Firstly, if you’ve contacted me about driving lessons and I’ve had to tell you that my availability doesn’t match yours, I’m genuinely sorry.
One of the frustrations of finding a really good driving instructor is that the best ones are often booked months in advance. I’ve developed a reputation for an exceptionally high pass rate and for getting pupils to test standard in fewer professional hours than many people expect. Consequently, there are times when I simply can’t accommodate everybody who wants to learn with me.
But I also appreciate that you may not be able to wait.
So rather than simply saying “Sorry, I’m fully booked”, I thought I’d offer something more useful.
I’m a driving instructor, but I’m also a parent. If I had to find somebody else to teach my own child to drive, these are the things I’d look for.
First, understand who is actually teaching you
There are two types of instructor who can legally charge you for driving lessons: an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI)and a Potential Driving Instructor (PDI).
An ADI is a fully qualified driving instructor and displays a green badge in their windscreen.
A PDI is a trainee and displays a pink badge.
To become an ADI, an instructor has to complete three stages. Part 1 tests theory and hazard perception. Part 2 assesses their own driving ability. Part 3 assesses something rather different – whether they can actually teach.
Under certain circumstances, somebody who has passed Parts 1 and 2 can obtain a trainee licence and charge for lessons while preparing for Part 3.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with learning with a trainee. Every driving instructor has to start somewhere – I was once a PDI myself. If you’re on a particularly tight budget and the price appropriately reflects their trainee status, it may even be an attractive option.
But understand what you’re buying.
A PDI hasn’t yet passed the final assessment demonstrating the instructional ability required to become a fully qualified ADI.
And Part 3 isn’t a formality. The latest figure I have seen puts the Part 3 pass rate at just 27.8% – the lowest since 2007.
I passed all three parts of my qualification first time and to a very high standard. Yet when I look back at myself as a trainee, I realise how little I knew compared with what I know today.
At the time, I thought I was pretty good.
Experience taught me otherwise.
Being able to drive isn’t the same as being able to teach
Driving instruction has increasingly become a business opportunity in its own right.
I regularly see recruitment adverts aimed at people in completely unrelated occupations. The message is often along the lines of: fed up working outside? Become a driving instructor and sit in an air-conditioned car. Tired of driving passengers around? Become a driving instructor and earn a more predictable income.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a gardener, taxi driver or anybody else changing career and becoming a driving instructor. Some will undoubtedly become exceptional instructors.
But there’s a much more important question that sometimes seems absent from the recruitment message:
Do you actually want to teach?
Can you communicate?
Can you remain patient?
Can you explain the same concept five different ways when somebody hasn’t understood the first four?
Can you recognise when somebody needs instruction, demonstration, coaching, encouragement – or simply for you to stop talking and allow them to work something out?
And when a nervous 17-year-old makes the same mistake for the sixth time, can you remain calm enough to work out why they’re doing it?
Driving instruction isn’t simply a convenient way of earning money while sitting in a car.
It’s a teaching profession.
That’s why, if your budget allows, I would generally choose an experienced, fully qualified ADI.
Choose the instructor, not the driving school
This is one of the most important pieces of advice I can give you.
Find out exactly who is going to teach you.
A large driving school might have an impressive website, thousands of reviews and a recognisable national brand. But none of those things will be sitting beside you in the car.
An individual instructor will.
Think back to school. You probably had teachers you loved and others you’d rather forget. They might have worked in exactly the same school and taught exactly the same subject, but your experience of being taught by them was completely different.
Driving instruction is no different.
So if somebody tells you:
“XYZ Driving School was brilliant.”
My next question would be:
“Who was your instructor?”
That’s the recommendation I’m interested in.
Ask whether you’ll actually get the instructor you’ve researched and whether you’ll have that same person consistently.
This is particularly important with my own business. People don’t choose Sevenoaks Driving Lessons because they want whoever happens to be available. They choose it because they want to work with me.
If you’ve read my reviews, looked at my results or received a recommendation from one of my former pupils, those things relate to my teaching.
If you book with me, you get me.
I’m not going to attract you using my reputation and then send a trainee to your house instead.
Personal recommendations are incredibly valuable
Google reviews are useful, particularly when somebody has accumulated a substantial number of detailed reviews over a long period.
But I’d also ask locally.
In Sevenoaks, for example, established parent networks and community groups can be an excellent source of recommendations. Ask specifically for instructors people have personally used, rather than simply names they’ve heard mentioned.
