Diesel_DC

iTrader: (7)

It's looking like I may have an opportunity to take redundancy at work soonish.

I fancy a complete change of direction and am considering training to become a driving instructor.

Has anyone done this or are instructors on SN?

Would welcome your views and is you enjoy it, does it pay reasonably well etc.

Also who to go with, RED advertise quite a lot, or do I go with BSM.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

It will cost you £3k!
I went with Red (previously 'Let's Drive). I passed the 100 question theory and then the driving assessment test first time, but the practical instruction test is very hard to get your head round. I failed the first two attempts and was then offered a job with an engineering company earning more than what I would have got from instructing.
Kind of regret not getting my ticket, but earnings are no where near what they advertise. I think £15-£20k a year tops after car rental and what not.

Only about 20% actually pass in the end, so think long and hard if you have £3k to flush down the toilet.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Didn't Red go into administration not too long ago? :wonder

bigsinky

by the CDs, apply for the exam yourself and provide your own car. RED are a pack of robbin barstewards.

corradoboy

I'm an instructor. Don't bother with any of the big schools, especially for the first parts.

The Pt.1 exam is just the theory/hazard test that all learners do but with more questions, so brush up on your Highway Code, check your knowledge with a practise DVD (especially how to 'play' the hazard clips) and get through that for less than a tenner.

Pt.2 is a driving test, but it last an hour and they are much more strict with you (only 6 minors allowed). Again, being up to date with the Highway Code will help, but also a read through 'DSA - Driving Essentials' will ensure you drive HOW THEY WANT YOU TO. No matter how good you think you are, they will down-mark you for perfectly good technique if it isn't what they like. I got 3 minors for using the 'box to control speed, instead of their mantra of 'gears to go,, brakes to slow'. They have changed their policy on this recently as someone at the DSA woke up to the fuel saving benefits to engine braking. I'd advise getting an ADI, or preferably an ORDIT registered trainer to observe you for a few hours before the test to ensure you're ready.

Once you've passed Pt.2 and completed 40 hours of training, and then you can apply for a trainee license which allows you to teach for money for up to 6 months (can be extended if you play a canny game ) to gain experience in the run up to your Pt.3 test. To get a PDI license you need to be sponsored by an ADI, so this is where cost comes into it. A local firm will offer you a franchise to sponsor you with one of their ADI's usually, and this firm will also provide you the 40 hours of training. You will earn money from learners they provide you with, but will pay for the franchise fee and any training. Franchise fees vary from as little as £35/wk (what I was paying) to near £400 for the big companies, although I think many have reviewed their pricing after falling numbers saw them struggle to attract enough provisional instructors. A good middle ground is Bill Plant. The last figure I heard for them was about £170/wk.

In Pt.3 the senior examiner will drive your car and pretend to be a learner of two different standards for 1/2 hour at a time. He will be looking for how you provide (correct) information, your observational techniques and control of the lesson. Your awareness of dangers and anticipation of not only other traffic, which you're used to, but also the unpredictable things learners often do (such as putting the right arm out to give a hand signal, then changing gear with the left leaving no hand on the wheel (sod did this to me on my Pt.3 ). Your score will be based purely on how well you notice errors and correct them (core competency).

If you pass (70% never do, only 6% first time (me ) then you will get a grade 4-6 (3 or less is a fail) and will be re-checked within 6 months (more like 18-24 really). Dependent on your grade in your first 'check-test' you will be re-checked within 2 years (4), within 4 years (5) or within 10 years (6).

http://www.approved-driving-instruct...instructor.php

http://ukdrive.net/trainingprices.html

Edit to ad....

