers, they just want free or cheap driving lessons at your expense

Becoming a Driving instructor

2009-01-06T14:45:00.002Z

Career teaching Learners to Drive a Car

If you live in the UK, then you would probably seen the current Red Driving School TV advert on one of the many satellite stations encouraging people to become a driving instructor as one on the ways to beat the current economic gloom and be on the way to a new successful career being their own boss and teaching learners to drive.

So you would like to become a driving instructor? Before you resign from your regular 9-5 job or start dreaming about your new career of becoming a potential driving instructor and how much you will earn as a DSA ADI, it is important you note a few facts about life as a driving instructor.

1. Being a driving instructor is not a job, it is a business, and therefore you need to either develop the required skills for some tasks, are be prepared to pay for them. One of the most important skills you need to survive being an instructor is marketing. The success of your driving school business does not solely depend on how good an instructor you are, but on your ability to maintain a steady supply of learner driver pupils who are ready to pay you for your services. This is not an easy task in a very fiercly competitive industry where you have many schools or driving instructors offering cheap lessons.

2. Your driving lesson price is not what you earn as an instructor! Out of the £15, £17, £20 or £25 you charge for 1 hr of driving tuition has to come fuel costs, car leasing or depriciation, vehilcle insurance, marketing, stationary, tax, your earnings. You will also have to think about holidays, as you don't get paid when off work or sick, National Insurance (NI) contributions, pension. So don't just think because a driving instructor charges £25 for a one hour lesson in London, that he or she is going to be a rich individual.

3.

It costs a lot of money to become a driving instructor

.
Around £3000, and there is no guarantee you will actually pass all the DSA ADI qualification examinations. The ADI part 3 qualifying test has the lowest pass rate of all, and with only 3 attempts available, it is easy to spend all that money and still end up out of pocket! The only winners are the training organisations, which is why the instructor college and red driving school spend large amounts of money on adverts trying to get people to train to become driving instructors!

4.

Credit Crunch and Becoming a Driving Instructor

There are a lot of adverts around now that the credit crunch is biting hard trying to get people to sign up to becoming a driving instuctor, with compelling copy singing the praises of how you can be your own boss, work the hours you want, with a guaranteed job at the end of your training. Well now is one of the worst times to become a driving instructor, and the only ones to gain if you sign up for one of those ADI training courses, are the companies training people. Don't invest your hard earned money, unless it is something you really want to do, and even then you are going to have a hard time competing with already established businesses.

Instructor sitting in Driving Test

2008-12-23T09:06:00.003Z

A few years ago, it used to be very common for newly qualified Driving Instructors to want to sit in on driving tests because they wanted to learn the routes taken by the DSA examiner. With the driving test routes now published on the Driving Standards Agency website, it is very easy for an Approved Driving Instructor to find out what the routes are for his/her local DSA test centre.

There however a few reasons why an instructor would want to sit in on their pupils driving test.

1. You get to know the DSA examiners, their character how they mark and how forgiving each individual is.

2. You get to see how learner drivers act under driving test conditions.

As a driving instructor you should try an sit in as many dsa tests as possible.

Becoming Instructor sad story

2008-12-22T11:37:00.003Z

Here is one of the sad stories that you never hear about or those Red Driving School Adverts don't tell you about becoming a driving instructor.

An elderly lady gets into debt while training to be a driving instructor, steals money from her Son's trust account, and ends up being taken to court and getting a criminal record. Don't just think about a career change just on the basis of these TV or newspaper adverts, the cost, time and effort required are large, and at the end there is no guarantee you will succeed in the driving instructor training course, while you could end up thousands of pounds in debt!

Read the full driving instructor debt story as published by the Arberdeen Evening Express. So before you take any action after watching one of those Red Driving school TV adverts, make sure you fully know what you are getting into, as the only ones really gaining and making the money are the ADI training organisations.

Driving Instructor time is not valuable

2008-12-13T12:24:00.000Z

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.

Critising other ADIs

2008-12-05T13:21:00.005Z

As a driving instructor, don't build your business by critising your competition, a practise that is very common in the industry.