Then look for the same names appearing repeatedly.
And research the individual, not simply the business they work under.
Driving instruction isn’t a commodity
This is fundamental to understanding how to compare driving instructors.
A driving lesson isn’t a standardised product.
If you’re buying a litre of petrol, comparing price makes perfect sense because what you’re buying is essentially interchangeable.
Driving instruction isn’t.
Two instructors can both sell you a 90-minute lesson, yet the value of those 90 minutes can be dramatically different.
One instructor might identify within five minutes why you’re struggling with something and know three different ways of helping you overcome it.
Another might spend the next five lessons repeatedly telling you the same thing.
You’re not really buying 90 minutes in a car.
You’re buying judgement, knowledge, communication, teaching ability and experience.
Price and value are not the same thing
I’ll happily acknowledge that I’m more expensive per hour than many driving instructors.
But that doesn’t necessarily make me more expensive to learn with.
Imagine one instructor charges £40 an hour and takes 50 hours to get somebody to test standard.
That’s £2,000.
Another charges £55 an hour but gets the same learner to the required standard in 30 hours.
That’s £1,650.
The supposedly expensive instructor has saved the pupil £350 and 20 hours of their life.
Obviously, no responsible instructor can guarantee exactly how many hours an individual learner will require. Everybody is different.
But the principle matters.
Price isn’t value.
Experience has given me an enormous toolbox of teaching techniques. If one approach doesn’t work, I can change it. I can often recognise problems quickly, understand their cause and adapt the lesson accordingly.
That’s one reason my pupils typically require fewer professional hours than many learners expect.
But even that isn’t the final measure of value.
Ultimately, did you pass?
There’s a subtle but important difference between the way I think about my business and the way driving lessons are sometimes purchased.
Many people approach an instructor thinking:
“I need driving lessons.”
Increasingly, people come to me thinking:
“I need to pass my driving test.”
Those sound like the same objective.
They aren’t.
My job isn’t to sell somebody as many driving lessons as possible. Success is actually when they no longer need me.
The objective is to identify what is preventing somebody from reaching the required standard, address those weaknesses efficiently and develop a safe, independent driver capable of passing their test.
And that’s where the instructor’s pass rate becomes relevant.
Getting somebody to test quickly isn’t impressive if they fail.
Equally, achieving an extraordinary pass rate by keeping every pupil in lessons far longer than necessary isn’t particularly impressive either.
What you’re looking for is the combination:
How efficiently does this instructor develop test-ready drivers – and what happens when those pupils actually take their tests?
I offer what I consider a premium service. That doesn’t simply mean charging more. It means providing highly personalised tuition designed to get people to the required standard efficiently, combined with a pass rate substantially higher than the local average.
Because the objective was never to accumulate driving lessons.
The objective was to learn to drive and pass your test.
Ask how a claimed pass rate is calculated
Pass rates can be extremely useful, but don’t automatically accept a percentage written on the side of a car.
Ask what it actually means.
Is it a first-time pass rate?
Does it include every test?
What period does it cover?
How many tests is it based on?
A 90% pass rate based on nine passes from ten tests tells you something rather different from 90% achieved consistently across a much larger number of pupils.
A reputable instructor should be comfortable explaining the basis of any results they advertise.
Ask how they measure your progress
I’d also ask:
“How will you know when I’m ready for my test?”
A good instructor should be continually assessing you.
You should understand what you’re doing well, what still needs improvement and what you’re working towards.
A lesson shouldn’t simply end with:
“That was good. See you next week.”
There should be progression.
Perhaps you’ve been approaching junctions too quickly. Today’s lesson concentrates on fixing that. By the end, it’s improved, so next time the instructor reduces their assistance and sees whether you can manage those situations independently.
That’s teaching.
The instructor should gradually make themselves redundant
Ultimately, you don’t need to become good at driving with an instructor beside you.
You need to become good at driving without one.
As a pupil develops, a good instructor should progressively withdraw assistance.
Initially, there may be lots of instruction and explanation. Then fewer prompts. Then coaching. Then independent driving. Eventually, the instructor should be doing very little at all.
That’s the point.
A great driving instructor’s ultimate objective is to make themselves unnecessary.
Make sure you actually like them
This sounds obvious, but it’s enormously important.
Speaking as a parent, we spend years telling our children:
“Don’t get into cars with strangers.”
