Confessions of a Driving Instructor

After my recent blog post about how well the Living Social special offer was going, today I saw the other side of the offer.

Today I had two new starters, both on the Living Social offer. The first informed me during the lesson that he would only be having the cheap 3 hours, as he is going back to University in Scotland at the end of the week! Hopefully, he will return to me for lessons when he comes back home during the summer break.

The second waited until the end of the lesson to tell me he has managed to get a special rate of £16 per hour with a BSM instructor, so he also will only be doing the cheap hours. I was so shocked that it only occurred to me on the way home that I should have asked this pupil how many hours the BSM instructor thought he would take – given BSM’s notoriously high franchise costs (which work out at about £11 per hour, on a 30 hour week), plus fuel, this instructor will only be making £2 or £3 per hour – he might as well sign-on for that rate!

So in all, today I earned just over £26 for 4 hours work, without taking into account my costs (franchise, car leased, insurance and fuel) – this will probably end up being a negative figure (meaning I make a loss today,  rather than earning an income), so I’m scared to work it out!

Last night was the monthly Zodiac driving instructor’s meeting. This is a regular event each month where the driving instructors franchised with Zodiac Driver Training get together to discuss our businesses, the industry in general and any concerns we may have.

At this month’s meeting, we discussed (amongst other things) what is important to the growth of our businesses. The following is a selection of the ideas we came up with:

• Always deliver good customer service, including:
  - Keep good, up-to-date progress records
  - Book practical tests for your pupils
  - Always be on time (but never arrive too early) for lessons – and text/ring if you will be late
  - Respond to pupils’ texts/voicemail/e-mail messages promptly
  - On the first lesson book the future lessons through to test
• Use local advertising, such as:
  - Get your business cards into local shops
  - Do a letterbox drop
  - Tell everyone you meet you are an instructor – you never know who may be looking for lessons!
• When you are in your car, you are advertising your business:
  - Keep the car clean inside and out
  - Be clean and tidy yourself
  - Always drive to the best of your ability – a prospective pupil may be watching!

Now, I’m not saying that these ideas are a “magic bullet” that will instantly fill an empty diary, but they are a good start

Let me know if you have an other ideas!

Today was Mykhailo’s first attempt at the practical test. Mykhailo comes from Lithuania, and as he already has a licence from that country, I merely had to bring his driving up to UK standards before taking the test. To his credit, whenever I identified a fault with his driving, Mykhailo was quick to correct his driving style or technique.

Mykhailo was very pleased when the examiner gave him the good news that he had passed, with 6 driving faults. One of these faults was with the “Show Me, Tell Me” questions regarding vehicle safety and maintenance, when Mykhailo did not understand the question about de-misting the windows – I believe this was just a translation issue, as Mykhailo knew the answer when I explained the question to him in more detail.

Mykhailo started with me following a special offer Zodiac ran for one day on the Living Social website. This offer was “3 hours for £20″, and was meant for new starters only (those without any previous driving lessons). Unfortunately, Mykhailo was not entitled to the offer for this reason, but he still took lessons with me to get him to test standard.

Many driving instructors dislike the Living Social website and their like (Groupon and Wowcher being two examples). They feel the offers devalue the instructing profession, as the public then believes that all lessons should be at this price. The adverts clearly state what the standard lesson price is, so the public realise what a good deal they are getting. Over the course of 40 or so hours, the “loss” of £52 (£20 instead of £72 for 3 hours) for this special offer is nothing against the £1000 you could possibly earn from each pupil.

The advert was run in November, and over 270 deals were purchased. Prior to Christmas, less than 40 of those purchases had been redeemed, showing that the majority were brought for Christmas presents. In the last week I have had 4 new starters from Zodiac, 2 of which were using this deal. Hopefully, January will continue getting busier as more of these deals are redeemed!

Test results for January: 1 from 1 (100%)

Today the DSA announced a new way of booking tests:

A new online booking service for business customers

DSA has been working with a number of trainer bookers and approved driving instructors (ADIs) to develop a new online booking service for businesses – this is due to go live towards the end of 2012.

This new service will make the booking and management of practical tests much easier for ADIs as it will be more flexible and efficient than the current trainer booking process. Below are details of why and how DSA is introducing this, along with the benefits:

Why is DSA introducing this new service?

To make all DSA transactions available to use online as part of channel shift towards digital methods of contact. Feedback received from business customers had made it clear that DSA’s booking services needed to be available online and be more flexible and user-friendly.

How is DSA introducing this new service?

