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Thread: Driving lessons

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Thurso/Wick
    Posts
    130

    Default Driving lessons

    My husband is thinking of becoming a driving instructor with the franchise red, we are just testing the water to see if there would be any interest before we put our savings into it, the lessons with red are 2 hours they don't do any less than that, at a price of £52 a lesson which would work out at £26 an hour but like I say the don't do 1hour lessons only 2 hours. What is people's views?
    "some say the glass is half full, some say the glass is half empty.... i say u gunna drink that?"

  2. #2

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    thats a lot of money to find in one go

  3. #3

    Default

    There is an extremely high demand up here for lessons and £26 an hour is cheap too. Most instructors up here are £30 per hour and wont pick you up from
    Your house if you live outwith thurso or wick... good luck with the new venture

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Thurso/Wick
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    130

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by starfish View Post
    thats a lot of money to find in one go
    I agree it is a lot of money in one go, the company only dose 2 hours slots though, would be better at 1 hour slots for £26

    Quote Originally Posted by J1985 View Post
    There is an extremely high demand up here for lessons and £26 an hour is cheap too. Most instructors up here are £30 per hour and wont pick you up from
    Your house if you live outwith thurso or wick... good luck with the new venture
    There is a high demand for driving instructors, I don't know about the wick side but I do know there is very few on the thurso side with long waiting lists. And thank you fingers crossed for him 😊

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Posts
    2,245

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by lildj View Post
    My husband is thinking of becoming a driving instructor with the franchise red, we are just testing the water to see if there would be any interest before we put our savings into it, the lessons with red are 2 hours they don't do any less than that, at a price of £52 a lesson which would work out at £26 an hour but like I say the don't do 1hour lessons only 2 hours. What is people's views?
    There's a lot of demand for driving instructors, so I think it would be a good business opportunity.

    I'm not sure if going down the road of a franchise is the best though - It takes a lot out of your profit. Perhaps there is benefit to this in larger towns or in the city where competition for instructors is fierce, up here I think you would be busy enough without needing the advertising etc provided by red.
    Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; Nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

    - Charles de Gaulle

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Highlands
    Posts
    3,124

    Default

    In a place like Caithness I would go it alone, you can get the training completed for a couple of thousand then get yourself a car and the insurances etc and away you go.
    to rely on it as a full time in one you will need to get your order book pretty full, will need around 40-50 clients taking a lesson each week IMHO to make a decent income.

    i could be wrong but I thought that trade was down in this sector locally, due to the number of young folk that leave Caithness to study and learn to drive whilst away
    W.A.T.P.

  7. #7

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    I wouldn't believe everything Red tells you; I read an article a few years back that the actual pass rate for people taking and completing driver instructer training is round about 30% level. A pal of mine went down this road with Red and they had some claims of pass rates far in excess of this, and he had to go to Edinburgh for some of the training which he could have got in Inverness.
    Good luck if you do it; might be worth considering independent training?

  8. #8

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    UNDERLAY_GURU



    RED Driving School - BEWARE!18th Aug 09 at 1:53 PM




    Hi,

    A couple of years ago I attended an evaluation afternoon for Red Driving School (Then called 'The Instructor College') and since their adverts have recently started popping up all over the place, I thought I would warn people it is not as straight forward as you think....

    At the evaluation session, your ego is massaged from the word go. A slick salesman spends a couple of hours explaining:

    -How EASY it is to qualify as a driving instructor within 12 months........WRONG! The vast majority of 'trainees' do not pass within 2 years, never mind 1. The training and tests are extremely difficult.

    -How you can work flexible hours and earn up to £30k.....WRONG! Your pupils will tell you when they want their driving lessons, meaning the hours can be MASSIVELY INFLEXIBLE. Also take into account travelling between pupils, fuel costs, vehicle maintenence, holiday and sick pay, franchise fee, and you will have to work A LOT of hours to even scrape £30k.


    -How you can take on pupils immediately with your trainee badge....WRONG! Potential pupils will avoid a trainee like the plague!

    -Get a fully-liveried RED Driving School car!....Yes, but it has to be paid for...around 30% of your total earnings. You will also have to pay a hefty franchise fee to RED driving school for your appointments (From memory, I believe this was £250 per week). they also insist you use their 'sister' insurance company. If you don't use this, the francise fee goes up further still.

    -Get a 'guaranteed' full diary of pupils or you dont pay your subsidy for that week!....Yes, you will get a full diary of pupils, but there is no guarantee of their location. Pupil 1 could be 100 miles from Pupil 2. If you refuse a pupil due to location, you will still have to pay your franchise fee.


    In other words, Red Driving School instructor college simply want your money. Their instructor tuition is substandard and expensive, with no guarantee of passing the tests. If you fail the tests, you will either have to quit or pay more money for more tuition.

    The franchise fee is hideously expensive and rules on new pupils are unfair.

    We are told that red driving school is 'the fastest growing driving school in the UK'. How many 'RED' liveried cars do you see in comparison to BSM? The driving school is their secondary concern: the instructor college rakes in much more money. i have found many more like this so be aware before you spend you money i hate it when these firms rip people off there was a tv programme about red years ago



  9. #9

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    Thanks for posting that Starfish. My mate started to "train" with Red a few years ago down south. If he couldn`t get it to work down there with thousands of potential clients,how will anyone manage up here. Red is just a moneymaking exercise for the parent company.
    Don`t bother "repping" me it`s turned off.

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