Then, at 17, we find somebody on the internet and say:
“Here’s a stranger. Get into their car for 90 minutes.”
You may spend dozens of hours alone with this person.
You need to feel safe and comfortable with them.
Trust your instincts.
A good instructor should challenge you. There will be occasions when they need to tell you that something isn’t good enough or that you’re not ready for your test.
But constructive criticism is very different from humiliation or intimidation.
And while we’re on the subject…
Make sure they don’t scream at you
It seems extraordinary that this needs saying, but:
Your driving instructor shouldn’t scream at you.
Of course, in an immediate safety situation an instructor might need to give a very firm “STOP!”
That’s completely different from losing their temper.
You’re learning. You’re going to make mistakes. That’s precisely why you’re paying somebody to teach you.
If you make the same mistake six times, screaming at you on the seventh isn’t teaching.
A skilled instructor asks:
“Why does this keep happening, and what can I change in my teaching to help?”
I’ve taught pupils whose confidence has been badly damaged by previous experiences. Once somebody becomes frightened of making a mistake, they become tense, hesitant and reluctant to make decisions.
That’s the opposite of what we’re trying to achieve.
If an instructor regularly shouts, belittles you, loses their temper or makes you dread your next lesson, don’t convince yourself that’s normal.
Change instructor.
You’re paying somebody to teach you, not frighten you.
Parents: ask better questions after the lesson
Rather than simply asking:
“Did you enjoy your lesson?”
try asking:
“Did you feel safe?”
“Did you understand what you were learning?”
“Could you ask questions?”
“Do you know what you need to improve?”
“Were you actually driving for most of the lesson?”
A challenging lesson can still be an excellent lesson.
Regularly coming home frightened, humiliated or confused is something different.
Don’t put up with unprofessional behaviour
The driving-instructor industry doesn’t always have the greatest reputation for professionalism.
I’ve seen instructors sitting in car parks or at the roadside smoking while their pupil waits around. I’ve seen tuition cars sitting stationary for extraordinarily long periods.
Of course there are legitimate reasons to stop. I regularly pull over to explain something, demonstrate something, review what has happened or give somebody a break.
But ultimately:
You learn to drive by driving.
I’d also expect reliability.
Everybody gets ill. Cars break down. Emergencies happen.
But routinely arriving late, cancelling lessons at the last minute or simply failing to turn up isn’t acceptable.
You’re buying a professional service.
Expect professional behaviour.
Look carefully at the car
Don’t overlook the vehicle you’re actually going to learn in.
I’d want it to be clean, properly maintained and appropriately equipped for tuition.
But I’d also look at something surprisingly important:
How big is it?
Some instructors choose their tuition car partly because it also needs to serve as their family car. That’s understandable for the instructor, but it doesn’t necessarily make it ideal for a learner.
I’ve had pupils arrive from other instructors and describe their previous tuition cars as “tanks”.
When you’re learning, developing an understanding of the car’s width, length and position is already difficult.
A particularly large vehicle makes that harder.
You’ve got more car to fit into a parking bay, less margin for error when parallel parking and a more intimidating vehicle to position on narrow roads or when meeting traffic.
That’s why I’ve deliberately chosen compact tuition cars.
For manual lessons, I use a Volkswagen Polo, similar in size to the sort of car many young drivers will own after passing.
For automatic lessons, I use a Renault 5 E-Tech, which is similarly compact and easy to position.
There’s nothing wrong with eventually driving something larger. A competent driver should be able to adapt to different vehicles.
But when you’re learning, why make an already complicated task unnecessarily difficult?
You’re learning to drive. You don’t need to learn to drive a tank at the same time.
Be cautious about block bookings
I’d also be extremely cautious about handing over hundreds or thousands of pounds upfront simply because somebody offers you a discount.
Ask what happens if:
You don’t like the instructor.
They become unavailable.
You decide to change instructors.
You pass earlier than expected.
You want the unused balance refunded.
I’ve heard some horrible stories over the years involving people who have paid upfront and then struggled to get lessons booked, or subsequently found that circumstances or charges have changed.
There’s also a psychological problem.
If you’ve paid for 30 lessons and after five realise you don’t particularly like your instructor, walking away suddenly feels expensive.
That’s one reason I operate pay as you go.
My pupils aren’t financially trapped into staying with me.
They continue because they want to.
Work with an instructor who welcomes private practice
If you’re a parent willing to provide additional practice, ask:
“What would you like us to practise between lessons?”