DSA has used extensive feedback from approved driving instructors (ADIs), and motorcycle and vocational trainers to help design the service which will be launched in two stages, towards the end of 2012. The first launch will be for trainer bookers (who can make multiple bookings for unnamed and named candidates). The second launch will be for other business customers, including ADIs and trainee licence holders.

Benefits of the online business service

• available to use daily between 6.00 am and midnight
• view all DSA test and motorcycle manoeuvre area (MMA) slot availability without having to enter candidate details
• set up favourite test centres and automatically check for availability at these
• update business details online
• view and download business schedules; this will include financial details
• receive notifications of test slot cancellations
• secure method of booking and paying for tests
• make and manage multiple named bookings
• add or remove instructors – ADIs only
• add or amend instructors availability – ADIs only

For information on trainer booking, visit businesslink.gov.uk/trainerbook

I have highlighted the benefits I am personally looking forward to. It is currently a real pain to find out how long the waiting times at the local Test Centres are – you need the details of a pupil that has passed their Theory Test, but not yet applied for their Practical Test to be able to view current availability. Looking at the above announcement, these details will no longer be needed, making things a lot more simple.

As with everything to do with Government agencies, there is a downside to this announcement – it is not being released to the public until the end of next year. At least it is a step in the right direction.

Today was the first lesson with ‘A’, a recommendation from Lauren in Henfield. It is always nice when someone has recommended you, as it feels as if you have already “proven” yourself to their friend.

Before today’s lesson I spoke with ‘A’s father, who asked if I would be able to start or end future lessons at ‘A’s college in Horsham. Horsham is normally out of my area, as it is about at 45-60 minute journey from home, but as ‘A’ lives only 20 minutes away from college, I didn’t think it would pose too much of a problem. ‘A’s father seemed quite keen for us to start, based upon the glowing recommendation from Lauren

I knew something was up when ‘A’ met me with a satchel bag and some folders. “Can we end the lesson today at college?” ‘A’ asked after the introductions. I wasn’t expecting this so soon! I agreed to this, but advised ‘A’ the lesson would have to finish 25 minutes early, as the travelling time to college would have to be included in her 2 hour lesson time. As this would be her first lesson, I thought a journey along National Speed Limit country roads might be pushing her a bit!

After the usual Cockpit Drill and Controls lesson, we started Moving Off and Stopping. ‘A’ picked this up very quickly, and it transpired that she had done a course at the Top Gear off-road track, which explains her good clutch control. At this point I usually start introducing the idea of the number of hours needed to get to test standard (between 40 and 50, according to the DSA), and then plan the number of lessons per week to suit. “Oh, don’t worry about that” said ‘A’. “I’m probably only going to have this lesson with you, as the instructor I want doesn’t have any free time at the moment!” WHAT!?!? I have just driven to the edge of my “territory”, and agreed to go another 20 minutes further away to take you to college, all for a single lesson, with no real hope of any more?

I finished the lesson early as promised, then we swapped seats and I drove her to college. Whilst chatting on the drive there, ‘A’ remarked that usually her bus trip takes an hour, so this (only taking 25 minutes) was a bonus! In other words, her parents just paid me £46 to be a taxi for 2 hours!

To say I was not impressed is a slight understatement! To top it all, I then had to drive almost all the way home to get to my next lesson (a journey which I was not paid for), adding insult to injury. Grrr!

This blog is as much about the process of becoming an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI), as it is about being an ADI. I have decided to publish some statistics from my recent time as an ADI, which will (hopefully) help you to decide if this is the profession for you.

It has now been 18 months since I left BSM and joined Zodiac Driver Training, and during this time I have kept records of all of my pupils, such as lessons taken, payments received, tests taken, etc. This is something BSM does for it’s instructors, as part of BSM’s “customer service” role. As I am now doing this myself, I can get a lot more information from this data, which is quite useful.

From the end of May 2010 (when I joined Zodiac) until today (18 months later), I did just over 1430 hours of lessons, which averages out to almost 19 hours a week. Ok, not most people’s idea of full-time employment, but, in case you hadn’t noticed, we are in a bit of a recession at the moment, so I don’t think it’s too bad. It is quite a bit less than when I was with BSM, but then my outgoings are about half what they were, so it all evens out in the end.

In that same time period, I have covered just under 31,000 miles in this car, which works out at about 22 miles per hour of lesson. Not forgetting the 6 week period I was using a hire car, I think that would bring the actual mileage up to about 23 per hour. Obviously, this includes traveling to and from each pupil, but it does show that most of my lessons are spent “on the move”, not sitting by the roadside chatting.

