Driving Instructor Schools And The Next Driving Experience

By Mark Flanighan

It doesn't matter that fuel prices are at their all time high. It doesn't matter that more co2 gasses from fossil driven fuels are killing polar bears in the South Pole. It doesn't even matter that it takes longer to get in and out of London at rush hour than it ever did. These minor issues seem not to stop the huge need to want to learn to drive.

There are more cars on the road now that ever in the UK, even though up to 2 million of them are scrapped every year, we just  buy more than we scrap. The fact is we need to drive, we have no faith in public transport, we do not feel safe walking the streets we would rather drive on them, so who apart from the car manufacturers and retailers are profiting from this? It is the driving instructors, yes those guys that sit in a dual controlled car and have the wits scared out of them everyday as they attempt to teach the new generation of drivers how to pass their driving test.

Now we all like experiences, but I have tried to teach a few people to drive and I can tell you there is no driving experience like it the world, not only the feeling of not being in control, but knowing that the person who is in control, does not have the experience to be at the wheel of a moving lump of metal, even with dual controls.

There are some other companies who are benefiting from the need to drive and that is the driving instructor training schools. Yes, the instructors who train the instructors. Even on TV, we are submitted to the adverts that claim you can walk into a £30,000 a year job as a training instructor, choose your own hours, etc, etc. Now TV advertising is not cheap, so I would guess there is a huge demand for this type of training, getting away from the 9 to 5, but also knowing that once you are trained there is plenty of work to go round, providing you are good of course.

These driving instructor schools are so convinced of the demand, they guarantee a job at the end of it, albeit a self employed one and without the income guarantee. This should be good news for the consumer as it wasn't that long ago, that just about anyone could teach just about anyone to drive, so long as they passed their driving test at the end, that was all that mattered. But there is so much more to teaching someone to drive. Skills such a patience and professionalism but also; especially for the ladies, the feeling of being safe. In the North East of England where I live, there is a driving school specifically run by women for women, because they understood, that some women just do not want to be taught by a male stranger and I know they are doing well.

So until we become extremely tough on new drivers, it looks like more cars and more new drivers will hit the roads every year in the UK, we think it is busy now, this really will be a driving experience in the decades to come. Lets hope the polar bears survive it though.

About the author: