How to become a Driving Instructor

jonesy709_2

Hi everyone,

Was wondering what's the most efficient way (both cost and time) of becoming a Driving Instructor ? I have heard horror stories about companies such as RED etc - are the stories true ??

I am asking on behalf of my girlfriend who's interested in a new career following 6 years in the RAF.

If she becomes an Instructor she would be working in the Birkenhead area (if that makes any difference as far as training is concerned).

Any advice would be much appreciated#

Thanks

Andy

MeeNorr

What made your girlfriend decide she wants to become a driving instructor?

Does she have a background in teaching? Does she fancy 'earning 30k a year'? Is it because she has a driving licence which is all you need to start your instructor training?

There are so many adverts on TV, radio, newspapers to train to be an a driving instructor with the company you mentioned, basically their marketing budget is huge as they charge about £4000 everytime someone signs up, with no chance of getting a refund for any reason. I trained with their sister company The Instructor College a few years ago. Basically if she really wants to do it (along with the tens of thousands of others who think it's a good idea too, it's quite sad the amount of people who blow their redundancy money on this 'dream of working when you want around your life and commitments' that the sales people will give you) then go for it. But bare in mind something like 1 in 10 who starts training doesn't qualify, of the 1 in 10 who do about 9 in 10 give up after a year as there's no money in it (forget 30k a year til you've been doing it at least 5-7 years and that's before you've paid all your franchise fees, car and fuel charges etc) and that will mean teaching about 40 hours a week, don't forget travelling time between lessons which can make a working day of 12 hours as pupils usually aren't available for lessons one after the other.

I finally qualified after paying about an extra £2000 on the top of the £3000 up front training fees just to get some half decent training, many of the trainers had been qualified for about a year as a driving instructor, and training driving instructors to learners is very different.

You work when the pupil wants a lesson which could be 8pm on a Sunday evening and compete against many instructors who are working at a loss because they don't realise that by charging £10 an hour they aren't making any money but don't have the business skills to realise this.

Oh and never, ever pay up front for the training. Find a reputable trainer who will charge per hour rather than the whole lump sum up front, then at least if you change your mind part of the way through, you don't lose thousands of pounds.

BBCharmer

Hi Jonesy709

I have been a driving instructor around 12 years, I have also heard bad stories about the larger companies including the two mentioned in previous post. Many people assume that because the company is big they are going to be the best. This is not true, even the motoring associations that have become driving schools are not necessarily the best, unfortunately many huge companies have jumped on the bandwagon of making lots of money, and driving tuition is always going to be needed. My advice would be to find a local company to train with, lots of smaller companies do the training at less cost or on weekly payments, you need to get a local directory or internet and look up company adverts as some of them will advertise instructor training. Do your homework and phone as many as possible, ask questions like... Are the test fees included, will I have the same trainer throughout my training, will I have to pay for the books and training aids, am I expected to get a pink badge (training badge) how many hours each week will I spend in training. What are the policies regarding employment after my taining, what are the fees I am expected to pay you if I work for you. I could go on but you will find the answers to these and many more if you do your research. From a driving instructors view some of the upsides are...you get to decide your own hours, you work for yourself, you get a big satisfaction when pupils pass their test, if you have an appointment you don't have to ask for time off you just book around it, you take your holiday whenever you want it, you can work public holidays and sundays or have them off, you can decide how much you charge, you never have a dull day, you will teach all different kinds of poeple from 17 to 60. Some of the downsides are.....You have to be flexible with your hours as pupils aren't always available to do lessons when you want them to, If you work for someone else you pay them a weekly fee which can be a big chunk of your salary, if you work for yourself you have to advertise which can be costly, as your reputation increases your advertising can decrease because you get your pupils through recommendations, you don't get paid when you take time off, your pupils can cancel lessons which can leave your income lower some weeks than others, you have to either buy a car or rent one, the car repairs are sometimes costly, some pupils think they know better than you, and my biggest downside is the other drivers on the road, everyone hates learners, some abuse you verbally, some just cut you up and some actually drive dangerously just to get in front of you. But all in all I enjoy my job otherwise i wouldn't have been doing it for so long. I am at the stage where I can choose my own hours and stick to them, but I still work evenings which I have wanted to give up for ages now but just can't seem to say no, especially when I get a recommendation from a previous pupil.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any questions.

MeeNorr

Just realised in my reply above it should say about 9 out of 10 who start the training don't qualify, not 1 out of 10! In other words about 1 in 10 who start it do qualify.

Tef

Hi there I was an instructor in the Wirral area a few years ago but there's just no money in it these days. Competition is fierce with many out there doing the job just to boost income from other sources.. As a full time career forget it, after ten years I gave it up and took my LGV instead.

Here's a small resume of my last weeks accounts circa Aug 2005
Car payments £63.50
Car Tax £11.00
Car Insurance £23.59
Advertising £17.63
Professional memberships £6.14
Petrol £54.40
Tax and NI payments £46.84
Total outgoings £223!
Total Hours worked 29@£10.00 ph.
Net Income £77!

Oh yes and most of the hours worked were either late in the evening, early morning or weekends.

Regards

Anihilator

Tef wrote: »

Hi there I was an instructor in the Wirral area a few years ago but there's just no money in it these days. Competition is fierce with many out there doing the job just to boost income from other sources.. As a full time career forget it, after ten years I gave it up and took my LGV instead.

