Driving lessons - £34 per hour? Is this the new normal?

[CrimePodcast]

Hi, booked driving lessons for DC a month ago to start this week. They have gone up from £30 ph to £34ph. I understand as fuel has obviously increased. They are verging on unaffordable for us now.

Just wondered if anyone else has heard of a similar increase.

The company my son is learning with only do 2 hour lessons. They cost £70 but you can block book 5 or 10 lessons and get a discount. It well worth it to not have to teach him ourselves. I think he’s progressed fast with the 2 hour lessons.

I'm sure it's the norm now as it was £30 before the fuel hike.

I paid £21 to BSM back in the late 90's.

I had heard too many horror stories about other driving schools; having to collect the next learner driver towards the end of your lesson, only being given 40/45 mins as opposed to an hour.

Dc1s lessons have gone from £25-£27 this week. In January the instructor stopped doing block bookings so actually since January it's gone up £4.
Can dc get a job to help pay for them? My dc pay for their own lessons and I pay for all the other bits tests, driving licence etc. I couldn't afford it otherwise.

@GiltEdges

If it’s a struggle to pay £34/lesson, is it even feasible for her to learn to drive? Insurance for the first few years and buying/running a car is likely to be astronomical by comparison…

She won't be getting a car any time soon... I just want to support her to pass before she goes to uni as I tend to think learning to drive is one of those things worth doing as soon as possible to get out of the way before adulthood as it often then gets put on the backburner.

One of our team is a DI.

He says he can charge more for lessons in his automatic (as apparently, more cars now are being built with less than the normal three pedals so that's what people want to learn in.)than a manual car.

I learned 3 years ago and it was £32 an hour then!

I learned to drive in the mid 70s. My lessons cost £30 for a block booking of 10.

I earned £30 per week. Pick up time would have come off that so I used to get the bus to the office so that I got the full hour.

£35 per lesson or £32 if you buy a block of 10, spending more on lessons than we wanted as was stop start last summer with Covid and test not until May (we could get a cancellation) but would rather work towards May, we take DC confidence driving too.

Mine were £32.50 per hour last year

My son is only looking into learning now that he’s 20 and earning a good wage.

There was no way we could afford to pay for lessons for him.

Cripes, pretty sure it was under £40 when I learnt for 2 hours and wasn't even years and years ago!

I took my lessons in 1997 and it was £18 then so I'm not sure that's particularly expensive in comparison. Especially seeing fuel, car purchase and insurance costs have risen so much. Not to mention the cost of living which means they need to earn more to simply be able to survive.

I was £32 an hour or £60 for 2hrs when I learned 6 years ago so I’d imagine it’s definitely worse now

@JustWonderingIfYou

Mine were £25ph 15 years ago so that sounds like a bargain!

Wow yours sound expensive for the time - mine were £20/hr 10 years ago

I pay £35 an hour, lessons have to be 2 hour minimum, and I can't even get a driving test for 6 months!

Fuel being what it is, that sounds fairly reasonable actually.