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Driver instructor training and as a business
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18-06-2009 11:44am#1
Comments
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Hi and welcome to the forum!
I'll make an attempt at answering some of your questions....
Is there any company that can bring me through the ADI process in more than one category? I would like to do A and B.
To be honest I'm not aware of any but I would assume there are some companies who cover both. One important point to note is a lot of the Instructor Training courses are very expensive and this could end up being a significant cost so shop around. Depending on your previous driving experience and level (have you ever done advanced driving etc) it may be better to look for training for the Part 3 only and study for Part 1 (essentially book study) on your own. The Part 3 in my opinion is the most difficult part unless you have been in the industry for a while - its requires some experience and training in order to be able to correctly identify and correct faults.What company’s provide insurance for driving instructors and the vehicles? What kind of price are we talking about?
The 2 main companies (for cars at least) are First Ireland and AON. Like all insurance it can vary in price depending on your own driving record, type of car but approx in the region of €600-€1000.
I've no experience of driving instruction insurance for bikes but I would expect it to be fairly high.What set up cost are involved in your opinion and experience. Is it better to be independent or investigate franchises etc.
Again the costs vary depending on your current situation.
Starting with the basics - Car and Bikes :
Do you have a car that is suitable or will you need to purchase a new one ? This is probably the most significant cost in the startup. There are no specific requirements for the type of car but in practice it should be relatively new (perhaps 3-4 years old at most), small hatchbacks like the Corsa, Yaris, Fiesta etc are common. You need to take account of what else you may need the car for - i.e. no point in buying a 3 door Ka and finding you cant fit the 3 kids into the back to bring them to school
In general it does not make financial sense to run 2 cars yourself so unless you have 2 cars already and can convert one to the driving school car and the other for the main family car etc.
For the bikes you possibly will need at least 3 bikes - your own, a 125cc and a 250cc. If CBT comes in then it may be uneconomical to have 1-to-1 tuition on the bikes and therefore you may be more likely to take out 2 people at a time. This may in fact require you to have 2 x 125cc and 2 x 250cc school bikes so costs there could rise rapidly, dont forget to factor in helmets, gloves and jackets at a minimum. Could also consider having a scooter for people to use to start off...depends on much you want to invest. I drive a bike but I dont dont give lessons on them so perhaps someone else may be able to provide more details on what they did.
Training :
The ADI Assessment and Registration will cost €800 for one category and I believe another €350 for the additional one (you only do one part 3 test and one registration fee).
Add in additional training which could range anywhere from €500 - €3000 depending on the route you go.
Dual Controls + Head sets :
Dual Controls cost €200 - €300 I believe to get fitted (its been a while since I looked!) and for the bikes you will need a good headset and earpieces so you can communicate with the pupils. Dont know what the cost would be but I guess a few hundred.
Signage :
Roof sign and livery for the car and bike should cost in the region of €300 maybe less depending on how you do it - more if you want something very fancy :-)
Website, stationary and advertising :
Costs here can vary anywhere from a few hundred to a few grand....in year one I'd suggest stick to a budget of a few hundred.
As to whether to go Franchise or Independant its a personal choice. Some franchises are good but it depends on if there is a franchisee already in your area...some of the franchise companies will continue to give out franchises even if there are franchisees already in the area so you have no exclusive deals. The franchise obviously costs money - varies but around €50-€100 per week - and there is usually no guarantee of work. The benefits are you will generally get the advertising paid for, have some central call center and booking service etc so work will come to you, some deals on insurance etc. Some of the downsides are the weekly/monthly costs, some restrictions on the type of car you can have etc.
As an Independant you have more control but have to do a lot more work to get business...more advertising, build up a reputation etc etc.Any suggestions on how to do some more market research, or what methods did you use.
You seem to have done a fair bit already. One important point is to assess the market in your own local area. How many instructors are operating ? What is the average price ? Try and determine how busy they are - have a look at the test center and see how many tests are being conducted per day - how many testers are there etc etc.
The CSO figures are of some use but remember not everyone with a licence will do lessons and the number of people applying for the both the driving test and the theory test has fallen this year.
Being both an A and B instructor will offer more opportunities. Once CBT for the bikes is introduced that will generate busines. Are there any ADIs covering bikes in your area ? If its a small town then even 1 additional instructor maybe too much as the market for bike lessons is much smaller than car lessons.Do you enjoy doing the job and what are the potential pit falls?
