Driving Instructor Life

With a lot of job redundancies being announced in the UK, I've been having a lot of people asking me if it is a good idea to become a driving instructor as it seems to pay a lot of money (so they think) and there are a lot of newspaper and TV adverts singing the praises of driving instruction as a good career choice.

In this article, I'll give my personal views and experience as a current DSA approved driving instructor.

Driving instruction is hard work! Contrary to what a lot of people think, being an instructor is very tough, demanding, and could also be stressful. You don't just sit in the passenger seat and give a few instructions, especially if your client is an absolute beginner! You have to explain the basics, give full step by step instructions on doing things like changing a gear, how to steer the car wheel and even to tell them to look where they are going.

Apart from the work that you actually do when in the car, there is other work that needs to be done.

You need to agresssively market your services in order to get enough students to fill your diary on a weekly basis. Some people might only have a 1 hr driving lesson once a week, others might even be less regular, and you have bills to pay.

The pay is not that great. If your main reason for wanting to become a driving instructor is to make a lot of money, then you've chosen the wrong career. While you can earn decent money being an instructor, money should not be your main motivation, as it takes time to earn good money after becoming a driving instructor.
You need to build up a reputation as well as a client base, and until you can pick and choose who you teach, you would have to set your prices based on what other local schools are charging, and maybe even lower to persuade people to try you.

It's not as flexible as you think. Many people think that they will be able to easily choose the hours that they work (especially if you read or watch the adverts), and therefore this motivates to try it out. Well not entirely true. If you want to survive as an instructor, particularly in the early startup days, then you will need to take as many hours as you can get, otherwise you won't break even not to talk of making a profit.

It costs a lot of money to become an instructor. The training costs a good sum of money, and there is not guarantee that you will qualify through the rigorus 3 part DSA examinations.

Your income is very unpredictable.

You do get a lot of job satisfaction. This is a good motivation for a lot of instructors, but will it be enough for you, considering the other factors mentioned.

It is a very risky business in the early years. Many driving schools fail in the first 2 years especially if it is the only source of income for the household, and it could easily eat into hard earned savings.

This is the reality of life as a driving instructor, so don't allow the fact that someone is charging £25 per hour of tuition fool you, out of that maybe only £10 is actual profit, and you need about 1.5 hrs to actually earn it since there is always travel time to and from a lesson.

Shola is a UK approved instructor based in London, from where he offers driving lessons to provisional licence holders.