To all the driving instructors our there...

I have a driving instructor friend who just packed in, it's ok saying your going to do 40 hour weeks but he was struggling to get work. Great instructor but the work just isn't there at the moment. If your not managing to do 40 hours you'll find youll be paying through the nose for the car, training etc.
 
There was a good thread in the Motor forum with a guy documenting his progress to becomming a driving instructor. It sounded very difficult so you may be worth checking it out.

I'll have to find the thread for it and have a look, maybe ask him a few question's maybe.
 
I can see the good things in this, falling back on it in future years perhaps, but as offices go, a small car you're not in control of must be one of the worst. It must be exhausting.
 
You will end up working very long hours to make ends meat, at first pass the idea looks ok, but once you factor in time working and costs, its simply not worth bothering with.

My friend owned his own driving school, he was working all the hours he could, the money was pathetic, costs high and you soon get bored with doing 30 - 40mph day after day, talking about the same BS to some braindead kid.

Better off being a taxi driver and running your own car.
 
Going rate is about £20 per hour lesson, therefore over 25 lessons you earn £500... Obvoiusly then some of the £20 per hour may need to go to the company or whatever...

Some will go to the parent company if you're part of a franchise or umbrella organisation, some to tax, lots to car expenses (including the cars themselves, expected maintenance, breakages, accidents, insurance and of course fuel). Some will be lost to missed appointments, some to deals and discounts, the list goes on.

Gross income is easy, net is the thing.
 
My dad is a driving instructor for BSM. He is really enjoying it, but as others have said it is an incredibly saturated job right now. BSM are one of the less saturated companies right now and my dad has to work 7 days a week to get anything close to a decent wage after the franchise fee. on the quieter weeks he will literally be working for nothing because he will only be making the franchise fee.


£1800 a month for sitting in a car for 25 hours a week

You have no idea how wrong that statement is. first, you are looking at ~40 hours a week to make that sort of money, especially if you take the time to travel to and from the pupils. Also, you are not just being chauffeured around during the lessons. You have to teach a pupil how to drive in a classroom that is moving at 40mph, you have to watch what the pupil is doing on all the controls and you have to be even more observant than you would be while driving since the pupil could do something wrong at any moment, resulting in a crash.

So yeah, if you think being a driving instructor is a simple job then go for it, and don't say I didn't warn you umboma. As with all teaching, its incredibly rewarding but very difficult

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I can give you a big discount on a new Clio with free dual controls if you decide to go down this route!

It's who you know ;).
 
My dad is a driving instructor for BSM. He is really enjoying it, but as others have said it is an incredibly saturated job right now. BSM are one of the less saturated companies right now and my dad has to work 7 days a week to get anything close to a decent wage after the franchise fee. on the quieter weeks he will literally be working for nothing because he will only be making the franchise fee.




You have no idea how wrong that statement is. first, you are looking at ~40 hours a week to make that sort of money, especially if you take the time to travel to and from the pupils. Also, you are not just being chauffeured around during the lessons. You have to teach a pupil how to drive in a classroom that is moving at 40mph, you have to watch what the pupil is doing on all the controls and you have to be even more observant than you would be while driving since the pupil could do something wrong at any moment, resulting in a crash.

So yeah, if you think being a driving instructor is a simple job then go for it, and don't say I didn't warn you umboma. As with all teaching, its incredibly rewarding but very difficult

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Sorry I didn't mean to sound disrespectful to the people that do this for a living, I'm under no illusion how hard this will be to pass let alone teach someone with the skill set that will last with them until death itself.

I guess all I want to know if this is a career worth pursuing if I can indeed make good money on it to sustain a mortgage/family the initial costs are quite high to get going so I need to offset that with how quickly I could start to make the money back.

Or as people said am I better of just becoming a Taxi driver and earn the same money for just driving myself..
 
It seems like good money being a driving instructor. I was block booking when I was learning with the AA so 1hr was around £24 and I did 2hrs a session. So just shy of £50 for 2hrs, I have no idea what the break down of that £50 was though between the AA and my instructor.
 
A friend of a friend became a driving instructor and decided that his niche would be to teach in an automatic. He hated it and said that his customers were all 1 of 2 cases:

  • Women that had tried a manual but couldn't drive and this was their final try before giving up
  • Women that didn't want to drive but had to because of work or kids so chose what seemed the easy route

now if anyone says that is sexist, blame the women that made it such, not me for mentioning it.
 
After talking to a representative he made it sound like it's a gold mine "kinda" he's saying potential earnings a week could easily be around the £450 mark after paying expenses IE car/fuel this got me thinking is he telling the truth or is this just salesman talk?.

How is that a gold mine :confused:
 
Sorry I didn't mean to sound disrespectful to the people that do this for a living, I'm under no illusion how hard this will be to pass let alone teach someone with the skill set that will last with them until death itself.

I guess all I want to know if this is a career worth pursuing if I can indeed make good money on it to sustain a mortgage/family the initial costs are quite high to get going so I need to offset that with how quickly I could start to make the money back.

Or as people said am I better of just becoming a Taxi driver and earn the same money for just driving myself..

Not a problem. My mum has been a teacher since before i was born and my dad has been driving instructing for several years, so i just get irritated by people saying that teaching is easy work. Also I was a bit grumpy yesterday so sorry for my harsh reply
 
My father in law was a driving instructor for 10 years but packed it in a year ago because of less pupils and competition in the area charging silly low rates, only £10 - £12 an hour. His most popular lessons were the intensive courses. These were around £800 and could be done in one or two weeks depending on the pupil. But by the time you take out fuel, insurances it's still not a great rate of pay. It's difficult to get competitive fiance on a driving instructor car as the deprecation is high so you will need to pay them off quickly.

While the attraction of working your own hours may seem good at first, the only way you are going to make money is working when other aren't, or most likely when they are not at school. So you might be able to get in an hour or two in the morning, many lessons are going to be from 4pm and weekends. Add driving in between, and a 30 hour working week (if you're lucky) could easily turn into 40 hours in the car.
 
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