Enough Work for Driving Instructors?

I really don't know if there's enough work for all of us ADIs at the moment. The fact is - no-one else does either!

Oh the joy of it!

There are lots of posts on the forums at the moment:
http://www.drivertrainingtoday.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,32850.0.html
http://www.adiforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1217356506
http://www.adiforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1216972910

...and we can never get any agreement.

The fact is, if you expect to just be a driving instructor in this business, you're gonna come a cropper.

Being a franchisee is the nearest to having a job that you can get, but it's the kind of job where your boss can send you home with no pay whenever he likes! Have a look at the last link to see what happens when an instructor trusts to BSM or AA to find them work - it simply doesn't happen unless you do it yourself!

Going independent is not easy, but the fact is that you will be in control of your career. You will live or die (metaphorically I hope) by your business skills.

You will need to:

• Advertise effectively (websites usually work the best, shelling out £500 to Yell is possibly the worst)
• Answer the calls that come from the adverts effectively (you can't do this if you're out on a lesson, but a good answerphone message can help to get leads)
• Convert enquiries into sales (if you're not a natural sales person, employ someone who is, or find out how to do it without feeling like a nasty slimy creep)
• Ensure your customers are so impressed with you that they tell their friends (reminding them to sometimes helps, or offering incentives for them to can help!)

Once you've done all of these if you can't make it then you need to get out.

There are enough customers for all the ADIs and PDIs out there - unfortunately 95% of instructors are fighting for 35% of the customers.

Think about how you find people.

Find cheap ways to get noticed.

Make sure your service is second to none.

Driving Instructor CPD (and tangentially DIDU)

Yep, the subject is really getting people hot under the collar right now, which probably means that something is being done.

Unfortunately it's probably being done behind the scenes, unless you're a DIDU member apparently - they tell all their members what is happening, and have more meetings with the DSA than any other association or union........I pity the DSA!

To be serious for one minute though, I don't really understand why the other associations can't do the same thing and publish stuff - yeah, it would confuse the hell out of your average ADI and they'd get really riled up and shouty (have you seen the forums recently?) and then realise that actually it wasn't that bad after all. Please - give us more information - we want to be given the chance to be indignant!

It would be good to have the information published widely and not just in links to the DIDU forum guys - if you just say you are members of DIDU in your signature and publish the information openly on the non-affiliated forums - people might appreciate the openness, be impressed by the quality of the information and join up, but all the underhand sniping just makes the rest of us even more wary of you.

(Apologies to a couple of the very genuine members, who do give good and accurate information, but there's a few of your members who remind me of Citizen Smith - a lot of mouth, but with very little brain.)

Anyhoooooo! Back to CPD......

Should it be mandatory?

The one statement from the forums I really liked was one of the regular contributors (you know who you are!) who suggested that it would be terrible if it was made mandatory, leaving it voluntary allows those of us who do CPD regularly to differentiate ourselves from those who can't be bothered!

I know there are problems with the idea of whether "doing a course" will make any instructor better and because of this I don't just "do a course". I plan my future career - I dream about what I would love to be doing in 5 years and I pursue it. This nearly always means taking some form of structured training alongside hours of personal study and practise.

Many of the guys seem to feel that by studying alone they can progress and to an extent they're right. Many of the guys feel that by combining that study with peer review and discussion on the forums they can progress.

Again, to an extent they're right.

But could you really learn and understand a new language by studying books, tv programmes, dvds, the internet and by logging in to http://www.teachingyourselftospeakalanguagewhichyougetnochancetorealisticallyandpracticallyputintoeffectineverydaylife-forum.com/?

I don't like things being made mandatory, but the fact is that this isn't personal - this is an industry wide thing. With the wide angle specs on I can see that if sensitively implemented (that could be another post in itself, but recent info seems to be that the DSA may have learnt from the mistakes of the past) there is no doubt that the base standard will rise.

The fact is - practical training with people who have superior skills can have a massive effect on your progression - something that doesn't sink in even after months of personal study can become clear in an instant when you're with someone who really does understand what they're on about and who can communicate that clearly.

You would have thought that people doing our job would understand this.

'ees not worf it!!! leave it, ee's not worf it!

There's been fun on the forums this week (I've been lurking again), and people have been chucking their toys out of the pram.

Problem is, the guys who've left have been the good ones. Well I've got one question:

WHY THE F*CK DO WE ALWAYS GIVE IN TO THE W*NKERS!

There's a few people on forums who seem only to be there to make people feel like sh*t. Which kinda says a lot about how they feel about themselves, but it has meant that the forums have lost some great contributors.

STAND UP TO THEM.

There is no other sphere of life where we would let them get away with it, so stand tall, tell it like it is, take the flak, and wait for the weak and stupid to crack and get personal.

As soon as they get personal, the moderators and admin can get rid of them straight away.

Now I don't sign petitions, I don't chuck my views about in the forums, cos I know that they could easily be taken out of context - which is why they're here. But I do feel that there are 2 kinds of people in the world:
Nice people, sometimes mistaken, sometimes misunderstood, but always stood up for.
and W*nkers - who need standing up to.

Why can't driving instructors agree?!

There are a lot of arguments going on at the moment, just look at the forums - even dtt is becoming bitchy! For some reason people can't see the wood for the trees. All of the changes to the system (most of them as yet pretty badly laid out) are making ADIs twitchy. They are looking for someone to blame.

First off they start sniping at the people around them - other ADIs, usually with the traditional dividing lines of ADI vs Trainee (pinkies), independent vs franchise. Luckily these tend just to be personality clashes, and different ways of doing stuff.

Where it gets more worrying is when they team up against the DSA. This side of things is getting very heated at the moment, and if the DSA don't start picking up on this ill will soon then they will have problems. Problems which will most likely start at the test centre - stupid ADIs taking their frustration out on the guys at the coal face. I'm gonna go out on a limb now and say DON'T TAKE THINGS OUT ON THE EXAMINERS. Barring the odd pill*ck examiners are a fine bunch, and considering what they do I reckon there's a lot less bad apples than in most industries.

The DSA do have a few things to answer for - they are slow at getting information out to us (yes, the emails help guys, but what is happening with tests - are new guidelines being issued or what?). They are also not the greatest at asking for input, every now and again I hear about a survey being done, but I don't seem to get asked anything (maybe they've got me sussed and want to steer well clear!). The main problem though doesn't lie with the DSA.

It lies with the politicians above. And are we gonna be able to change that? Not a hope in hell!

So what is the solution? Well we need to start working together a bit more, instructors with instructors, independents with franchises, and most of all - ADIs with the DSA. If the DSA have to get something done, then it will be done, but if ADIs work WITH the DSA rather than against them, we might be able to shape it into something workable and useful to our ends.

If you ask any ADI worth their salt what they want to see happening, it will include safer roads. Ask the DSA, and you'll get the same answer.

Lets try and hang together on a few of these issues guys. I know - radical 'devils advocate' thinking there, but it might just work!