Driving instructor training

DarkHorse

Hi, here for some advise from those of you that may have undertaken driver instructor training.

I am thinking of retraining to become a driving instructor, and wondered if anyone here had done this, and what their experience is. Where would you recommend training. Can you make a decent living from doing this by being self employed. What sort of money can you realistically earn? I appreciate that it is down to the individual to market themselves, which I would not have a problem doing.

During my research into this I have found a company called smartdriving.org. They seem professional, and I have spoken with them, but would be grateful for any feedback.

I have always enjoyed driving, and have gained my car, motorcycle, and LGV C+E licences, so thought this may be a good career change to make use of something that I enjoy, by teaching others.

Any experiences, and advice in this area would be gratefully received.

Herzlos

I'd avoid the bigger schools, anyone who can guarantee you work or wants to lease you a car, like RED.

If you're willing to put in the hours you should be able to make decent money, but there is a lot of competition and the hours will be awful.

Definitely try and do more than just B though - B+E, C, C+E, C1 and so on, as most of your competition will only do cars.

daveyjp

Dad did it for 25 years. He earned a decent living, but he was doing 40-50 teaching hours per week, had no children at home and mortgage was paid off.

If you want the rewards you need to like sitting in a car for up to 12 hours a day!

33Lurcher

Make sure you research well and truly committed , when I trained about 13 yrs ago aprox only about 30% managed to get through the training , many dropped out .
The big schools will take your money as they are in business , some took out loans through the schools to pay for the training and still had to make the payments even though they failed/left the course .
Try and find a small independent trainer if there is one about , as above you will have to put the hours in to make a wage
Good luck

hollie.weimeraner

My wife is an instructor and trained with Red over 10 years ago. She got a very good deal at the time and passed at the 3rd attempt. Since then she has worked for a local school for 12 months and then went independent after 18 months. For her it works OK as she now works 3 days a week.

The most she did was about 25 to 30 lessons which meant around a 35 to 40 hour week.

I see full time driving instructors out and about 7 days a week and from 7am until 8 or 9 at night in order to make ends meet. It is a cut throat industry with pupils expecting professional tuition for less than a taxi fare home from a nightclub.

If you have a look at https://www.ukdic.co.uk there is some useful information on that website and also a few very cynical posters:rotfl:.

If, after reading all the negatives about the industry currently then find a good local independent ORDIT approved instructor who will charge on a pay per lesson basis rather than fork out a large upfront fee which you will never see again if you decide it isn't for you.

The theory test, you should be able to get through without any help. You will need lessons to get up to speed for the practical test and further training for the instructional side.

I would not take the theory test until you are ready to take the practical driving test as once you pass part one you have 2 years to pass part 3 after which you have to start again.

Prior to making a decision make sure you have a good business plan based on research of what instructors are charging for lessons in your local area and the hours you are prepared to put in.

If you intend to do 40 lessons a week that will equate to about a 60 hour working week after travelling between lessons and keeping paperwork up to date if you live in an urban area

As far as your question about Smart Driving is concerned it used to be owned by John Farlam and was well respected within the industry which isn't an endorsement by the way.

DarkHorse

Thanks for the great info. https://www.ukdic.co.uk is very useful.

forgotmyname

The money is not so good these days, Dad used to do it and used to bring home a decent wage.

But fuel and insurance costs have increased faster than what pupils want to pay for the lessons.

When buying a car you need to find something sturdy and with cheap parts, you do not want pupils hammering dual mass flywheel/clutches that cost £1000+ to replace.

Snapped gear linkages, stalled with their feet on the throttle and brake.

Do you have the funds for a new car and enough savings for 6 months of no earnings just in case its slow to start?

Herzlos

daveyjp wrote: »

If you want the rewards you need to like sitting in a car for up to 12 hours a day!

At times when everyone else is off - your customers are invariably going to want evening/weekend lessons because they are either in school or work.