Here's a small resume of my last weeks accounts circa Aug 2005
Car payments £63.50
Car Tax £11.00
Car Insurance £23.59
Advertising £17.63
Professional memberships £6.14
Petrol £54.40
Tax and NI payments £46.84
Total outgoings £223!
Total Hours worked 29@£10.00 ph.
Net Income £77!

Oh yes and most of the hours worked were either late in the evening, early morning or weekends.

Regards

Maybe your calculation skills where the problem :rolleyes:

Also add that I dont know many driving instructors who charge much less than £20 an hour these days. You also only worked 29 hours.

By my reckoning someone who worked 35-40 hours a week would get a modest income. Not great but better than most entry level jobs

Tef

Anihilator wrote: »

Maybe your calculation skills where the problem :rolleyes:

Also add that I dont know many driving instructors who charge much less than £20 an hour these days. You also only worked 29 hours.

By my reckoning someone who worked 35-40 hours a week would get a modest income. Not great but better than most entry level jobs

Sorry simple mistype, I obviously meant £67.
But thank you for your correction I'm sure the OP wouldn't have realised it was an error without your intervention :T
As for your other remarks, I did say that I last taught in 2005 when the average was £10.00 per hour. It may interest you to know that having checked with a few schools this evening, that as a result of the competition and unemployment factor on the Wirral it remains the current average

FYI I worked 29 hours on a good week with some weeks as few as 16.. any driving instructor doing more than 30 hours a week esp. today, is either a liar, giving free lessons or God is interceding on their behalf. So don't give the OP false hope and dont talk out of your behind.

PS Please don't bother to respond your'e quite obviously a troll so have placed you on ignore.

ss70

Tef wrote: »

Hi there I was an instructor in the Wirral area a few years ago but there's just no money in it these days. Competition is fierce with many out there doing the job just to boost income from other sources.. As a full time career forget it, after ten years I gave it up and took my LGV instead.

Here's a small resume of my last weeks accounts circa Aug 2005
Car payments £63.50
Car Tax £11.00
Car Insurance £23.59
Advertising £17.63
Professional memberships £6.14
Petrol £54.40
Tax and NI payments £46.84
Total outgoings £223!
Total Hours worked 29@£10.00 ph.
Net Income £77!

Oh yes and most of the hours worked were either late in the evening, early morning or weekends.

Regards

Thank you for your figures. They are very useful.
How can the car tax be £11 per week, equating to £572 per year.
Also, isn't the tax high considering the running costs would be offset against this? Class 2 NI contributions are only £2.40 per week, tax rate 20%, ~£5k personal allowance too.
Your figures suggest a tax rate of 37% on an annual pre tax income of £6300

Tef

ss70 wrote: »

Thank you for your figures. They are very useful.
How can the car tax be £11 per week, equating to £572 per year.
Also, isn't the tax high considering the running costs would be offset against this? Class 2 NI contributions are only £2.40 per week, tax rate 20%, ~£5k personal allowance too.
Your figures suggest a tax rate of 37% on an annual pre tax income of £6300

Sorry I should have made those figures clearer, please forgive me, I was a little tired when I wrote.. hence my mistype in my original sums, the car tax figure I was referring to was not the Road fund licence but the approximate cost of the VAT on the lease car calculated on a yearly basis. I did not include the RFL in calculations as every motorist pays this.

As for the tax and NI contributions those figures are a true and reasonably accurate account of the sums I was paying to HM goverment at the time. I'm reasonably sure that certain tax bands will have changed since 2005 but am equally sure that if you take those figures as a broad rule of thumb (which is how they are intended, i.e I dont know your particular financial circumstances i.e do you have income from property are you living together etc etc) You will have a ball park figure for your girlfriends estimated income. Please understand though, that what HM goverment say they will deduct from you and what they actually deduct are often fields apart (ask any self employed person) But dont just take my word for it... ring a few driving instructors on the Wirral explain your girlfriends interest in becoming an instructor and I'm sure most will happily give you their average tax and NI contributions as well as the insiders view.

In short I can tell you that most of the instructors I knew then are now employed in other fields, even some who had been doing the job for 20+ years What does that tell you? As for companys like RED and indeed the AA, they do not make money from learner drivers they make it from selling courses to the gullible.

The other thing you really should consider and indeed ask is this, will any prospective trainer guarantee you at least 30 hours a week of pupils after completion of training ? I think not... Back in the Days of BSM where I passed my part 3 they at least guaranteed you 16 hours just enough to pay for the mini metro rental, insurance and dual controls whether or not you'd get the same deal these days I dont know.

I wish your girlfriend good luck though..... You do seem to have explored the possibilty on a more than casual basis and full credit to you its certainly more than I did at the time.

Regards

Caroline73_2

Tef wrote: »

Sorry simple mistype, I obviously meant £67.
But thank you for your correction I'm sure the OP wouldn't have realised it was an error without your intervention :T
As for your other remarks, I did say that I last taught in 2005 when the average was £10.00 per hour. It may interest you to know that having checked with a few schools this evening, that as a result of the competition and unemployment factor on the Wirral it remains the current average

FYI I worked 29 hours on a good week with some weeks as few as 16.. any driving instructor doing more than 30 hours a week esp. today, is either a liar, giving free lessons or God is interceding on their behalf. So don't give the OP false hope and dont talk out of your behind.

PS Please don't bother to respond your'e quite obviously a troll so have placed you on ignore.

It was £10 an hour when I learnt to drive in 1992!

timmmers

On the other hand, there's good money and quite a few jobs in HGV Class one driving round here...not far from Liverpool.

t