Become a driving instructor?

[pstruck]

I keep seeing ads in newspapers and magazines saying 'Become a driving instructor - Earn up to £30k, etc' What's the deal?

How long does it take to train? How much do you really earn? What's best - on your own, or franchise with a big player?

Anyone on here done this?

[rsvmilly]

My sister does it. She trained with BSM and got some experience with them then went it alone. Best thing she ever did.

£30K is easily possible with your own business. The work is definitely out there. It is a case of how long do you want to work.

BSM used to charge their franchisees £300 a week for which they would produce all leads and replace the car every 6 months.

You need to get your;

Part 1 - Involved Theory and harard perception test
Part 2 - Advanced driving test
Part 3 - The hardest; testing on ability to teach, with the examiner role-playing various levels of pupil.

You have three attempts at each test. If you fail three times you must wait 2 years to retry.

A friend of mine has just failed his second attempt at his Part 3 so he is a bit tense.

>> Edited by rsvmilly on Thursday 1st December 12:49

[tvrbob]

Don't fall for the £30k line, it's theoretically possible but you'd be working 80hrs/week. Training is by no means a guarantee of passing. The stage tests are not easy and even if you do this through a training program they will only pay for your first test. It's a job that pays a living wage, you will need to be prepared to work for a couple of years on less than minimum wage (training), the working hours are mostly evenings and weekends. Once through the second stage you can start to earn money but it will be minimal money.

[pstruck]

tvrbob said:

Don't fall for the £30k line, it's theoretically possible but you'd be working 80hrs/week. Training is by no means a guarantee of passing. The stage tests are not easy and even if you do this through a training program they will only pay for your first test. It's a job that pays a living wage, you will need to be prepared to work for a couple of years on less than minimum wage (training), the working hours are mostly evenings and weekends. Once through the second stage you can start to earn money but it will be minimal money.

Not so good then. Just intrigued by all the ads really - oh, and links vaguely with my 'Early mid-life crisis' thread in P&P.

[rsvmilly]

tvrbob said:

Don't fall for the £30k line, it's theoretically possible but you'd be working 80hrs/week. Training is by no means a guarantee of passing. The stage tests are not easy and even if you do this through a training program they will only pay for your first test. It's a job that pays a living wage, you will need to be prepared to work for a couple of years on less than minimum wage (training), the working hours are mostly evenings and weekends. Once through the second stage you can start to earn money but it will be minimal money.

My sister does £30K and works five and a half days a week. Her partner needed to save up some money and was doing long, six day weeks and he was doing closer to £40K.

Typical price per hour is £20 and a 40 hour week gives you an income of £800/week, which equates to around £40K before expenses. Take of £10K for petrol, car running costs and depreciation and £30K is not unrealistic.

If you work for BSM then you'll never earn much but you will gain experience.

And there is no reason you can't do the whole of your training independently, whilst you carry on your day job. All you need to find is an instructor of instructors. You can then hire them by the hour.

[tiga84]

I wont go into it too much, but I started with a certain company that were pure and simply the pits. I lost a huge amount of money, I didn't get half as much training as is needed, never in the location or time that I originally promised, and was basically laughed at.

Its harder than you think, Part 1 is a piece of cake, just a longer theory/hazard perception, part 2 is Test of Driving ability, longer more stringent Road Test (I always thought that his is how tough the actual driving test should be) then the teaching part 3, then you're away, but this could take a lot longer than you think. Think of 12-18 months for completion, realistically.

All I would say is choose wisely, ask question to whether there are any deposits to pay once training has been completed for the car/franchise.

It left me high and dry for a while, I regret not having become one, because I would love to do it, but I cannot bring myself to do it now.

I won't mention the company I trained with, but they are simply appalling, went bust, then re-opened again, no refunds.

Just be careful, go for a well known one, oh and don't get a yellow mini, I've never liked that colour on them as instructor cars.

[rsvmilly]

tiga84 said:

I won't mention the company I trained with, but they are simply appalling, went bust, then re-opened again, no refunds. Just be careful, go for a well known one, oh and don't get a yellow mini, I've never liked that colour on them as instructor cars.

My sister has taught in Minis since their release and a well known company who advertise a lot (and I think their advert has a yellow Mini!) tried poaching her customers. They even called my sister looking for work.

My sisters first Mini was yellow, incidentally. She's now on her fourth (blue)

[Mr Whippy]

£30k tops for long days in all weather with all kinds of spanners of drivers year in year out.

Hmmmm... no thanks. Make it £40k earnings and you'd be getting there.


On a side note, my driving instructor who taught all my family except my dad, has recently decided to give up. He did long weeks and worked his arse off, but enjoyed it. Got fed up now. The test centres act like arseholes now apparently, probably not their own doing, but being driven by targets now alters things a bit.
Then he mentioned road attitude has dropped to an all time low. He says it's harder than ever to teach people when everyone on the road seems to have zero patience or courtesy anymore.

Kinda sums it up at the moment by the sounds of it.

