Great Ways To Cut The Cost Of Learning To Drive Hunt

katieandscott

my dad is a lorry driver and has been for many many years. i have always wanted to do it to! right here's my problem i am 21years old have a bad credit score so i cannot seem to get any financial help. currently stuck in a dead end job earning £5.50 an hour which i need to support my two kids and girlfriend with. Help!! anyone!?!

RosieMarsh

Please don't let your self be ripped off by driving instructors. I've had four and can't believe how many instructors think they can rip you off and take you for a ride.


If your driving instructor displays the green badge on [EMAIL="his@her"]his/her[/EMAIL] they are fully qualified. However the pink badge means your driving instructor still has more exams to take so get out of there fast. Many driving schools send you their trainee driving instructors without telling you and hope that you won't notice.
They will usually charge you the same amount as a qualified instructor but they do not have the experience to give you quality instruction. Apparantly having a fully qualified instructor increases you chance of passing by 25%.
I have had two trainee instructors and neither knew what they were doing and what is more they are only licensed for six months so you could end up with an instructor who drops you half way through your lessons and tells you to go and find a new instructor (this happened to me). I can't believe people can actually get away with this.

Secondly I have found that a qualified instructor doesn't always mean a great instructor. You should expect that he/she:

1. Is always on time
2. Never uses their mobile during your lessons (Really annoying and dangerous)
3. Doesn't waste time, I have paid stupid amounts of money to pump up tyres, sit in petrol stations and to sit in the car having stupid chats about lollypop ladies. I understand some things do need to be explained but you shoud be spending most of your time actually driving.
4. Never cancels your lessons unless in exceptional circumstances
5. Most importantly of all you should always feel comfortable during your lessons so if you feel intimidated, patronised or upset your instructor definetely isn't doing his or her job.
6. This is less important but if your paying a lot of money for your lessons you should expect the car your learning in to be modern and easy to drive with dual controls. You shouldn't pay 25 pounds an hour to drive around in an old banger.

Do not waste your money on rubbish driving instructors. If you don't feel happy with your instructor, change. They can be pushy and be difficult to get rid of, but you have to always remember you are paying them a ridiculous amount of money so you should expect them to do their job properly. Some of this sounds obvious but i know so many people who have been ripped off by incompetent driving instructors. They are a waste of time and money.

cajef

RosieMarsh wrote: »

They can be pushy and be difficult to get rid of, but you have to always remember you are paying them a ridiculous amount of money so you should expect them to do their job properly.

While I agree with most of the sentiments expressed in your post I feel I must take exception to that statement.

On the one hand you want your instructor to have a modern car, but you think £25 per hour is a ridiculous amount to pay for lessons.

Do you think that all goes into the instructors pocket, all driving instructors are self employed and out of that £25 they have to pay either franchise fees or if they work independently they have the cost of a new car every couple of years, tax, insurance (try insuring a car for learners driving lessons), every day running costs with fuel now nearly a £l a litre, income tax and national insurance and any other incidentals needed for his teaching, by the time all these have been factored in he is lucky to end up with £10 per hour in his pocket.

Also remember he does not earn any income when he takes any time off for holidays etc or to pay his time or fuel when driving to each appointment.

If he gives forty hours instruction a week, he is probably working fiftyfive hours when you include time between appointments, he may possibly end up with approximately £400 net earnings, which if he works 48 weeks is £19.200 per annum hardly an excessive amount to live on in this day and age.

smilie2106

I've been looking around for lessons for my husband as we've just sent for his provisional. I had a look at the Tesco Clubcard offer, £46.50 in vouchers for 4lesson pack and when I looked at their website, I found an offer for 5 lessons for £75! Here's the link for the t&c's and list of post codes offer not available in http://www.bsm.co.uk/5for75/terms.html . But hurry, currently stating only available until 23 July!

Spikey_2

need to find a good deal or a reasonably priced instructor in west yorkshire...............any ideas guys?

Woodyrocks

smilie2106 wrote: »

I've been looking around for lessons for my husband as we've just sent for his provisional. I had a look at the Tesco Clubcard offer, £46.50 in vouchers for 4lesson pack and when I looked at their website, I found an offer for 5 lessons for £75! Here's the link for the t&c's and list of post codes offer not available in http://www.bsm.co.uk/5for75/terms.html . But hurry, currently stating only available until 23 July!

That sucks Always get penalised for living in London

chanticleer

My father happens to run an independent driving school, so I can offer a few tips about getting a good price.

Although you may be able to use Tesco vouchers, get a student discount, have a referral discount or find the cheapest publicised price through BSM or another chain, using them will not get you the cheapest price. Chain driving schools are set up much like a pyramid scheme, meaning that prices have to be kept to a certain level so that everyone in the company earns a wage. Because of this, pricing for lessons and so forth is pretty much standardised across the country. It doesn't matter if the BSM teacher is a nice bloke - odds are that he won't be able to offer you much discount or any at all.

Independent driving schools don't have the same buying power in terms of advertising so generally charge at about the same price or slightly lower, in order to appeal prospective students. However, very few independent schools publish their prices either in adverts or online. It's worth bearing in mind that the market is very compeditive and an openly-published breakdown of costs could expose you as being overpriced.

As such, my two points to find cheap driving lessons would be:

1) Ring around and ask for standard prices, block booking discounts and any other referral schemes. Costs may be about level but there will always be one school which is cheaper than the others.

2) Play the schools off against each other. If you find a cheap deal but don't like the sound of the instructor or the car they teach in, take their price to another instructor and ask if they can beat it. Independent schools especially will provide some degree of flexibility.

Hope that helps!

chanticleer

cajef wrote: »

Do you think that all goes into the instructors pocket, all driving instructors are self employed and out of that £25 they have to pay [...] insurance (try insuring a car for learners driving lessons) [...]

Sneaky fact - insuring a car for driving lessons is insanely cheap. Statistically learners with instructors have the lowest number of crashes, damages or other insurance-worthy issues.

Surprising, eh?

Spikey_2

If you want to help your partner etc to learn ....how's the best way to do the insurance if you have a second car?

cajef

chanticleer wrote: »

Sneaky fact - insuring a car for driving lessons is insanely cheap.

As an ex driving instructor I would once again have to dispute that, for a start you have to go to a company that specialises in insurance for driving schools and learners, and it certainly was not insanely cheap.