That is totally dependant on yourself really. I've known people who've done it for a few months and then gave up and then there are others who do it for years and still enjoy it! You need to be a certain type of person I guess, calm and patient being the main attributes. The job is rewarding a lot of the time seeing someone who is perhaps very nervous at the beginning turning into a competent, confident driver and passing the test. There are other times where you want to hit them :mad: as they crunch your gears for the umteenth time
!! Most of the time every lesson is different and if you are interested in the job then boredom is not an issue - if you find you are bored or watching the clock to see when the hour is up then you are not doing your job. There can be days where it get a little monotonous - if you have 3 or 4 total beginners one after another and you end up spending the day explaining the same procedure over and over again while trying not to get impatient as they stall yet again :eek: The main pit fall at the moment I would say is just lack of work. That would be the biggest danger - stting at home waiting for the phone to ring while your bills mount up!
If it is possible for you to start off part-time then I think that is a very good introduction. Granted you will still have all the startup costs but it will allow you to get established while maintaining some kind of steady income from your other job. You need to have realistic expectations on how much you will make in the first year. Average lessons prices (for cars) are now around €35 but I've seen them as low as €25 per hour. An lesson will never take an hour - it will be a minimum of 1.5 hours by the time you get to the person and drop them home etc - could be a lot longer depending if you are in a rural area and need to travel to meet people. At that rate your €35 a lesson becomes €23 an hour!! - take your petrol costs, other costs and tax out of that and your left somewhere around maybe €28-€30 per lesson or every 1.5 hours (approximately!!!). Even clearing say €30 per lesson and assume 3 lessons per day for 6 days comes to €540 per week nett and that would be a good week! Now of course its all just approximations - you could end up working from 8am to 9pm every day and make €100K in the year but its unlikely - it is more likely that somedays you may have only 1 or even no lesson at all in the current market.
You're welcome!I have plenty of other questions but I will leave those if this thread develops into a good source of information for anybody considering becoming an ADI.
Thanks0 -
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Firstly, thanks very much for the very informative reply,:)
To be honest I'm not aware of any but I would assume there are some companies who cover both. One important point to note is a lot of the Instructor Training courses are very expensive and this could end up being a significant cost so shop around. Depending on your previous driving experience and level (have you ever done advanced driving etc) it may be better to look for training for the Part 3 only and study for Part 1 (essentially book study) on your own. The Part 3 in my opinion is the most difficult part unless you have been in the industry for a while - its requires some experience and training in order to be able to correctly identify and correct faults.
My only previous driving experiance is the norm, no advance driving courses done. I feel I may have to take a few lessons myself for stage 2 and defo need training for stage 3.
The 2 main companies (for cars at least) are First Ireland and AON. Like all insurance it can vary in price depending on your own driving record, type of car but approx in the region of €600-€1000.
I've no experience of driving instruction insurance for bikes but I would expect it to be fairly high.
Great news as AON insure motorcycles so I hope a deal could be got if I proceed with this business. The other good news is that I hold car and bike licence for more than two years and dont have any points.
Again the costs vary depending on your current situation.
Starting with the basics - Car and Bikes :
Do you have a car that is suitable or will you need to purchase a new one ? This is probably the most significant cost in the startup. There are no specific requirements for the type of car but in practice it should be relatively new (perhaps 3-4 years old at most), small hatchbacks like the Corsa, Yaris, Fiesta etc are common. You need to take account of what else you may need the car for - i.e. no point in buying a 3 door Ka and finding you cant fit the 3 kids into the back to bring them to school In general it does not make financial sense to run 2 cars yourself so unless you have 2 cars already and can convert one to the driving school car and the other for the main family car etc.
For the bikes you possibly will need at least 3 bikes - your own, a 125cc and a 250cc. If CBT comes in then it may be uneconomical to have 1-to-1 tuition on the bikes and therefore you may be more likely to take out 2 people at a time. This may in fact require you to have 2 x 125cc and 2 x 250cc school bikes so costs there could rise rapidly, dont forget to factor in helmets, gloves and jackets at a minimum. Could also consider having a scooter for people to use to start off...depends on much you want to invest. I drive a bike but I dont dont give lessons on them so perhaps someone else may be able to provide more details on what they did.
I had a fair idea about the car, I felt the oldest I could go with the car was 05 as thats the year I believe most speedos changed from MPH. I will trade my current vehicle for a more suitable one and I also have a motorcycle that would be perfect for a instructor. To be honest I didnt see the need for all the extra bikes, I assumed one 125cc would be OK so I will have to look into that.