The DSA also now impose compulsory CPD (continuous personal development) whereby you must do a number of extra training courses and show proof of this at your check-test. Failure to do so drops you a grade, so a 4 pass becomes a 3 fail. Things like IAM courses or First Aid etc

Spoon

As far back as advanced Police training goes the reason was always given that brakes cost far less to replace than a gearbox.

corradoboy

One final note, don't expect to earn a fortune, especially in the short term. With lesson prices around £20/hr you would need to do 20 hours just to meet one of the largest franchise fees, then you'd need to provide fuel, and you have what's left, less tax and any other expenses. You will also be dealing with the general public, who will think nothing of not showing up for a booking (instant f/off to any client doing this to me) or cancelling with varying degrees of notice. I insist on 24hrs for a cancellation or they pay for an hour. Get that money at the start of the next lesson, along with that lessons money or again, f/off. I always slip into early conversations that someone has messed me about, and how would they like it if their boss sent them home without pay with no warning or good reason to instil guilt of even considering doing it. Also be prepared for youngsters being still drunk in the morning (again, get the payment, then send them back to bed without driving the car). Get used to other drivers cutting you up, doing dangerous overtakes, beeping and rudely gesturing. They all seem to forget they too were once learners as they get all angry at being held up for 10-12 seconds Also, whatever car you get, don't have any emotional attachment to it whatsoever. It's gonna get abused, especially the clutch and gearbox. Oh, and the wheels (I removed the alloys and fitted steelies the day I got my current car).

corradoboy

I've never lunched a clutch or gearbox yet. If you can match engine speed to wheel speed during gear changes then then there is almost no mechanical wear whatsoever. I can change gear without clutch up or down with no crunching if I choose.

Spoon

I don't disagree with you. I'm merely stating what the reasoning behind the decision was back in the day.

stilover

I looked into doing this a few years ago. Was fed up with my current job.

Looked into the training part. Not a problem.
Looked into the earning part. Was a problem.

To earn as a drving instructor, what I earn in my present job, I worked out I'd have to work 7 days a weeks and have lessons all day, only allowing 20-30mins between lessons. And that's without holidays.

Wasn't for me in the end.

corradoboy

I do it as a second job to cover the missuse not working whilst our little'un is young, and as a safety net should redundancy loom its ugly head (again). Being independent now and thus having no franchise fee, what I earn is all mine, less fuel, phone, insurance, maintenance etc. I only do about 20 hours a week, bringing in about £400 gross. Self employed tax and accounting means combined with my other job I don't pay much tax on the instructor earnings (£172 this year) and the car and fuel (big expense to anyone) are deductible. If I went full time and did 12hr days which would allow 10hrs teaching, I could rack up £1k/wk gross on a 5 day week, providing no-one cancelled, which they do.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

60 hr working week was not for me!

pwhittle

I did it with BSM a few years ago. Hated it. Partly because they were beyond incompetant, and happy to rip customers off, and one of the instructors was actually quite a bully. I never took my part 3, as a job came up which paid the same but didn't require a 60 hour week. RED may be better, but you still have to bear in mind that you have to work when people want you - early morning, evening and weekends, and it's now hugely competitive - so much so that some locally are virtually giving lessons away.
BSM promise a 'job' at the end, but that's bollox. There may be a local franchise you get the privelage of paying the equivent of 16 hour's lessons for (so that's a bout 20 hours/week for no pay), but there may not be one either.

That said I'm sure many enjoy it. Never met an instructor who didn't smoke, interestingly.

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Local instructor to me has on the back of his car - "First lesson free", followed by "5 lessons for £60, including first free one".

Tends to suggest that he is confident he is a good instructor - first lesson free to prove that he is good. But £60 for 5 lessons does not seem like much to me

pwhittle

loads of local ones are doing that. some customers will flit around and just take the free / discounted lessons.
Once you add in the traveling time between lessons, which can be considerable, you'll looking at minimum wage.
Mind you, BSM let you work for them while you're training - though they don't tell the custoers that - and when I was going it 8 years ago, you earned about £5 / hr, out of which you paid for petrol, while they charged £20 / hr.
see why I don't like them?!

