To think driving lesson prices have reached a ridiculous new level?

[AngeloMysterioso]

Have been learning fairly intensively for the past couple of months while DH was off work (he’s back now) and reached the point of having mock tests etc. Was originally paying £80 per 2 hour lesson- instructor didn’t offer block booking discounts.

However, no tests are available in my area for months and months - I’m lucky that via an app I managed to get a cancellation slot, but it’s not til the beginning of September (and I booked that in April!)

Practice opportunities are going to be pretty thin on the ground now DH is back at work, there’s not enough time between him finishing and the DC’s dinner/bath/bed etc to go out during the week, so I’m limited to weekends to practice.

In order to keep myself at test level I really need to keep having lessons, however my instructor has now upped the rate to £90 per two hour lesson. There is a £20 discount if you block book 10 hours, however that’s still £30 more than I was being charged previously. I simply can’t afford to pay to keep having lessons at that rate for next three months, but if I don’t have lessons and end up failing then there’s going to be another ridiculous wait for a test during which time I’ll need more lessons, and it becomes a vicious cycle.

He's on £8k a month! Pre tax and expenses obviously.

I guess the tutors are milking it as much as they can, demand for lessons is sky high after lockdown.
In some ways it's a way of keeping the poor down isn't it? It reduces social mobility, if you can't afford lessons and therefore can't drive you are obviously at a huge disadvantage in the world of work.

If you are good enough to pass a mock test do you really need to keep having lessons just to go out and drive about? If you can get out with DH at the weekends that should be enough, and maybe just have a few lessons in the month or so leading up to the test.

Once you have the muscle memory to operate a car that doesn't really go away, certainly not over the course of a week or two.

£8k a month is more than hospital consultants. This country is so totally fucked up.

You really are hard of thinking - I'm not even trying to explain to you how the economics of being self employed work because it'd be like teaching a pigeon to play chess

It's not just fuel that's pushing price increases. They're self employed. They have a lot of other outgoings as well, plus have to earn enough money to live on like other people. Diesel and s 1.79 a litre. The mileage they do every day means it doesn't last long in the tank. DH has to fill up 2-3 times a week. Coupled with the other price increases for everything else I'm not surprised some instructors are having to increase fees.

£45 an hour? Yeah that’s taking the piss

Lessons are £35 per hour were we are.

Unlike a score, imagine that a self employed driving instructor has a car to pay for, insurance, fuel, learning materials, accreditations, advertising, accountants etc.

I'm sure they also don't work 9 hours a day every day.

I would imagine maybe they have a salary around £30k-£40k if they are good and put the hours in.

Seems like a reasonable salary to me.

@ResentfulLemon 😂😂🙏

Oh wow I’ve never heard anything like it! I’m Manchester City centre and passed last year. I learnt in an automatic which is slightly more expensive and £35 an hour for intensive lessons. My friend is currently having lessons in a manual in Greater Manchester but not city centre and is paying £24ph.

That's quite rude really. I'm joining in a conversation about rising prices not being personal about you.

Costs are going up for us all - unfortunately most of us are not seeing a rise in wages!

I want to take my test in the instructor’s car as it has extra mirrors to help with parking and a digital speedometer, and is much smoother to drive than my own car. They handle completely differently, my car is pretty old and just not the sort of car you want to take a test in!

The other year, after ALL allowable expenses, DH earned a whopping £9500 profit. And he's very busy.

Covid he couldn't work AT ALL. All we got were the SEISS grants. We still had to pay all expenses including business and household. We were hit HARD. He doesn't get paid when he's off sick. He doesn't earn when we're on holiday. Everything he earns is subject to tax, just like everyone else.

If you think driving instructors are rolling in it, go and be one. Nobody's 'milking' anyone. £8k a month profit is absolutely nothing like the real earnings. Instructors also usually have more outgoings on top of the usual stuff that needs paying.

You do need to get used to how different cars handle etc though so it's not a bad thing to use more than 1 car, but besides that can you not just cut down the number of lessons you are having to say 1 every 2 weeks until august and then just ramp them back up again as you approach your test? Or look into hourly rental of a similar car to yours?

£45 a lesson is a lot but I can imagine in some parts of the country that is just the going rate.

If you can earn that money that's great. I wouldn't choose to be self employed for many reasons. I still think £45 an hour for driving lessons is outrageous.

My DD is paying £60 for two hours. No tests here (south London) until Nov so she’s booked a test at a mates uni town 150 miles away. In theory if she’s good enough to pass she should be able to do it anywhere … although being familiar with the area obv helps!

Instructors won’t be charging for 9 hours a day … they have to drive to each student … they won’t all be in the immediate vicinity.

I’m thinking of training to be one!

@OwlinaTree I don't see how you get they are working 9 hours a day. What about a break for lunch? And the learners are hardly all day in a row waiting their turn - might be as much as 15 or more minutes between lessons as the instructor drops one off and collects another. So I'd say it's more like six hours a day of actual earning hours.
The few driver instructors I've heard about (I have a 17 and 18 year old so almost all their friends are learning or just passed) are not exactly rolling in it.

OP are you able to up your driving practise? I managed to pass last week in my own car, without any recent lessons (did an intensive week's course back in Nov, ending in a fail). Just did all the driving with my dad in the car, back and forth to work, to nursery, everywhere at the weekend. I probably got about 5-6 hours of practise a week.

Also I used driving genie for cancellations and seemed to get one or two cancellations a fortnight.

Good luck, it's a nightmare learning to drive atm!

Easyday I guess 9 to 7 with an hour for lunch? I was thinking these wouldn't be strict hours, as there would probably be some later evenings and Saturdays. But that on average over a week? Also, you can collect a pupil and get them to drive the previous one back if your students are all quite local to each other.

Try the ‘Driving test now’ app. You can autobook different sessions so you don’t have to be watching your phone all the time. As long as you have a car to practise in, it’s cheaper to pay for a test and the app, and maybe even resit the test if you have to, than keep having lessons.

They handle completely differently, my car is pretty old and just not the sort of car you want to take a test in!

I passed in my absolute heap of junk. I couldn't afford to keep taking lessons so got to test standard (ish) then drove on weekends and did a few long drives in the couple of days before my test.

Ultimately, you're going to be driving your car when you pass so you might as well make friends with it.

I was listening to Jeremy vine earlier and apparently there is a new scam out which inflates the cost of,the test and people are booking multiple tests and selling them on

Like gigs where tickets are resold

My partner was very briefly a driving instructor. He was filling his car 3 times a week, sometimes 4. He would work bizarre hours but it wasn’t back to back lessons, between lessons he would have to drive from one house to another, that could be 20 - 30 mins and that would be between every lesson. So over a day that could be an extra 3-4 hours driving where he isn’t charging lesson time but needs petrol, that has to come out of the business too. He also didn’t get holiday pay, so needed a little extra to save up so he could have time off now and again, although we could never afford enough to go away.

FreetheKhalo it sounds like a tough job.

Wow! Up north (Italy) and our prices are closer to UK prices.....😥