Training :
The ADI Assessment and Registration will cost €800 for one category and I believe another €350 for the additional one (you only do one part 3 test and one registration fee).
Add in additional training which could range anywhere from €500 - €3000 depending on the route you go.
Dual Controls + Head sets :
Dual Controls cost €200 - €300 I believe to get fitted (its been a while since I looked!) and for the bikes you will need a good headset and earpieces so you can communicate with the pupils. Dont know what the cost would be but I guess a few hundred.
Signage :
Roof sign and livery for the car and bike should cost in the region of €300 maybe less depending on how you do it - more if you want something very fancy :-)
Website, stationary and advertising :
Costs here can vary anywhere from a few hundred to a few grand....in year one I'd suggest stick to a budget of a few hundred.
As to whether to go Franchise or Independant its a personal choice. Some franchises are good but it depends on if there is a franchisee already in your area...some of the franchise companies will continue to give out franchises even if there are franchisees already in the area so you have no exclusive deals. The franchise obviously costs money - varies but around €50-€100 per week - and there is usually no guarantee of work. The benefits are you will generally get the advertising paid for, have some central call center and booking service etc so work will come to you, some deals on insurance etc. Some of the downsides are the weekly/monthly costs, some restrictions on the type of car you can have etc.
As an Independant you have more control but have to do a lot more work to get business...more advertising, build up a reputation etc etc.
Cheers for all this, I think I could budget for all this and add 20% to the figure I come up with to be sure.
You seem to have done a fair bit already. One important point is to assess the market in your own local area. How many instructors are operating ? What is the average price ? Try and determine how busy they are - have a look at the test center and see how many tests are being conducted per day - how many testers are there etc etc.
The CSO figures are of some use but remember not everyone with a licence will do lessons and the number of people applying for the both the driving test and the theory test has fallen this year.
Being both an A and B instructor will offer more opportunities. Once CBT for the bikes is introduced that will generate busines. Are there any ADIs covering bikes in your area ? If its a small town then even 1 additional instructor maybe too much as the market for bike lessons is much smaller than car lessons.
As far as I know we have two testers in the area, approx 22 providers of instruction for the car lessons and two instructers for the bike, nobody does both and the one of the instructors that cover the bike also covers two neighbouring counties as they dont have a resident instructer, this info is based on the RSA website.
That is totally dependant on yourself really. I've known people who've done it for a few months and then gave up and then there are others who do it for years and still enjoy it! You need to be a certain type of person I guess, calm and patient being the main attributes. The job is rewarding a lot of the time seeing someone who is perhaps very nervous at the beginning turning into a competent, confident driver and passing the test. There are other times where you want to hit them :mad: as they crunch your gears for the umteenth time!! Most of the time every lesson is different and if you are interested in the job then boredom is not an issue - if you find you are bored or watching the clock to see when the hour is up then you are not doing your job. There can be days where it get a little monotonous - if you have 3 or 4 total beginners one after another and you end up spending the day explaining the same procedure over and over again while trying not to get impatient as they stall yet again :eek: The main pit fall at the moment I would say is just lack of work. That would be the biggest danger - stting at home waiting for the phone to ring while your bills mount up!
If it is possible for you to start off part-time then I think that is a very good introduction. Granted you will still have all the startup costs but it will allow you to get established while maintaining some kind of steady income from your other job. You need to have realistic expectations on how much you will make in the first year. Average lessons prices (for cars) are now around €35 but I've seen them as low as €25 per hour. An lesson will never take an hour - it will be a minimum of 1.5 hours by the time you get to the person and drop them home etc - could be a lot longer depending if you are in a rural area and need to travel to meet people. At that rate your €35 a lesson becomes €23 an hour!! - take your petrol costs, other costs and tax out of that and your left somewhere around maybe €28-€30 per lesson or every 1.5 hours (approximately!!!). Even clearing say €30 per lesson and assume 3 lessons per day for 6 days comes to €540 per week nett and that would be a good week! Now of course its all just approximations - you could end up working from 8am to 9pm every day and make €100K in the year but its unlikely - it is more likely that somedays you may have only 1 or even no lesson at all in the current market.
The only experiance I have is helping friends and family
and I managed not to lose the cool with them so I think I might be OK, and secondly I dont see this as a full time job for at least the first two years, To be honest I did some figures and felt I would be lucky to earn 10k gross and that was based on the business earning 30k over the first 12 months.
Again, thanks for the excellant post.:)0 -
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