Now let it go....

Leslie

More than anything, you need a great deal of patience for that job.

Les

corradoboy

I don't smoke ! I drink a lot of coffee, but never smoked.

Intro offers are commonplace. Usually they are restricted to new-starters, so those whom flit from place to place should find themselves always being put through lesson 1 and onwards, making their cheating, conniving scam more costly than just settling with an instructor they like and paying what's due.

When I first started my ADI sponsor company weren't familiar with my area (Leeds) and had me rushing from one side to the other. When I complained he couldn't understand why I couldn't get from one side to the other in 15mins, but Leeds is about 20x bigger than Selby where the boss was based. I emailed him some Google map direction routes highlighting what he was asking and he realised it was unfair and adjusted how they fed me customers. Now I'm my own boss so I choose who and where I accept. I don't take messing about either, two cancellations close together and I warn them that the next will be cancelling ME, fully. Unless they're cute

Without knowing what I was going into I suppose I dropped lucky really. My franchise fee was fair and the company although small, was good and supported me through the early stages well. Now independent I'd say the hardest thing about the job is attracting clients. Referrals are good, but you can't just rely on clients friends as they can be limited in number. I really need to get my website up and running

hodgy0_2

and a set of auxiliary controls

Leslie

Yes I agree!

Les

David Lock

Don't learners now have to have a qualified instructor with them when they go for practice drives rather than go with mum or dad? That must have increased demand substantially or have I got this wrong?

All sounds a pretty hard slog to me. I know I couldn't do it as I hated being a passenger when my own kids took me out for a drive.

How times have changed. When I passed my test at 17 a mate asked me if I could be the passenger when he took out his dad's DB5 for a spin with L plates on the back

dl

StickyMicky

An old mate of mine had both his parents running their own business doing this, he said the only way you make good money is starting up on your own.

Its a bit like any franchise style agreement though.

I am looking to change my career at the moment, i am sick of the bull**** that comes with a franchise/self employed setup, it is easy to put up with the crap when the wages are good, but its not worth it when the wages are poor.

MMT WRX

This ^^^^

I was in exactly the same situation about 6 years ago. I got all the information from BSM and I couldn't make it stack up. It was difficult and long winded to get started, far too much competition and the numbers just don't add up. It's a fairly crap income for what's involved in my opinion.

corradoboy

Wrong, I'm sorry to say. It is one of the ideas that gets mooted about frequently, that provisional drivers must always be accompanied by a qualified instructor and in a dual control vehicle, but they never implement it. I wish they would, for obvious reasons You can still turn up for a test in any car, as long as it has 'L' plates, 2nd mirror, seatbelts and head restraints. There are a few cars on a 'banned' list, but they are few, and mainly down to poor rear visibility, lack of rear seats or known safety concerns.

tony de wonderful

I've heard the pay is absolutely crap. To be honest I'd rather drive a truck or a cab if I had to drive for a living. **** it I'd buy a few black cabs and pimp them out except for one which I would drive.

tony de wonderful

****ing with Learner drivers is a sport. I don't do anything illegal of course just like to fly by (if on a double lane rd) at WOT for the fun of it. My car is pretty loud on full tap.

corradoboy

Can't say I'd trouble many Scoobs, but quite a few cars get a shock from my learner car

StickyMicky

Not sure what a truckers wage is, but all the taxi drivers i serve at work dont seam to make much, apart from the utter bull****ters who claim they make millions. Plus they are usually self employed.

A bog standard bus drivers job around this way appears to get you about 16k plus overtime, which is easy enough money by the look of things, especially when somebody working in the Nissan factory building cars on a day shift, gets 17k

Leslie

What part of your make-up makes that fun to do. Are you trying to demonstrate your superiority in driving ability to them? Or do you just want to give them a fright?

Les

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

To be fair Les, it is good practice for the learners to deal with ******!

Leslie

Nicely put Sir!

Les