You don't necessarilly need to agree with the way other ADIs run their business or teach other learner drivers, but the way for you to attract more candidates to come learn to drive with you, is by offering a service that no one else offers.

It's just like the many schools and driving instructors out there offering cheap driving lessons in a bid to gain a hold in the learner driver market. It might work for a while, but in the long run you need value, quality and a reputation to sustain you. So stop Critising other driving instructors.

Making Money as Driving Instructor

2008-11-26T15:19:00.004Z

First of all let's deal with the question most people ask, can you make money being a driving instructor?
The simple answer is yes, and there are many people making a decent earning teaching learner drivers as ADIs.
Now before you rush into signing a contract and throwing your hard earned saving into instructor training after watching one of those Red Driving School adverts or reading the many newspaper marketing materials, there are a few things you need to know and consider about making money as a driving instructor.

There is a huge start up cost that will run into thousands of pounds (even if you take the pay as you go option).
There is no guarantee that you will be sucessfull in your training and earn that coveted green DSA ADI that confirms you as having qualified as an approved driving instructor even after spending that large amount of money.
Once you've gained your DSA instructor qualification, you will now join a highly competitive market that is over saturated with people wanting to make money out of teaching a limited number of learner drivers who are ready to pay you a decent amount of money for your services. The hardest thing you will have to deal with is the large number of organisations and individuals out there offering cheap driving lessons some of who are giving the industry a bad name because they are offering sub-standard tuition, and in some cases ripping off student drivers by taking their money and disappearing.

It takes time to gain a reputation in the industry, which is why most driving instructors will start making money by joining an existing school franchise as a way of breaking into the market. This gives your start up business the means of building a pupil base, allow you to do your won self marketing and learn the ropes.

Petrol costs and ADI Income

2008-11-24T12:44:00.004Z

Petrol Costs are coming down, and for the newly qualified driving instructor this is good news because it means the income you will earn will be slightly higher than a few months ago when petrol prices were over £1.20p per litre.

Considering that I saw a litle of petrol at under 90p at a local sainsbury station, that is a saving of over 30p which will add up to a lot for the driving instructor that covers thousands of miles a month during the course of normal tuition for learner drivers, especially when the big oil producing forecourts also have to reduce their prices to remain competitive.

Not a lot of ADI's would have been able to raise lesson prices during the recent fuel price crisis, so this continual fall in running cost would be a welcome light at the end of a dark tunnel for anyone who might have been struggling with the demands of setting up a new driving school business. Hopefully fuel prices will continue to remain low, and instructors are able to find ways of remaining competitive and still provide quality tuition to learner drivers and attract more paying provisional licence holders wanting driving lessons.

The Joys of being a driving instructor! Not.

Protect Instructor Income

2008-11-23T20:34:00.003Z

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.

Driving Instructor and Credit crunch

2008-11-20T10:41:00.004Z

Having spent a lot of money becoming an ADI, put in the effort to pass the 3 part examinations and setup your very own driving school, you would expect that you can relax a bit and start to enjoy your new career as a driving instructor, but then the credit crunch hits.

Even for an established ADI, downturns in the economy can have serious effects on their driving tuition business, not to talk of someone who has only recently become a driving instructor.

So what can you do as an individual who has just setup their driving school and finding things hard going due to the credit crunch?

Driving Instructor Income Streams

You need to maximise your income streams as an ADI. Just teaching learner drivers to pass the driving test is not the only way to earn money.

Pass Plus is a scheme that you should register for and promote as a driving school proprietor. The scheme offers new drivers the opportunity to learn some additional skills that will not only keep them safe on the UK roads, but could also save them money by giving them insurance discounts with participating companies and brookers.

Post Driving test tuition. Not everyone might want to take a 6hr pass plus course, but you can still offer motorway lessons for new or old drivers. Since motorway driving is not allowed for learner drivers, not everyone who has passed the test will feel secure driving at 70mph on a motorway, so this service is required for a few people, especially in areas that don't have national speed limit dual carriageways where a candidate might have only driven at a maximum of 50mph while preparing for the DSA driving test.