Also since joining Zodiac, I have been supplied with 35 pupils by Zodiac, and I have gained 37 pupils by referrals and advertising. Those pupils have completed 43 driving tests, with 28 being successful (a 65% pass rate). This rate is gradually on the rise (year-on-year), showing I must be doing something right!

Now, I am by no means the busiest ADI that I know of (and if you believe the test centre chatter, we’re all doing 60 hour weeks with 3 month waiting lists of pupils ), but also I am not the most quiet – I know of a number of ADI’s who have had to give the profession up due to lack of work. I hope these figures show that the great earnings of “£30,000″ advertised by some schools on the TV over recent years are a little unrealistic, given the current financial climate and level of competition within the industry.

Don’t believe all the hype!

Today I have been contacting some of the pupils that have “gone quiet” – those I haven’t seen for a little while, because of work, finances or other commitments.

One of my pupils (Purdy) replied that because I did not reply to one of her text messages (which I didn’t receive), she has now moved to a different driving school Our last lesson was about 4 weeks ago, where she told me that she had lost her bank card, so was unable to pay for the next lesson – she would contact me to book the next lesson once her card was sorted. I would have been quite happy for her next lesson to be “on credit”, as she has had quite a few hours with me, and always paid in advance.

This has led me to think that maybe I should have contacted Purdy after a week or so, to chase her up. But how soon is too soon, and how often too often? I certainly think that 4 weeks is too long (as shown by the loss of this pupil), but I don’t want to appear to be stalking my pupils either!

What is it with caravan owners?

On the way home from my lesson today, I was following a caravan along a country road. We arrived at a roundabout, with the caravan on the left and me on the right (as I was turning right off the roundabout). Just as the caravan was about to leave the roundabout, it stopped, completely blocking the roundabout for the following drivers! As I drove passed the car, the driver was looking at the road signs and a map, obviously lost but completely oblivious to the carnage behind him!

Not 5 minutes later, I was traveling along a National Speed Limit dual carriageway, when the vehicles in front of me and in the right lane all started to brake heavily. As they moved into the left lane, I could see the cause of the jam – a caravan in the right lane, broken down (or the car towing it was!). The driver had put his hazard lights on (good), but the caravan’s indicators were not working (bad), then to top it all the driver and his wife were standing in the right lane, between the approaching traffic and their stricken vehicle, chatting on their mobile (very bad)! What would have happened to them if an approaching driver failed to stop in time?

It must be something to do with the hot weather – on the way to the lesson this morning I followed a Volvo doing no more than 10 – 15 along a country road. The reason for this dangerously slow speed? There was a cyclist in front of the Volvo, and because of double solid white lines down the middle of the road, the driver refused to overtake! There were a number of clear straights where he could have overtaken safely, but he waited until the solid white lines became broken lines, then sped off at over the speed limit! This just goes to show that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

Rant over – time to enjoy the sunshine

One of my pupils recently asked me who I would recommend for car insurance, as he wanted some private practice in his girlfriend’s car. Paying for a year’s worth of insurance just for a couple of months of practice is not very appealing!

After doing some searching around, I found Collingwood Learner Driver Insurance, who offer temporary insurance policies for learners, for between 7 and 84 days. This seems like a great idea, as it allows a learner to practice in a car without endangering the owner’s No Claims Discount (as would happen if the learner was added to an existing policy).

Unfortunately, by the time I got back to my pupil who asked the original question, he had already arranged insurance through his girlfriend’s insurers.

Note: Just for clarity, the link above (and in the advert on the right ->) uses an affiliation link, which pays me some money for each referral, but also gives you a discount on the policy – everyone wins!

I seem to be having real problems with mirrors at the moment! After the debacle with the exterior mirror being knocked off, my interior mirrors are now coming out in sympathy.

All driving instructors use at least one additional internal mirror, for looking out of the rear of the car. I have another mirror, which I use for checking where the pupil is looking (without having to turn my head). Both of the mirrors I use are held on by rubber suckers, with a rotating mechanism to “lock” them in place. During the winter months, this system works very well, but when the temperature rises (as it has over the last couple of weeks), the rubber dries out and loses it’s “stickyness” – resulting in a loud bang when the mirror hits the dashboard or floor!

I have tried all sorts of tricks to get the mirrors to stick, from licking the rubber (I wonder how many dodgy Google search results will find that phrase!), to cleaning the windscreen and rubber with glass cleaner before sticking them together. Nothing seems to work 100% effectively. I thought about using some sort of clear silicone to “glue” the mirrors on, but as I’m giving the car back in a couple of months, I didn’t want the hassle of removing the silicone so soon.

Any bright ideas on how to get these blighters to stick properly (without resorting to adhesives)?