Is driving instructor waisting time on purpose? Or is this reasonable?

[BumbleBeeTreez]

I am learning to drive. I have never had lessons or any practice before. Its in an automatic. I am having 2 hours lessons at a time, twice a week.

After 4 hours we have covered the cockpit drill, starting and stopping the car. On a quite road – starting the car, steering into the road, accelerating slowing and then parking. Revering backwards. Then steering at junctions while instructor controlled the speed with the brake pedal and then revering at a dead end.

He spends a lot of time at the start of the lesson filling in forms – what we did last time, what we want to do this time and how confident I feel with different areas (giving it a number score) and then asking a few theory questions and going off on a few minute rant. This takes atleast 20 minutes (more like 30 minutes) before I even start driving. And then lessons finishes 15 minutes early to fill in another form (what we covered in lesson) and then drops me off at pickup location.

Is this normal? Is this good progress for 4 hours worth of lessons? Or is he trying to waste my time so I have to spend more money on lessons and so he can save petrol?

Thanks for reading

Sounds normal to me!

Has been a really long time since I learned to drive but no, I wouldn't think losing 30mins is normal at all.
All my theory was self taught with the cd practise test, then as we were driving he would ask about road signs etc to check I was progressing. When my driving was to standard he had me do a few mock theory tests online and send him the results to show I was ready then we got booked in with everything.
Is this a private instructor? Or part of a larger company? Might be best looking for an individual to teach you.
You don't have to stick it out if you're not feeling it, change to someone you have a better raport with.

No. Get another instructor. I had one similar and it depends with your with a well known school and they have a lot of box ticking to do.

Mine filled me in on what his granddaughter/sister/wife ect was up to and it pissed me off in the end. Plus they can really drag the time out.

in the end I found a great chap who did 1hr 30 mins or even 1 hour ones if I was pushed for time and we always set off straight away.

I had a couple of instructors, they never did this

You need to know the theory so that bit is valid. A 2 hour lesson would be quite intense so I can see why he needs to be clear what you have covered and how confident you feel. The rant, obviously not.

Do you drive back to the pickup point? I always did, so that acted as extra practice and was helpful? Or is it via a motorway so you aren't allowed?

I don't think it does. Thats ridiculous spending so long filling in forms. What would happen if you had an hour lesson? You would only be driving for 30 mins.
I have never heard of this before, when my children were learning they drove off on the hour and arrived back on the hour.

Doesn't sound right to me. And although you need to know the theory, you can learn that yourself.

I’m learning to drive - I do 1 hour and 1.5 hour lessons - usually 5 mins at beginning to go through what was covered in the last lesson and a 5 minute debrief at the end of each lesson covering areas for next time.

Ermmm.. I learned Auto and2 hour lessons. I drove to a seaside town 20 miles away and back on the second lesson. It doesn't sound right to me at all. I smoke (I know) so we used to take a 5 min break halfway through but the rest approx 1h50 was spent driving (a minute or 2 either end to say the plan and rearrange next lesson)

No, my instructor was self employed and not part of a bigger chain or anything though. He completed forms and checked progress, but he did that as I was driving (once I was a bit more established) or in-between lessons. He'd often pull up 10mins earlier than my lesson and go over the paperwork himself, then a 2mins chat once I was in the car to say we've covered x&y, but more practice needed on z.

Theory was up to me to learn and sort the test etc, he'd only cover the bits the examiner would ask on the practical test i.e. how do you check your oil levels or whatever. The theory side of things has changed a lot since I passed my test 10yrs ago though!

Forgot to say that was BSM so not exactly a small school and 5 years ago

The box ticking will seem much longer because you have two lessons in one

The recap at the start reinforces the previous lesson

Many years ago I had two hour lessons, I already had a full motorcycle licence so was not learning how to drive on the road but learning how a car differs from a bike.
(My instructor was also a student instructor so he had to learn how to teach out motorbike habits - cars don’t turn if you lean over. He was consulting his mentor on methods for me)

For my first range of lessons we would have a recap session, followed by putting a skill into practice (usually lots of corners driving around industrial estates, then the manoeuvres and the 2nd hour as a long drive either around town or off down the dual carriageway

Once he had ironed out my habits the test was booked and the lessons leading up to the test were pretty much practice drives

Its a private instructor.

