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.

Its expensive but they have high costs and on many areas instructors have large waiting lists so I’m not surprised that they’re charging more if they can

Just feels mean when the vast majority of learners are late teens/early 20s with probably not much money.

How confident are you at driving? Since your test is in September, do you think you'd be comfortable taking a break from lessons for a bit? Or do you feel that your skills will drop? I've done my test 3 times now (passed third time) and between each tesr was about a 4 month wait, so I'd not book any lessons until about 8 weeks before

Thing is if she'd not taking regular lessons the instructor will get a new pupil so she won't be able to get back in to use the car.

Not really, DH works during the day and we start the DCs dinner bath & bed business pretty much as soon as he finishes so it’s weekends only

But they are running businesses, not charities.

If you are self employed everything needs to come out of that money - tax, NI, pensions, expenses, time spent doing admin etc.

Couldn’t you do a later bedtime and skip the bath once a week?

Just feels mean when the vast majority of learners are late teens/early 20s with probably not much money.

There's nothing mean about it. It's their job and only source of income. They have to earn a living, pay household and business expenses, about £150 per week fuel at the minute. They can't afford to charge lower rates for younger learners, plus it would be discriminatory to charge older learners higher fees. It's a hard job, there's few breaks, no lunch hour, sometimes working until 8:30 - 9pm to fit round learners' schedules.

If the weather is very bad (eg lots of snow & ice, heavy fog) DH can't work. When the car needs servicing or has a breakdown, he can't work. When he was shunted by another driver he couldn't work for two weeks until his insurance okayed & sorted a replacement. Instructors can only hire vehicles with dual controls as courtesy cars, which are fewer in number & dearer to hire.

The list goes on.

Looks like big firms are charging more like £25/30 a lesson so £45 does seem steep.

It’s been 6 weeks since my last lesson, basically I had a set budget for the whole thing but had no idea when I started how long the wait for a test would be. So now I’ve pretty much come to the end of my budget with 3 months still to wait, DH has managed to give me some extra but with the instructor’s price increase that’s already 1 lesson less than I thought I’d be able to afford altogether. And I can’t cluster them together now because I’m looking after DC during the week. I’m a confident driver but there’s day to day driving and there’s driving test driving…

I think I would just suck up the cost, and consider it an investment in (a) having the car you want for the test and (b) passing first time. There doesn’t seem to be any good alternative unless you are lucky and a cancellation comes up.

(And by suck it up I appreciate that’ll mean putting the cost on a credit card)

Big firms can afford to. They're not self-employed. They get better rates on cars because it's fleet. They get better rates on fuel. They're businesses so don't have household AND business expenses. AND instructors usually have to pay the big firms a fee to use the vehicle so they are 'double profiting' - a fee from the instructor, a fee from the pupil. The instructors get some of the money but not all. DH was with a company when he started. He had to pay them £150 per week whether he had any pupils or not.

They don't get paid travelling between lessons. They don't get paid for holidays. They pay their tax and NI out of that. They don't get a pension.
The problems getting a test have not been caused by instructors. In fact, it causes them headaches when pupils can't get their tests promptly and have to stay on the books when they don't want weekly lessons. It's a very responsible job.

Fuel is the biggest cost and has risen enormously over the past year or so.

The instructor's own personal costs will have also risen (food, power, and basically everything else) so they need to earn more just to stand still financially.

New and used car prices have gone through the roof, so they have to pay more to buy the car they use.

They'll also be wanting to recoup some of the money they couldn't earn during the covid lockdowns, and restrictions, and also the months when they had to leave large gaps between pupils to clean and ventilate the car. (They have no business premises so didn't get the business rates grants etc that other businesses with premises got to tide them over Covid lockdowns).

It may seem a lot, but there's usually a lot of downtime between appointments, travelling time/cost between appointments, etc.

He won't be CHARGING for 9 hours per day. He may be WORKING for that time, but it will include lots of non chargeable time, such as travel between pupils, dead time between sessions, plus all the usual admin (book-keeping, phone calls, filling up with petrol, car washing, booking tests for pupils, etc etc). I'd say a driving instructor managing 6 hours worth of actual chargeable lessons per day is doing pretty well, and probably around the average. Then of course, the days he can't work, i.e. car in for service/repairs, off the road due to accidents etc.

People need to start understanding that the self employed have to do everything themselves, they don't have an "admin" dept to look after the paperwork/admin, they don't have a "procurement" dept to buy the goods/supplies they need, etc etc. Time adds up that they can't charge for, so, they'll never be able to charge for all the time they actually work. It's nothing at all like an employee who works 8 hours one day, so submits a time sheet for 8 hours of work.

Big firms can reduce costs a great deal simply as a result of the economies of scale. A one man operation can't.

Dds lessons cost £50 or £340 for 7 lessons (just over £48) BUT they last 90 minutes.

I pay £70 for 2 hours. The same instructor charged my friend £55 just before Christmas. I hope the prices don’t increase again, took me ages to save up for all my lessons and a couple of tests. Literally won’t be able to afford anymore. I Don’t feel ready to whack the L plates on dh car to practice.

My niece started in 2019 £22 per hour or £40 for 2 hours. Had to stop until recently and the same guy is charging £45 per hour

ok so here is the reality. I was a driving instructor until 2 years ago. My fuel bill when I quit was £1000 per month as to do the job properly it takes wheels rolling, not sitting at the side of the road, talking and certainly not pootling around test routes. My car did 120000 miles in 2 years, thats a service every 10 weeks, brakes, tyres and general other wear and tear far more frequently than any private motorist. Car must be clean at all times, thats another expense that isnt seen. Tyres were £70 a wheel, a set of brake discs and pads for the front wheels were £150 fitted...it mounts up. It can be a reasonable living, its not an affluent one. Fuel has gone up ridiculously, engine oil too so service costs increase. I was charging £27.50 an hour, working 7 days a week often into the evening and after expenses, taxes etc was lucky to earn minimum wage, the rewards versus the working time did not add up for me.

£40 for the teacher, the car hire the insurance (which must be massive) the fuel, the road tax and the maintenance seems a bargain

and dont get m started on depreciation, once the car is seen as an ex school car its residual value drops like a stone, so factor in an £80 per week depreciation on the car however well looked after it is. Dual control installation isnt cheap, nor is the insurance and the continual training needed to continue to meet the DVSA everchanging goal posts and tests needed to retain ones Driving instructor licence. And self employed means no holiday pay, no sick pay, no safety net at all

YANBU!

YANBU!