A good instructor shouldn’t feel threatened by private practice.
Used appropriately, it can give learners enormously valuable additional experience while reducing the amount families need to spend on professional tuition.
Ideally, the instructor, learner and parent should work as a team.
The instructor identifies what needs improving and gives the family guidance about what would be useful to practise.
That prevents Mum or Dad inadvertently teaching something completely different from the approach being developed during lessons.
If they’re so good, why are they available tomorrow?
This is a slightly uncomfortable question, but one worth considering:
If an instructor is exceptionally good, why do they have so much immediate availability?
Good instructors tend to become busy.
Pupils pass, families recommend them, reviews accumulate and eventually demand exceeds the number of hours available.
That doesn’t mean somebody with immediate availability is a bad instructor.
Pupils pass. Cancellations happen. People go on holiday. An excellent new instructor has to build a client base from somewhere.
There’s a difference, however, between a good instructor who happens to have a space and somebody who appears to have an entire diary available.
If everyone being repeatedly recommended to you has a waiting list while somebody else can offer virtually any time you want next week, it’s reasonable to ask why.
There are only so many hours an independent instructor can offer
This is particularly relevant when choosing a successful independent instructor.
There is only one of us.
When you book with me, you’re booking me.
I can’t simply pass you to an employee or trainee when my diary becomes full.
Once I’ve allocated my teaching week to my existing pupils, I don’t suddenly have another 20 hours available because somebody new would like to start.
Nor do I want to work increasingly ridiculous hours.
Driving instruction requires considerable concentration. To provide the standard of service my pupils are paying for, I need to be alert, patient and completely engaged.
And I’m certainly not going to disadvantage an existing pupil by taking away the regular time I’ve already committed to them simply because somebody new wants to start.
My existing clients made a commitment to me.
I’ve made a commitment to them.
So when I say:
“I’d genuinely love to help, but I can’t start you for another couple of months,”
I’m not manufacturing scarcity.
I’m full.
Sometimes the right instructor is worth waiting for
This leads to a slightly counter-intuitive point:
Starting lessons sooner doesn’t necessarily mean passing sooner.
You could start tomorrow with the first available instructor and spend months progressing slowly.
Or you might wait for somebody particularly good, progress much more efficiently once you begin and ultimately reach the finish line sooner.
So if the instructor you really want has a waiting list, consider whether they’re worth waiting for.
And if you decide they are, don’t waste that time.
Get your theory test passed.
Start revising properly. Get the theory out of the way so that it doesn’t become the thing preventing you from booking a practical test later.
Where appropriate, you may also be able to start gaining some experience through private practice with a suitable supervising driver.
Waiting doesn’t have to mean doing nothing.
Be wary of an instructor who tells you what you want to hear
This is particularly important when you’ve already got a practical test booked.
You might say:
“My test is in four weeks. Can you get me ready?”
Naturally, you want the answer to be:
“Absolutely.”
But sometimes the professional answer is:
“No. Based on what I’ve seen, I don’t think you’ll be ready.”
Sometimes the best instructor is the person prepared to tell you something you don’t particularly want to hear.
The objective isn’t to get somebody through 40 minutes with an examiner by good fortune.
It’s to develop a driver who is genuinely safe and independent – because after passing, there won’t be an instructor sitting beside them with dual controls.
So, how would I choose an instructor for my own child?
I wouldn’t begin by asking:
“Who’s cheapest?”
And I wouldn’t begin with:
“Who can start tomorrow?”
I’d want to know who the actual instructor is.
I’d look for personal recommendations for that individual. I’d check whether they’re a trainee PDI or an experienced, fully qualified ADI. I’d look at their reviews and results. I’d ask how they measure progress and how they’ll determine when my child is test-ready.
I’d want a sensible tuition car.
I’d want clear prices and terms without pressure to hand over a fortune upfront.
I’d want somebody who welcomes appropriate private practice and communicates constructively about progress.
And above everything else, I’d want somebody my child feels safe with and who I trust to teach them properly.
Because driving instruction isn’t a commoditised service.
You’re not buying a certain number of hours in a car.
You’re choosing a teacher.
You’re trusting that person to develop the judgement, skills and confidence your son or daughter will rely upon when they’re driving alone.
And ultimately, you’re paying them to achieve an outcome.
To create a safe, independent driver.
And, yes:
To pass the driving test.
Choose accordingly.