Why Do Driving Instructors Need Business Skills

Posted on October 31st, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor, Driving Tips.

Why do you think it happens that a staggering 50 percent of newly qualified approved driving instructors quit within the first 18 months? In most cases, the reverse comes from disillusionment. After being lulled by the advertising industry into believing in a paradise-like future of being a driving instructor, they faced tough challenges and gave up. They were not bad driving instructors. What they were bad at was running their own business.

No Room to Swing a Cat

If you still think that you’ve made it when you stuck that green badge in your windscreen, it is time to start really worrying. The market is packed and it would take a good deal of business skills to rip it open and shove in. Despite advertising fellows telling you that a million of people learn to drive every year, there is still no room for a newly qualified ADI. Advertising does not necessarily misrepresent, but what these chaps don’t want you to know about is how many of your competitors are out there. And there are legions of them. It is estimated there are only 19 pupils per each driving instructor on the market. It goes without saying that luring in just one of those is not easy.

Think Like a Salesperson

To survive in this environment, you first have to think how good your business skills are. Being a driving instructor in most cases means self-employment. And self-employment is in many ways like running your own business. Look at your driving school. Are they sitting around waiting for would-be driving instructors to be pouring into their offices? Hardly so. They go out there and advertise like hell! Or look at a thriving baker’s shop. Their cakes must be the yummiest in the neighborhood, right? To make your “cakes” the best, you will need to take care of the following things.

Get yourself noticed. It all starts with advertising your services smartly. An advertising technique is largely depends on the audience you target. Basically, you customers are going to be young so make sure your advertising is both entertaining and informative. The best choice is to set up a website. It should be catchy. Boring website means you are a bore. Nothing can scary a young pupil away best than a boring teacher!

Be a Good Salesperson. Reaching your audience is not enough. You should be able to convert your audience into your customers. And this magic metamorphosis can be done by phone. Answer the calls effectively. That means you need a good answerphone message when you are not available. But as you pick up the phone, that’s when your salesperson skills come into play. If you don’t have any, start learning right away. If you can’t sell, you will have nobody to teach. Professional Excellence. Eventually, your best advertising is your teaching attitude and your personal pass rates. Your successful pupils may be your reliable references and they can become your word of mouth advertising. They tell a friend, their friend tells a friend and soon you will be teaching those 19 pupils. So it doesn’t matter how good you are as a driving instructor, if you don’t have any business sense, you’ll probably be struggling.

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Watch Out For Bogus Driving Instructors!

Posted on October 31st, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor.

There are certain driving instructors who can make money off driving instruction without investing in all the training and passing all the qualifying exams. Just like Mr. Ferris, of Newport, Gwent, who has been recently fined a £305 for giving illegal driving tuition to three learner drivers.

David Ferris, 50, was deceitful to three pupils that he was an Approved Driving Instructor as he charged them £17 per lesson. Ferris’ qualifications were doubted by Newport Driving Centre staff in November last year. As DSA’s Fraud and Integrity Team collected evidence, the bogus ADI received a warning to stop his illegal activity. Ferris said in response that he was helping his friends with driving training for free. Some time later, DSA received a complaint from one of Ferris’ “friends” and cracked down. The fraudster was arrested at his home on June 26, 2009. Mr. Ferris pleaded guilty for the offences and was fined a combined £305.

It goes without saying that taking lessons from illegal driving instructor may be dangerous and a waste of money. They never passed their qualifying exams and, thus, are unable to provide an adequate training to their pupils. In addition, bogus driving instructors are stealing customers from those who really deserve them.

Protecting yourself from the fraud is very easy. Be aware that any qualified driving instructor should display his coloured badge in the windscreen. Pink badge shows they are still under training and are entitled to provide driving tuition. Green badge indicates you are being trained by fully qualified person who is on the Register of Approved Driving Instructors. Make sure the person on the badge photo quite looks like your driving instructor!

Being an illegal driving instructor can bring about more severe penalties than just paying a £305 fine. One fraudster named Donald Johnson – who could have made a brilliant driving instructor – was sentenced to two years in jail for doing the same thing as David Ferris, but at greater scale and with more talent. In 2006, Mr. Johnson illegally taught 19 pupils, and 15 passed their tests first time! It is almost 80 percent with national average pass rate for pupils who take driving test first time being at only 46 percent.

If you have any suspicions toward your driving instructor, ask him to show you his badge or call DSA.

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Things to Know Before Embarking on Driving Instructor Career

Posted on October 26th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor.

We posted earlier about what it takes to become a driving instructor. If you are considering this career you surely have heard how adverts are touting the perspective of being a driving instructor. Be your own boss! Choose your working hours! Enjoy lots of cash in your pocket! Some adverts go as far as naming a driving instructor profession as recession proof…

Many of advantages to being a driving instructor are not necessarily just a sales pitch, but if you have made up your mind to take the plunge, make sure you do so with your eyes open. This post is a must read for those who are serious about embarking on driving instructor career. So here are four things you have to know about your future business.

1. Watch Your Expenses

Throughout your training process you will have to pay for a lot of things. First, you will need to buy all your training materials for theory test. The costs greatly vary depending on what you choose. Then, there is a £90 fee for the Part 1 test. Be aware, if you fail, this fee will be payable again to allow you a second attempt. As you move on to your driving training, your expenses surge with most trainers charging from £25 to £40 per hour. A total will depend on how much training you need. Here comes your Part 2 test and before taking it you will part company with £110 in a fee, payable again if you screw up your first attempt. Your expenses, however, don’t stop when you pass the Part 2. Now you can apply for your PDI licence, costing you about £140. To be fully trained for the Part 3 instructional test, you will have to find a reputable ADI trainer who may charge over £30 per hour. This is the hardest part of the whole training process and you will need a minimum of 60 hours. And again you will be charged a £110 fee for each attempt at Part 3 test. Fresh off your successful ADI exams, you will have to apply to join the register as an ADI and obtain your ADI licence. This will add another £300 on your expenses list.

