At a bit of a cross-roads in my career, bored of work and the company seems to be going nowhere so am thinking of a bit of a change. Thought about training to be a Driving Instructor, I suppose the need is always there but is balanced against the amount of folk setting up their own business.

Anyone got any advice, whether positive or negative? Don’t want to go down the Red/BSM route but would like to see how much and how long it takes to get trained up.

A bit off topic, I know, but am hoping someone can ‘steer’ me in the right direction – sorry for that!!!

My in-laws are independent driving instructors and have been since forever (sometime in the ’60s I think). They say that in the last 5 or 6 years there has been a big increase in the number of driving instructors. A lot of them have come and gone but there are more now than ever.

When you are looking at the numbers, don’t forget to take into account the replacement cost of the car, plus servicing and petrol etc. There was a while round here when the cost of lessons from some instructors was so low that they either weren’t paying themselves or weren’t putting money away to cover a new car.

I don’t know much about the qualifications required, but I do know they have gone a bit overkill with what they have.

Being a calm person seems to help. You will also spend a lot of time listening to people talk about everything.

chunkymonkey,
I’m a qualified ADI. email is in profile. I’m happy to speak on the phone if you want a chat.
Rich

glupton, if I recall, was once a driving instructor – and since his own career crossroads is now a physioterrorist!

A lot will depend on what the demand for lessons is in the area along with the number of instructors. Have a look at the ‘Find an instructor’ section on the DSA website. Within an 8 miles radius of my home there was over 40 instructors registered. Admittedly, I knew some of those had retired or moved on to another career. I worked as a driving instructor for 10 years and made a decent living at it. I started with a local instructor on a trainee licence and then went on my own. The industry didn’t escape the recession either as pupils or their parents became unemployed, therefore could not afford lessons. My area became saturated with instructors, some of whom were made unemployed and/or decided to re-train and were lured by the adverts which claimed 30k per year could be earned. What these companies don’t tell you is the costs you will incur such as buying or leasing the vehicle and also the associated costs such as fuel.

Don’t let me put you off but be prepared for long hours (if you get the pupils in the first place), pupils not giving you notice that they can’t make their lesson or having parents tell you their kid should be test standard after 6 lessons. Would I return to the industry? Not a chance but that is due to my personal circumstances changing.

Was an instructor for a while until the recession first started 7-8 years. Worked 6 & 1/2 days a week for less money than I got when I swapped to driving a bus for a living 5 days a week after free training by the company. Am now happily working 3 days a week until I fully retire in another 20 years or so.

Would I go back to being an ADI? Never in a million years. Loved the actual teaching, hated all the shit mentioned above that went with it.

Don’t do it. There’s no money in it, and the security of income is even worse.

…if you like working evenings (when people aren’t at school/work and can have lessons) and not working around Christmas/New Year (when people can’t afford lessons), so not the best in a family situation, plus as above…

Become a gutter hooverer! I’ve just paid £45 (min charge) to have the gutters on the house hoovered. Took about 20 mins. Bloke was saying how much work he had on. He was chased down the street by other residents trying to sign him up. The future’s gutters!

I last met one Delivering for Pizza Hut as that was proving more profitable.

I reckon it cost me about £4,000 to get through training, qualify and get on the road.

The test are in 3 parts, first is theory then a driving test and finally a teaching test.

Personally I’ve done really well out of it. I’ve been lucky to get a plentiful student supply and constant referrals. At the start of the year I had 42 students which is way too much to keep sane. The hours are crap, when I had 42 at the start of the year I was working 11 and 12 hour days during the week and 6 hours on a Saturday. I’ve now cut it down to 30 students due to the others passing as having too many was making me ill through not eating proper and just flying between students.

I know you mentioned not going BSM / Dread ( sorry Red ) but bear in mind cost of car, fuel etc. average cost of leasing a dual controlled car is around £320 per month, I spend about £70 a week on fuel so £150 at least before you make a profit. So at £20 per hour, that’s a days work ( 8 hours ) basically working for nothing.

Insurance is no more than normal. I pay about £500 per year.

After the day I’ve had with students today I would walk away now. But, like any job it’s bad days and good days. At this point I’m after a change so I’m thinking of branching out into cycle instruction as well. I will always be a driving instructor but may not always do it full time.

I echo what everyone else says but don’t forget the amount of adults who don’t know left from right is scary…….and I’m being serious on that.

The other thing about the tests to become an instructor is that for parts two and three you only get three attempts at them in a given period (either two or three years). The test of driving ability has a reasonable pass rate (~50%), but it is pretty difficult and you need to drive to a high standard. The test of instruction ability has a very low pass rate (something in the 20% area allegedly).

With one student today I was working on looking ahead and planning. I took her on a route that’s a bit tricky to see how she did.

Now this girl is hard work at the best of times but she excelled herself with this one.

We were coming down a road which bends right into a one way system. There is no other way to go with massive no entry signs directly in front and newly painted road markings bending right.

Me :- OK look ahead tell me what them signs mean.
Student :- erm, you can’t go down there ( I wanted her to say no entry but that will do….)
Me :- good, look at the road markings, which way is the road going ?
Student :- left ( points right )
Me :- OK so you mean right, just where the car in front is going
Student :- yeah
Me :- good so follow the road around just like the car in front has done

Student – heads straight into the no entry road
Me – slams duals on

That one left me flabbergasted as she had told me exactly what she was going to do then did the complete opposite.