Refresher driving lessons for those who might have passed their driving test long ago, but might not have driven since, and now have bought a car and need some more confidence in driving on the own.

Fleet driving. You could go on a fleet training course that would enable you to approach large companies, or you could look out for small companies near you to see if they need any employee driver training services. If you do take up fleet tuition, make sure you also have indemnity insurance to cover you as a driving instructor.

Foriegn language learner drivers. Why not learn a new language that could help you get more pupils? A recent driving instructor I was speaking to offered driving lessons in Spanish, portugese and italian. He is fully booked and often has to turn learner drivers away.

Just as with any business, being a driving instructor requires you to come up with creative ideas of standing above the competition, and these are things that can help you survive any credit crunch as an ADI.

Starting out in your Instructor Business

2008-11-18T13:43:00.005Z

If you've recently qualified as an approved driving instructor (ADI), then congratulations, and welcome to the fold.

You have probably by now decided on which driving school you are going to take up an instructor franchise with, or if opting to work as an independent ADI, made arrangments to buy or lease a driving school car, and are looking forward to finding your first pupil and teaching them how to drive.

I remember my first week as a qualified driving instructor, I had decided to take up a franchise with one of the National Driving schools, had picked up my training car after the induction, had been allocated my first few learner driver pupils, and was now all exicted and ready to go! It is an exciting time for anyone starting a new career as a driving instructor, but you must not lose sight of the important things you need to do to get your driving school business established.

1. Offer your pupils incentives to introduce others to you, eg your 11th lesson free after you friend takes 2 lessons with me (11th lesson means you are not losing out immediately, and also means they stick around a while to get the reward).
2. Tell your pupils to blog about their lessons and put a link to your website (you do have a driving school website?).
3. Find the local colledges or 6th form schools, park outside, and give your cards away. Many will ask if 1st lessson is free, so be prepared with an appropriate answer (remember you are trying to earn a living, so you can give everyone a free lesson, more over what makes you sure they will stay after the first lesson).
4. Have a good reason why someone should take driving lessons with you, and it shouldn't be I'm the cheapest in the area (though many people are always on the lookout for cheap lessons).

It takes a while to get established, and because there is not a shortage of driving instructors out there, the competition is great so you will need to do some marketing as well like cards in local shop windows, tell friends and local neighbours about your services, don't forget parents at local schools if you have children there. You could also offer prizes to local school or church raffles to also spread the word around.

Don't get caught up in the excitement, that you fail to start working on making your business viable. Being a driving instructor, is more than just teaching learner drivers.

Illegal Driving Instructor Prosecuted

2008-10-30T12:20:00.004Z

The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) in the october 2008 edition of despatch a magazine sent to all ADIs mentioned that in its initiative to deal with the rising number of illegal driving instructors had sucessfully prosecuted a man in Derbyshire for illegally giving driving tuition in exchange for money while not qualified and having his name on the DSA register of approved driving instructors.

With this conviction, the DSA has proved that it is taking the issue of illegal driving instruction very serious, and has currently over 400 cases that is being investigatedd by the DSA's fraud and integrity team.

If you are a learner driver who thinks your driving instructor is operating illegally (this is easy to check since all ADIs should be displaying their registration badge green or pink when giving paid tuition), you should contact the DSA on 02920 581155 or email integrity.team@dsa.gsi.gov.uk

Driving Instructor Income is Unpredictable

2008-10-29T09:32:00.003Z

One of the certain facts about being a driving instructor is that you can never predict your income on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis. The nature of the business (job is not appropriate for ADIs) is that even if you have a diary booked solid with driving lessons, you can't be certain the money is in the bank till you've given the tuition and have been paid.

As any DSA registered ADI will tell you, a pupil can cancel a lesson at anytime (especially if payment hasn't been made in advance), or just not turn up for the driving instructor (no show).

It is not just learner driver lesson cancellations that affect your instructor earnings, the driving standards agency (DSA) can cancel tests at short notice, either due to bad weather or examiner sickness.

If the cancellation is due to the DSA's fault, the test candidate can usually get compensation, but not if the problem is bad weather.

Just one of the perks of being a driving instructor.