Some believe its a tricky job trying to find a good, flexible and professional driving instructor, unless you have a strong recommendation from say a family member who has used the same person for example. This article is here to give you some more information so you can make your own decisions, especially if you haven't got the influence of others to help you along the way. By the end of the article, you'll know what to look for, questions to ask your potential instructors and the many sales tricks to watch out for they try to pull off:
Price and lesson length:
The price is always the first question you should be asking, the average price for a one hour driving lesson around the UK at the moment is ranging between £19 and £25, some may be even cheaper in different parts of the country. If you are taking longer lessons (eg 90 minutes or 2 hours) or you are bulk booking lessons, you should be paying less than the hourly rate. When you are having longer lessins, they save driving instructors money - a 1 hour lesson has to include 20-30 minutes travelling time for which an instructor isn’t paid for the times spent travelling.
Driving Instrutor Qualification
All driving instructors in the UK must be on the Driving Standards Agency’s register, either as Trainee instructors (PDI) or as Approved Driving Instructors. So feel free to ask them as some illegal driving instructors won't be on either registers.
Fully qualified instructors should have a green badge in the window, which proves that they have passed the test of instructional ability to a competent standard - in plain english- they have proved that they can teach reasonably well. Trainee instructors (who have a pink badge in the window) may be good, and certainly their enthusiasm can often have a huge effect on your learning experience, but be aware that they have not been assessed on their teaching ability as yet, and may not pass this final exam. If they don’t pass this final exam within 6 months of starting to teach on the trainee licence they will have to stop teaching you. Again, in some cases, they may continue to teach you as a loophole, so feel free to ask questions, especially as you are paying them money for the service.
If you don't know an instructor is a trainee, there is no reason why you can't try them out - but DON'T’t pay full price. We could compare this to getting a website designed from a freelancer - there is no problem with it and it is likely to be reasonably good as they are trying their very best, but you shouldn’t be charged professional design studios charges for it. According to the figures, trainees have substantially lower pass rates than qualified (ADI & PDI) instructors.
Once qualified all instructors have to go through a grading process every few years. The grades are a reflection of how well they performed on a 1 hour check test lesson - usually a normal lesson which is conducted with a representative of our governing body (the DSA) observing it.
Do the research, try to find them from recommendations, speak to other people who have passed in your local area. Otherwise, talk to them on the phone before handing money over, find out about them, and see if you get on. Ask all the questions we suggested and If they offer a free lesson - take it up so you can find out whether you feel comfortable. Don’t pay hundreds of pounds up front to an office when you have never spoken to the instructor - this is a recipe for disaster. Even instructors with bigger companies will be happy to call you to discuss their qualifications and your needs.
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