I see that the Driving Instructor College (advertising under their driving school “Red”) are again peddling the £30k per annum figure for driving instructors on the television. Taking the figures at face value, they are not lying. They are, however, being somewhat economical with the truth.
If you work a 35 hour week at, say £20.00 per hour, then over 52 weeks, you will gross a little over £36k. Now take out holidays and factor in some time for sickness and you will come closer to that £30k figure. Then take out the franchise or car running costs – depending on whether you work for a school or trade as an independent. The franchise system is, perhaps, one of the most outrageous rip-offs to infest the driver training industry. Varying between a couple of hundred pounds a week to approximately double that, you see that gross of £30k diminish rapidly to between £15k to £20k. And that doesn’t include the cost of fuel.
All of this assumes that the schools do not flood the market with new instructors all chasing the same limited market. Oh, yes they do – despite assuring you that they do not. Bear in mind here that this is how they make their money; more instructors = more franchise payments. The amount of new pupils they recruit does not directly affect their income, it affects yours. My early experience with a large national school saw me working about 20 hours a week – just enough to clear my franchise. My more recent experience with their main rival demonstrated that nothing had changed in the intervening years that I had been out of the industry. The reasons that caused me to leave had not changed, unfortunately. Instructors were recruited and put on the road with next to no support. the argument being offered was; “this is your business, you market it.” That £200 per week was for the car, the logo and precious little else. No wonder I witnessed so many cancelling their franchises in a matter of a few weeks. Yes, some instructors can and do make a reasonable living with a franchise, but going independent will dramatically reduce your costs. When I left the major schools and set out on my own, I was paying per month for the car what I had been paying per week in franchise. You are, of course, more vulnerable – and you still have to do the marketing. It takes time to build a reputation and get those recommendations. Which is why most instructors start out with a franchise despite the disadvantages.
You can earn more if you are prepared to work the hours – presuming, of course, that you can get the work in the first place. But – and it’s a very big “but” that the sales person will likely as not, omit to mention, because they have no experience in training delivery – training is mentally taxing. 35 hours a week – or an eight hour training day is about the most you can reasonably expect to deliver and maintain quality. Can you reliably deliver the same quality training to your last client of the day that you delivered to the first? You need breaks to eat and rest. You need to get from one client to the next. An eight hour training day will equate to around twelve working hours. For example, I started at 08:00 and finished at 20:15 five days a week and finshed at 13:00 on a Saturday and I had a full book. You need days off. One a week at a pinch, two if you are sensible – so your maximum available hours in the week will be in the region of 35 – 40 hours, unless you cheat and piggy-back pupils or start excessively early and finish very late. All of which will eventually deprive your clients of the quality they are paying for.
So, bottom line; that £30k is realistically closer to £20k and it is hard work. If you really want to do this, then it brings its own rewards (despite the gloomy message here, I enjoyed my time as a driving instructor), but it is highly unlikely that you will see £30k, so go into it with your eyes open and your expectations realistic.
One final point; before you part with around £3k for your training, leave the big boys well alone. Certainly ask the school if they are ORDIT registered and if they are not, go elsewhere. If they prevaricate (as one national school will as they are not on the register although some of their instructors are) then take your custom elsewhere. ORDIT registration should be an absolute minimum standard for you to aim for with your prospective school. You are, after all, stumping up a considerable sum of money for your development. Whatever you decide, ask to speak to a qualified ADI before parting with any money. The larger schools have call centres with unqualified people selling a product that they do not fully understand, so insist that they put you in touch with a working ADI who can answer your questions.
And, finally, good luck.
Do you have any funny stories from that time?
jameshighams last blog post..[obama] in october, 2006, he was unsure
I expect if I dredge they old grey cells… I can dimly recall a few faces; and there was the lovely Indian lady who was a terrible driver, and insisted on giving me cold curries…
Then there was the pensioner who complained about the roads I took her along and told me that when she passed her test, she wouldn’t be going there as it was too difficult. Oh, and the doctor of hydro physics who had immense difficulty doing one thing with her hands and another with her feet. Steering at junctions was an interesting experience.
One of the bodies to which I belong, AIRSO (Association of Industrial Road Safety Officers) is very concerned about the long hours that some instructors work. Not only for the quality of tuition, but also for the safety of instructor and pupil.
The 40 hour week was surely settled during WW1 when the time and motion men (Productivity Engineers now, I expect) proved that the boss got more out of his staff by forcing them to go home after 8 hours than letting them work extended hours “for the war effort”. That was because they would come back the following day refreshed.
I planned my working week and stuck to it. 40 hours was my absolute maximum. I fell out with one driving school because I insisted on a break during the day and they wanted to book it right through. AIRSO are right to be concerned. If the franchise wasn’t such a heavy burden and the industry so over subscribed, instructors could earn a decent wage on 35 hours a week. Incidentally, when I use the term “quality” you can interchange it with “safety” – the two are intrinsically linked in this context.