Driving Instructors???

Paulyh

Are there any driving instructors on Boards??
i'm not looking for lessons, but i am interested in becoming an instructor. Is it a good career to get into?

i have been talking to the irish school of motoring about their instructor training and career opportunities, and am interested in hearing any instuctors views on how good a career it is...........

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

Paulyh

thanks, i will do...............

sorry, never popped into my head to do a seach

DrivingTestTips: Brian

Hi Paulyh

You will find people will tell you about how quite it is at the moment but to give you something to think about.

There is an average of 125,000 car driving test conducted in a year. But there are 1500 ADI's and another 1000 on the system.
The average lessons taken for a test is “3” some people will do 4-5, some do 0, so we’ll go with 3 at €30 each = €90.
€90 x 125000 = €11,250,000 divided by 1500 instructors = €7,500 a year income, “based on 3 €30 lessons for each person doing the driving test in a year”.
There is a possibility of 10 mandatory lessons.
€300 x 125000 = €37,5000,000 divided by 1500 instructors = €25,000 a year income, “based on 10 €30 lessons for each person doing the driving test in a year”
These figures are based on 1500 instructors; don’t forget there are 1000 more on the system.
[FONT=&quot]Hope this helps[/FONT]

Paulyh

thanks it does help...............

i was told that new regulations coming into force this year that will require leaner drivers to take a minimum of 20 lessons (irish school of motoring telephone conversation).
i would also look at getting qualified for coach instructing, as i have a D, D1 license.
now this is just an idea at the moment but it would be something i would be good at and enjoy. but looking at the level of income broken down in the above posts, i'm not sure if it would be viable for me.

i was quoted from ISM €1800 for the 5 training days/ exams, it would be €100 euros a week to 'rent' a duel control car.
ISM would supply me with clients + i could have my own clients.
obviously they are trying to sell me the idea as well.
they are introducing a complete online service, so lesson times/ days would be booked entirely online (not sure how its much different than now).

DriveSkill

Hi,

The breakdown by Brian makes for sobering reading alright!

@PaulyH - I could be wrong but I dont believe the €1800 fee for the ISM driving instructors training course includes the costs of the ADI exams - that will be an extra €800 or so on top of the ISM costs.

The Exams they are referring to are possibly their own exams at the end of the course which allows you to describe as 'ISM Certified' but of little real value when it comes to the ADI process as you still need to do that before you can start instructing.

The talk about mandatory lessons has been around for several years now, there is no definite date for when it will be implemented. The initial phase of CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) was planned to be introduced for motorcycles last year but didnt happen, latest I've seen is it will be the Spring of this year but I havent seen an official date. I think the Car CBT will probably be at least 6-9 months after the motorcycle one is in force. Mind you this is one area where instructors are really pushing the RSA to introduce so it may happen this year - just dont bank the house on it

Feel free to PM me if you want any specific info.

brian076

All driving instructors will tell you that the main source of lessons is referrals. Certainly you will pick up lessons from ISM most weeks, but not enough to make a living. If you can afford to work for little or nothing this year, you may increase your pupil base sufficiently to make a decent living next year, but it really depends on where you live and how good you are.

DrivingTestTips: Brian

DriveSkill wrote: »

Hi,

The breakdown by Brian makes for sobering reading alright!

@PaulyH - I could be wrong but I dont believe the €1800 fee for the ISM driving instructors training course includes the costs of the ADI exams - that will be an extra €800 or so on top of the ISM costs.

The Exams they are referring to are possibly their own exams at the end of the course which allows you to describe as 'ISM Certified' but of little real value when it comes to the ADI process as you still need to do that before you can start instructing.

The talk about mandatory lessons has been around for several years now, there is no definite date for when it will be implemented. The initial phase of CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) was planned to be introduced for motorcycles last year but didnt happen, latest I've seen is it will be the Spring of this year but I havent seen an official date. I think the Car CBT will probably be at least 6-9 months after the motorcycle one is in force. Mind you this is one area where instructors are really pushing the RSA to introduce so it may happen this year - just dont bank the house on it

Feel free to PM me if you want any specific info.

HI DriveSkill
Total agree with your post, I was thinking the same about the ISM training course. I contacted the ADI Unit about the mandatory lessons and they say "the spring", so let’s live in hope. About the info I posted above, I had to do some research on the value of driving lessons in the industry and when I got it I was in disbelief.
The attitude of driving instructors before I got this information was; “when these mandatory lessons come in I won’t need to advertise” well doesn’t the research speak for its self, no wonder the ADI’s are so quite when your looking at an income of €7,500 a year is your share.
For ADI's to work without advertising there would need to be mandatory lessons of about 40 and these schools giving €1800 training courses are not telling people that.

DrivingTestTips: Brian

brian076 wrote: »

All driving instructors will tell you that the main source of lessons is referrals. Certainly you will pick up lessons from ISM most weeks, but not enough to make a living. If you can afford to work for little or nothing this year, you may increase your pupil base sufficiently to make a decent living next year, but it really depends on where you live and how good you are.

Hi Brian
The referrals: I came across something which surprised me. I asked learners about referrals to driving instructors.
This is what was said;
I was told to go to that driving instructor because he is good, BUT he charges €40 lesson, So i went to another Qualified Instructor, because "are the all not Qualified the same".

So even the referrals is not a guarantee any more.

brian076

DrivingTestTips (Brian) wrote: »

Hi Brian
The referrals: I came across something which surprised me. I asked learners about referrals to driving instructors.
This is what was said;
I was told to go to that driving instructor because he is good, BUT he charges €40 lesson, So i went to another Qualified Instructor, because "are the all not Qualified the same".

So even the referrals is not a guarantee any more.

I agree,people will shop around, but the point I was making to the OP, is that when starting off in the industry, you can't expect any referrals, so that immediatley impacts on your earnings. Even if you only charge €25 per hour, you're still not going to get business if people don't know who or where you are.
Obviously advertising is one way to generate business, but this can be costly, and a lot of times you can spend a lot of money for little or no return.
For those of us who've been doing this for a few years there's still money to be made, but like every other business in the country we've taken a hit, and I for one wouldn't like to be starting from scratch this year.

DrivingTestTips: Brian

Sorry Brian

This is why i said

So even the referrals is not a guarantee any more.

because even Instructors like us who are at it years can't rely on the referrals anymore.

RSA ADI MARK

hi paulyh
whoever you go with to do your training make sure that they are rsa approved trainers,check with the rsa first.

Old Gill

RSA ADI MARK wrote: »

hi paulyh
whoever you go with to do your training make sure that they are rsa approved trainers,check with the rsa first.

Is there an actual list of trainers who train people to be ADI's? Can anyone train someone to pass or do they need to be certified by the RSA? I cant find any info on it