He has talked about his personal life, other students but mostly rants about when he was a police officer. So a question about what things I got wrong on a theory test ended up in a 5 plus minute rant that included what he said to Judge in court case.

I don't drive back to pickup point as it is in town centre with a roundabout. Or should I be doing that at this point?

The problem is I am struggling to find another instructor that is not booked up until next year. I want to learn to drive by next September so I can drive my son to school (he is special needs so it is further away and a 20 minite bus drive there)

Been a while since I learnt, but have just ferried niece and nephew back and forth to lessons and doesn't sound normal.

Have you thought about an intensive course if you can't find anyone else and you don't feel like you are progressing?

No, it's not normal. I had a couple of weird instructors before finding a good one. Wasting time on paperwork like that is awful - it just forces you to have more lessons.

As an ex driving instructor this is absolutely the way it should be done, that progress seems great to me, (although I taught manual lessons) so would have thought might be a little quicker in an auto.

This is how DVSA want instructors to teach, most instructors hate it as much as students do, but we also need to sing to DVSA's hymn sheet.

DVSA have also now moved the goalposts in terms of instructors check tests meaning that if a pupil has 4 minor faults on a test it can trigger a check test for the instructor potentially costing them their job, a fair bit of money and inconvenience, since these were previously done every 2-4 years and now will be triggered every few months as soon as you have a nervous pupil. This will no doubt make instructors want to hold back letting pupils go for test until their driving is of an almost perfect standard (that most full license holders couldn't achieve)

I'm fairly certain (although may be different in some areas) that your instructor has a waiting list at least a few months long.
I'm in Scotland and we did have much longer stricter restrictions on lessons and tests than elsewhere in uk so our waiting times may be longer, but every instructor I know has a waiting list until new year and they're working 6-7 days a week to try and accommodate pupils, so I doubt they're deliberately holding you back.

Covid and the ridiculous hoops that DVSA make us jump through are among the reasons I closed down my business.

Sounds like a waste of time to me - when I learnt a few years ago we were driving for the whole hour. My instructor was very chatty but she talked while we were driving! And yes I always got dropped off back at home although it was usually the next pupil driving me back. Your progress sounds pretty good though.

Don't remember any form filling but I did mine decades ago. Taking two thirds of the lesson to tick boxes is ridiculous. Why not take a lesson with another instructor if possible? Just to compare.

Taking the P. Get another instructor. Sounds very like the first my instructor I had. Then moved onto someone else who didn’t do all the form filling and grading shite and shortly after sat and passed my test.

I did my automatic test after having 15 hours of lessons and I was a complete novice to driving. 4 hours for the basics seems extreme, 2 hours would be more understandable. My instructor did the first forms during our first lesson and after the first lesson did them after it. We did theory questions while driving too.

Read @MrsBellamy's post. This is not the fault of your instructor. It is all part and parcel of the revised checks and measures.

It will make no positive difference to your learning - just as it didn't when intorduced into teaching.

It's a bit like thinking that weighing a pig every week will make it heavier. It doesn't, it just wastes your time, and that of the pig!

Testing and re-testing, journalling and re-journalling do nothing except generate ill tempers and paperwork!

I learned nearly 15 years ago. I would just get in the car and start driving. I did 1 hour lessons.
When we came closer to the test he went through the maintenance bits, oil, water level etc.

We didnt do any theory work, did all.of that myself, he might have talked about the road rules while we were driving.
But I don't remember just sitting there talking every lesson.

It's been a good while since I've bad lessons, but with the exception of the very first lesson, the rest always started with him driving to me house to collect me and then me driving from there - so me driving from the start of the lesson, for the full hour.

Unless you are very anxious I would think that after 4 hours, he shouldn't be controlling the car unless in an emergency.

So a question about what things I got wrong on a theory test ended up in a 5 plus minute rant that included what he said to Judge in court case.
So unprofessional and you’re paying for that rant! I get that a certain amount of form filling is required but what you’ve described goes way beyond that. I’d find another instructor ASAP.

Get rid of this timewasting idiot, OP!