Dave

[tiga84]

rsvmilly said:

tiga84 said: I won't mention the company I trained with, but they are simply appalling, went bust, then re-opened again, no refunds. Just be careful, go for a well known one, oh and don't get a yellow mini, I've never liked that colour on them as instructor cars. My sister has taught in Minis since their release and a well known company who advertise a lot (and I think their advert has a yellow Mini!) tried poaching her customers. They even called my sister looking for work. My sisters first Mini was yellow, incidentally. She's now on her fourth (blue)

sounds like the company in question.........

[Joe911]

rsvmilly said:

Typical price per hour is £20 and a 40 hour week gives you an income of £800/week, which equates to around £40K before expenses.

But surely you can't achieve an eight hour chargeable day as you need to move around and pick up the next appointment. So typically you're only working every other hour, no? So that means in a 10-hour day you get no more than 6 hours chargeable. Or am I way off base here?

[tiga84]

Joe911 said:

rsvmilly said: Typical price per hour is £20 and a 40 hour week gives you an income of £800/week, which equates to around £40K before expenses. But surely you can't achieve an eight hour chargeable day as you need to move around and pick up the next appointment. So typically you're only working every other hour, no? So that means in a 10-hour day you get no more than 6 hours chargeable. Or am I way off base here?

Nope pretty much on the money, but not so much movement between appointments, dependant on the size of your patch. A ten hour day may yield anything between 7.5-8.5 hours chargeable I reckoned. But you can do 7 days as well, such is the demand for instructors, which means you could drop to 6/7 hrs per day for the same net income, but with no life, friends etc.

[rsvmilly]

Joe911 said:

rsvmilly said: Typical price per hour is £20 and a 40 hour week gives you an income of £800/week, which equates to around £40K before expenses. But surely you can't achieve an eight hour chargeable day as you need to move around and pick up the next appointment. So typically you're only working every other hour, no? So that means in a 10-hour day you get no more than 6 hours chargeable. Or am I way off base here?

Just encourage people to do 1.5 hour lessons. One hour generally isn't enough for people to get back into the swing and two hours can be a bit much. It cuts on the wasted time, too. Sis starts around 8.00 and generally gets home no later than 6.00pm. Two or three hours on a Saturday morning. Typically, about 40 hours give or take a couple. She chooses these hours and she could do many more if she chose.

You're not going to become a millionaire doing it but you can earn a reasonable wage. Isn't the national average something like £25K, with only a small fraction of people actually achieving this; like 10-20%?

[Mr Whippy]

Is that ALL? 25k average?

Yikes, guess there are plenty of people in pretty poorly paid jobs.

Considering I just managed to get an "ok" house WITH my partner, how do all these other people get houses?

Perhaps if you can drive it is a good job then, probably quite rewarding too I guess!

Dave

[tvrbob]

rsvmilly said:

Typical price per hour is £20 and a 40 hour week gives you an income of £800/week, which equates to around £40K before expenses. Take of £10K for petrol, car running costs and depreciation and £30K is not unrealistic.

My wife was a driving instructor so I do have some insight here. You forget that there is no pay for the time spent getting to your student, minimum half hour for each lesson, going for fuel, etc. that's a big chunk of unpaid time. 40hrs say 20 2hr lessons, that's 10 hour out of your 40 per week that are actually unpaid. No holiday or bad weather pay. Loss of income if the car needs maintenance or repair. Where I live many of the independents are retirees on fat pensions. They advertise the first 10 lessons for £100. That wouldn't even cover my costs and how could I hope to get £20/hr in that market.

Do it by all means but do it with your eyes open.

[catso]

My Wife's Aunt is a driving instructor, self-employed she makes a living but not big money, I suppose if you work 80hrs + then you can do OK.

[falcemob]

You can do the sums for yourself. My daughter has just passed her test, she was ( well we were) paying £20 per hour for a lesson. The instructor was working 7 days a week but there is no way he was getting 8 lessons in a day. Out of his income he has to pay for his car plus a back up, insurance, petrol and repairs that aren't on the insurance. I don't think the earnings are that great.

[apprentice]

When including "costs" don't forget to weigh up the pyschological costs. Driving instructors are invariably subjected to numerous accidents in the course of their jobs.

[rsvmilly]

apprentice said:

Driving instructors are invariably subjected to numerous accidents in the course of their jobs.

Most of them the fault of mini cab drivers, in my sister's experience.

[rsvmilly]

Mr Whippy said:

Is that ALL? 25k average? Yikes, guess there are plenty of people in pretty poorly paid jobs. Considering I just managed to get an "ok" house WITH my partner, how do all these other people get houses? Perhaps if you can drive it is a good job then, probably quite rewarding too I guess! Dave

I'm ashamed to say this link is fron the Guardian website [hangs head in shame]

http://money.guardian.co.uk/pay/story/0,13871,141586

[russellwatson17]

apprentice said:

When including "costs" don't forget to weigh up the pyschological costs. Driving instructors are invariably subjected to numerous accidents in the course of their jobs.

I would doubt that many accidents happen when teaching people to drive. I suppose there would be the odd bump while manuvering or kerbed wheel but i assume most people crash after they have passed their test.