ADI vs. PDI

For starters, any learner driver must know what the abbreviations above stand for. ADI is an Approved Driving Instructor. This qualification means a person has passed exams to be a professional driving instructor and is registered with the Driving Standards Agency (DSA). ADIs display their green licence (octagon) on the windscreen of their tuition vehicles. PDI stands for Potential Driving Instructors. They are licenced instructors under training who are allowed by the DSA to provide training for payment. PDIs must display their pink licence (triangle) on the windscreen of their tuition vehicles. You can understand the difference between “green and pink” for yourself. Obviously, ADIs charge more for driving lessons because they are more experienced.

How much?

The majority of learners start shopping for driving lessons with this question in mind. This approach actually turns your shopping into looking for the cheapest option. But if you want to find a good driving instructor, that option would not suit you at all. You should run away from two extremes – overpriced driving lessons and underpriced “special offers”. The national average for a driving lesson is currently around £17-£20. So make sure you shop around for the average.

Pass Guarantee

There is no such thing as pass guarantee. However, it is wise to ask your potential driving instructor about his or her driving test pass rate. Of course, you have no way of checking whether quoted pass rate is true. Yet, it is a good way of spotting a driving instructor who makes unreliable statements. The national driving test pass rate is 45.65%. So if your driving instructor is able to provide anything near this figure, you are in good hands.

What Is Your Grade?

Asking a driving instructor about his or her grade is one of the best ways to assess their competence. Every four years ADIs are graded by the DSA for the quality of driving tuition. Six point scale is used for assessment. Look for the following grades:

• grade 4 is competent
• grade 5 is good
• grade 6 is a very high standard

We’ve covered four basic things to consider while choosing a driving instructor. Although qualification, driving lesson cost, pass rate and instructor’s grade are all very important and relevant choice factors, personal feel is crucial. Your driving instructor can be a 6-grade ADI with the highest pass rate, but if you don’t seem to hit it off well, you probably need to try another one.

Finding an ADI is as easy as pie today. You can simply look into your local paper or surf the web. So you phone around until you think you’ve met a suitable fellow. Not the cheapest, mind you, because undervalued hourly rate will possibly mean a substandard service. Nice chat on the phone doesn’t necessarily mean the guy on the other end is as good at teaching as he is at selling.

The real testing comes during your lessons. Below are five main reasons why you should sack that nice guy before you lose your money and hope to pass your driving test successfully.

Quick Tempered

Is your ADI shouting at you? Is he losing his temper every time you make a minor mistake? If so, don’t be frustrated with yourself. You pay for being trained, and training includes making mistakes. Shouting teacher has never been a good one. You are not going to pay for being shouted at, aren’t you?

Not Enough Driving

How much driving is enough? Don’t expect you get under the wheel right away. At your first lessons, you are going to drive for about half of your lesson time. By approximately hour ten you should be driving all lesson long. If somehow you drive less than that, you are not getting value for your money.

No Feedback

Good ADI always keeps track of his learner’s progress. Getting feedback is crucial for learners so they can get an idea of how well they are doing and what are their weaknesses. It is also crucial for ADI because this helps him focus on a learner’s problems instead of simply completing lesson plans.

Mobile Phone Chatter

If your ADI keeps chatting on that mobile phone all the time, just run away. You are charged an hourly rate so his mobile phone use robs you out of time you pay for. In addition, it interrupts and interferes with learning process, let alone takes your attention off the road.

Taxi, Please

Once you drove your ADI to a shopping centre or a bank. But then you start getting this uncomfortable feeling your ADI is using driving lessons to go about his business. You are doing the driving all right, but as your teacher does his shopping, the paid time is ticking away.