Saturday 6 September 2008

Lots of hits for Driving Instructor Earnings

I'm still getting lots of hits from the search engines for Driving Instructor Earnings, so I thought I'd offer you guys some links:

  1. Driving Instructor Earnings Calculator - though not entirely accurate, this is worth a look. If you think things through carefully you can actually get a reasonable impression of how hard you'll have to work. Bear in mind that for every 1 hour lesson you give, you'll need to work for around 1.5 hours, for every 2 hour lesson - 2.5 hours. Don't forget to look at the "after tax" bit!
  2. Becoming a Driving Instructor - The Truth Behind the TV Ads - A great article about whether it's worth becoming a driving instructor or not.
  3. So you want to be a driving instructor? - A real article by a real instructor. No, he's not a happy bunny.
  4. Instructor Training Colleges and Empty Promises - The infamous "Money for Cold Hope" article from the respected industry representatives - the Driving Instructors Association.
  5. Driving Instructor Pay - How much you could earn - the optimistic but realistic version.
  6. Driving Standards Agency Forum Thread - boy was this guy not happy when he posted.
  7. Driving Instructor Jobs - Advice from Career Scotland, with the very interesting fact that only 4% of ADIs have flexible hours. ("Work the hours to suit you" indeed. Please add "r customers" to that statement.)
  8. Money Saving Expert - An interesting thread from a non-ADI forum. Friends, relatives and Instructors tell their side of things.
  9. Becoming an ADI - the 2pass view, written by an ADI.
  10. Real driving lesson prices - what we see every day, just for when you are working out how much you'll earn based on £20/hour.
After reading those you should get a realistic idea of what you can expect. Good luck.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Driving Instructor Earnings Calculator - It's a while since I built this tool, the main purpose of which was to show the difference between turnover and pre-tax profit. The only mild inaccuracy in the default values is that relating to road fund licence (car tax), which I defaulted to £105.00 per year. In the scheme of things, I didn't think it worthwhile to alter this as it makes no great impact on the overall calculation.

You make a valid point concerning the hours worked, but as you can't really make a charge for travelling time, I included the cost in the miles per one hour lesson default value, which as I recall was 14 miles, and which should account for this cost.

Glad to see that this tool is still relevant and that it gets adi's/pdi's thinking about their businesses and about the disingenuous marketing tactics employed by some trainers in their TV ads.

Regards,

Stephen Jones
Display Tools Online (and Offline)
www.dtol.co.uk

The Undercover ADI said...

Thanks Stephen,

You're right about the tax, which I don't think is a big issue at all in the grand scheme of things.

I wanted to make the point that many people forget when they're working out how much they'll earn, working 40 hours is not simple 40 hours.

40 hours of "tuition" time - i.e: time earning, will actually equate to around 70 hours work every week, when you include travel, dead time between lessons and paperwork.

There is also an issue with cancellations - no-shows will increase your mileage per "paid" session, and cancellations will put big "dead" holes in your working day.

The only other warning I would give is that an average lesson price must take into account any 5 for £49 offers, first lessons free and the like.

Thanks for the comment - it's nice to see someone else as obsessive about their stats! Makes me feel almost normal.

Stephen Jones said...

Driving Instructor Earnings Calculator - this tool has moved within the dtol web site and as such it is no longer directly available from the link on this site.

Please now access the tool from the link on the dtol home page at www.dtol.co.uk

This allows searchers to be directed to an html page where they can click on relevant advertisements should they wish to, to help finance the dtol site.

The new link to the tool is on this page.

Regards,

Stephen Jones
Display Tools Online - dtol

The Undercover ADI said...

Thanks Stephen - the link in the post now directs to the new page.