2. Rigors of Being Self-employed

Be your own boss! Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, if you can do without your job security and steady income, it does. Compared to employees, the self-employed have no guarantees whatsoever whether they can make money on their own. Your income will entirely depend on how many pupils you can steal from your competitors. Don’t forget being self-employed means dealing with your tax and insurance issues yourself.

3. Throat-cutting competition

Running your own business has never been easy. And with credit crunch gripping the economy, competition has turned into the battle of life. If somebody on the telly tells you there is a shortage of driving instructors and swelling crowd of learners, don’t jump at it. Here is more news for you. According to official statistics, as of 2 September this year, there are 45,371 approved driving instructors and 6,910 trainee licence holders. Some adverts say: “A million of people learn to drive every year”. And now let’s do a simple math. If there are 52,281 ADIs on the market, it makes roughly 19 pupils per each every year.

4. Passing Test Is Not Easy

And now comes the big news. Official data says less than 10 percent of those embarking on ADI training process actually become driving instructors. 50 percent of those quit within the first 18 months. Check below pass rates for ADI qualifying exams in 2006/2007:

The Part 1 Test:  49%

The Part 2 Test: 45%

Test of instructional ability (Part 3): 28%

We didn’t mean to scary you away, but a person who is considering a driving instructor career must know about the realities of his business before taking the plunge. There are no easy ways to earn money these days and being a driving instructor is not an exception.

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Learner Driver Theory Test Revamped

Posted on October 26th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor, Driving Schools, Driving Test.

Learning to Drive programme launched by Driving Standard Agency (DSA) is coming into its new phase with the introduction of changes to learner driver theory test. The Learning to Drive was planned as a long-term programme to overhaul learner driver test practices and regulations with the aim to strengthen the way drivers are trained and tested at driving schools.

From late September this year, learner drivers taking their theory test will face case study questions. As of now only one new question has been added in each theory exam for drivers, motorcyclists and moped riders. Instead of just choosing correct answer out of multiple-choice list, learner drivers will find a case study of driving episode. Candidates will judge by context and answer the case study question in the common way by choosing the right answer from a multiple-choice list using mouse or touch screen. Case studies are not something learners never heard about before as they are being extensively used in education.

DSA announced about the introduction of one new question based on existing multiple-choice questions so learner drivers could adapt to the concept. DSA officials, however, say they plan to include more case studies into exams in future. The reason for revamping the approach to the theory test was that case study can really put candidates into the context and show how well they understand what they have learnt during their theory training.

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What does it take to be an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI)?

Posted on October 15th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor.

Are you considering the career of driving instructor? Well, it’s a good choice because being a driving instructor generates a great deal of advantages. Once qualified, you can become self-employed and be your own boss, deciding on your working hours and making good money. Or you may want to consider the opportunity of becoming a franchised driving instructor. But before you can start learning how to drive, you first should get trained yourself.

Before looking for a driving instructor school, you will need essential requirements to apply successfully. First, you have to have held an unrestricted car driving licence for a minimum of four years. Second, your driving history during that period should be impeccable. And third, you should be ‘fit and proper person’ in the opinion of the DSA. In other words, this relates to convictions not spent under the ‘rehabilitation of offenders’ act.

The training consists of three parts: theory training, in-car driving training and instructional training. So you must pass three qualifying tests accordingly.

Part 1. Theory and Hazard Perception Tests

These are much like learner’s tests, but as a driving instructor you are going to be tested at a higher level. The theory test is 100 multiple choice questions with 90 minutes to complete them all. During Hazard Perception Test you will be shown 14 videos of developing hazards and you will need to demonstrate an adequate reaction.

Part 2. Driving Test

If you have chosen to teach others to drive, you should be brilliant at driving. No wonder the pass mark for driving instructors is greatly different from that of learner’s. Within the test, you must not have made more than six minor driving faults.

Part 3. Practical Test of Teaching Skills

This is the most challenging and the most important part of entire training process. You can be a great driver but it takes a whole new mix of skills to become a good teacher. So this test shows your instructional abilities. Supervising Examiner will role-play a leaner driver, doing it all wrong. You would need to display your core competencies as a driving instructor, identifying, analysing and rectifying the faults.

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No Driving Instructors In the Back Seat On L-Tests

Posted on October 15th, 2009 by admin, under Driving Instructor, Driving Test.

Driving Standards Agency (DSA) initiative to force an observer into the back seat of learner car during driving test has been reversed earlier in the week. That mandatory requirement was dropped, though candidates may still ask their driving instructor or a parent who learnt them to drive to be present in the car on their practical driving test.

DSA planned to revise driving test regulations last May when officials announced their intention to make it mandatory for the candidates to take an observer on-board during their practical test. The idea behind new rule was that an observer could be valuable during the learning process, which in turn would bring road safety benefits.

Driving Instructor Association (DIA) representatives and other stakeholders, however, saw it as the initiative could do exactly the opposite of what DSA officials were trying to achieve. The revamp of driving test regulations generated hot debates. There was even an E-petition from candidates to stop DSA from introducing the rule. The final round of debate was the meeting of DSA and DIA representatives late in September, just weeks before the rule was scheduled for introduction.

Finally, Transport Secretary Lord Adonis announced DSA put a hold on the revamp to avoid unnecessary regulation. But the choice whether to have observer sitting in during L-test still remains with candidates. In his statement, Adonis insists that having someone sitting in will enhance learning experience and, in turn, improve road safety.

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