Becoming a motorcycle instructor

Becoming a motorcycle instructor

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456GT

Original Poster:

301 posts

177 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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I am looking into becoming a motorcycle instructor and aiming to complete Cardington (CBT and DAS) this year. I will then look to open a school in the West Midlands area.

What are the experiences of those who are instructors and/or have their own schools?

I'm not locked into any path yet - all good and bad points are welcome!

andburg

7,213 posts

168 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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Mate did this.

Its going to be a big business if they start adding more congestion charges and ramping fuel prices up.
Make sure you can find an adequate pad to complete the off-road training on. Running your own school is the only real way to make money from it as any instructor being paid by a school seems to get paid peanuts around here at least and have to run their own bike.

Hes moved on from teaching and become an examiner as his bike and everything is paid for with guaranteed work, pension, holidays and a permanent contract. Weird bit is you have to be a car examiner before becoming a bike examiner so he had to do that.

Rubin215

3,985 posts

155 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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I would suggest you spend a bit of time doing the job for someone else before you jump in and set up your own firm.

Bear in mind, Cardington is only assessments, not training and is only there to make sure you are a proper person and reasonably safe.

I worked for about 10 years for a couple of different firms and was even paid by someone else to advise them how to set up their own school to run alongside their bike shop, but had absolutely no desire to set up my own firm.

Summer time is great; riding a bike all day in the sun, meeting new people, impressing everyone with your knowledge etc, however winter is absolutely horrendous; work almost dries up, most small schools struggle to stay in business and being on the bike all day in rain hail st and snow is no fun at all.

Bike schools are NOT a get rich quick scheme.

Bailey93

524 posts

105 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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At risk of putting a downer on things my instructor was in his 40s toured Europe and all sorts and used to love riding, now he drives unless he's teaching because he cant afford to bin it and injure himself and not be able to teach. He said he loves to teach but resents turning his beloved hobby into a job as he can no longer enjoy it.

I to had been considering going down the instructor route, but this definitely changed my mind

pozi

1,723 posts

186 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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I would say work somewhere as an instructor first before setting up on your own to give you an idea of how it works and if you actually like it or not. From my side back when I was instructing I lost count of the amount of people we took on to train as instructors only for them to suddenly vanish when it got wet and cold.

Other factors to consider:

- Land for CBT training (try local schools or councils who may allow you to rent their car parks on weekends)
- Storage and transport for bikes if they cannot be kept at a training ground. You also need to be able to collect a bike when a pupil crashes or simply gives up when out somewhere training.
- Source of bikes and spares, general servicing. Pupils will abuse them and throw them down the road (just in case I did not mention that already), a good stock of spares will get you so far but bent forks (or worse) is not a quick fix.
- Advertising, website design, somebody to field calls while you are training all day. Linked with the above get in with the local bike dealer.
- What happens if you are a ill? It is not just a simple case of canceling training because anyone doing A2 or above needs you to accompany them to the test centre.
- Insurance, get some quotes because you could be in for a shock.
- Getting registered by the DVLA is time consuming and you need to buy CBT certificate books up front, they will also want to send their inspectors round once you start running, some are fine, some are jobsworths who think they have a moral duty to make life as painful as possible.
- Plan your cashflow and work out how to pay all those upfront costs, as mentioned elsewhere winter is dead and the bills still need to be paid.
- Radios, get molded ear pieces for yourself, pupils can put up with standard stuff but you want to be comfy.

Instructing really is something you do it for the love of it because there is no pot of gold from running a training school. However it can be very rewarding and you will have some great stories down the pub of all the weird things you witness pupils do.


kurt535

3,559 posts

116 months

Friday 20th January 2017
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Seriously think long, and then longer before pulling the pin:

Fail Cardington twice and you're out on your ear (possibly a blessing). MIC'S are not regulated. There is some utter dross out there - I know, back in 2005 I paid up for one, failed, so wrote my own course and passed second time! I only know of 2 courses I would trust.

The 'money' was in CBT's. Give you a clue, mid 2000's they were charged at £125+. Now, I've seen low as £80 with you own bike. Average appears to be between £90-£100 using your bikes etc.

Oh yes, invite a 16 y/o back for further trg cos they are dangerous to themselves and the abuse you get from parents when you say it will cost is sickening in the end. Add to the slagging off and reputation the children then put round that so and so firm's instructors won't pass anyone - go to such and such firm, he only takes 2 hours and you always pass......

DAS was never a money maker and actually lost money if there was only a single student. The MOD 1 and MOD 2 exam process highly complicated matters.

Forget advanced training. Nobody has any interest whatsoever. RoSPA/IAM/DVSA scheme were a waste of effort and we let all our quals lapse.

You also have to be prepared to tie up a fair amount of money in forward booking tests and then chasing them when a learner fails and wants a retest i.e. do you sell them one you have bought already or hold them back for new business?

An online booking system alleviates a lot of the need to man the office all day - seriously high % of CBT bookings happen post 16:00hrs onwards. I know where you can buy a system :0

Maintenance is critical.The CBT bikes are critical to your revenue and they take a monster kicking.

Finally, new rules are due to impact CBT's. Bear in mind, our company turnover halved when MOD 1 and 2 came in, literally within a month. New CBT rules will reduce the pie significantly again.

Dealing with CBT Section Nottingham just increased my blood pressure every time I spoke to them. They offer no support to a school delivering the CBT/DAS properly. It was sickening some of the things i witnessed other schools do out on the road (4 x 125cc day 1 DAS - YES IT IS ILLEGAL) but which the DVSA would take no action against.

Fact is bike usage is becoming a bespoke hobby to 30 somethings with money. You cannot make a sustainable living from this one sector of biking.

Overall, I strongly advise don't do it. The market really has incredibly shrunk from a decade ago. As a guide, starting out, i bought 4 x 125's 4 x scooters 3 x 500's; bought 10 jackets/helmets/gloves from BMF tail end; Autocommed all instructors; i'd say investment was £20k before premises rent, etc. i'd rather set up a food truck if i was doing it right now!

If you want more help, feel free to PM me.