Driving Lessons Break

If you are learning to drive a car, and taking driving lessons with an instructor, you will probably know the wisdom in being consistent and taking regular lessons in order to make progress and speed up the learning process, however life is not always predictabe and things could get tough so there are times when you have to take a break from driving lessons.



From my experience as a driving instructor, I know that if you've taken a break from your driving lessons, then you will take some time to get back to the stage you were at before the break, so is there anything that you as a learner driver could do make things a bit easier if you have to take a compulsory break from learning to drive?

Because you can't afford to continue with your practical driving tuition in a car, doesn't mean that the learning process comes to an end. If you haven't passed your dsa theory test, you should make passing that by using your Hazard Perception Study CD Rom, your first priority. If you've passed the theory test, there is still a lot you could do when not taking driving lessons.

Learn as much as you can about what is required by the DSA examiner from you on the driving test. I would recommend you read the DSA's book The Official Guide to Learning to Drive, this will give you the theory and knowledge that you can apply once you resume lessons. Don't be lazy and put it off till later, I've seen a lot of people who put off what they should do today till tomorrow, and before they know it, a 17 year old is now a busy 30 yr old who needs to drive for work and is having a hard time learning to drive. You should also continue to read your copy of the Highway Code, familiarising yourself with road signs, markings and protocols for different situations.

You might not be able to afford to take driving lessons at the moment, but that should not totally stop you from making progress with your quest to learning to drive and passing the driving test.

Driving Instructor Centre Sold

Robinson's Garage which operates one of the UK's largest driving instructor car leasing operations has been sold!



The Driving Instructor Centre which was established in 1921 was until the acquisition by finance and fleet management services company Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions a privately owned company.

I'm not sure of the impact of the sale on the driving school leasing operation, but the Managing Director Mark West is reported to be staying with Robinson's Garage Ltd.

I currently lease my driving school car on lease from the Instructor Centre in Leicester, but haven't received any communication from them yet (the sale was annouced on Dec 5 2008), so I'm thinking it is still business as usually for the time being. If anything changes, I'll update this post.

Press release from Hitachi Capital Vehicle Solutions

Driving School Car Accident

Being a driving instructor requires you to not only teach learner drivers, but to know how to make business decisions, which is one of the reasons why you need to know when to allow a test candidate to use your driving school car, and when to rather lose the 2 hours tuition fee and refuse a dangerous driver or someone you don't fully know their driving ability your car, because you stand to lose more if an accident occurs on the test involving your driving school car.



Remember the DSA examiner is not supervising the test candidate, but rather assessing their ability and determine if they are ready to be left on the own in a car un-supervised, and thus they don't react as quickly as an ADI would to avoid an accident, but not knowing the person also means that they are less likely to be able to predict how the person would react, and are most likely going to give the person the benefit of the doubt.

Don't just think about how much you will make from a driving lesson or test, as the cost of the driving school car being in an accident will be much higher, and could take some time to recoup.

Driving School Car Accident costs

Here are just a few things that could add up if you car is involved in a collision, and having driving instructor insurance will not be enough!

Your excess fee has to be paid, unless it is totally the 3rd party's fault and they have agreed to cover all costs to your insurance company. £100 or more

All driving lessons for the rest of the day and probably the next day depending on when your replacement dual controlled driving school car arrives. £100 or greater depending on number of lessons and your hourly rate. You might be able to get this back from a 3rd party if it was their fault, but this could take a long time, and you might not get back exactly what you lost!

Driving Test time fee. You might not even be able to get fees for the driving lesson that the accident occured in!

Your weekly franchise or car leasing fees are still due, and must be paid.

As you can see, the instructor has a lot to lose if a driving tuition car is involved in an accident, which is why ADIs should rather be over cautious when it comes to protecting their means of income. A learner driver pupil can change who they learn with at a drop of the hat, but recovering from an accident might not be that easy especially for a newly qualified instructor just building up their business.

Driving Instructor car lease.
Learning to drive in snow.
Choosing drivin school car

Failed the Driving Test.

If you've failed the driving test, then before you attempt to re-book another one, it is important that you reflect on why you didn't succed during the last assessment.
Your first point of call is to analyse the DL25 report you got from the DSA driving examiner, as this will give you the full picture of why you failed this driving test.



You need to be honest with yourself if you are going to improve your chances of passing the next driving test, where you really prepared for your last attempt, where you totally relaxed during the test, not worrying about a particular task that you were not confident with. Where you totally in control of the car, not approaching junctions too fast, or breaking harshly? Remember that any driving error you make during the DSA practical car test could potentially cause you to fail the test.

Do you agree with the serious driving error that you failed on, and what are your plans to deal with this and the other errors you make during the last attempt. Don't forget that while you might have a small number of driving errors, you need to work on eliminating every mistake you made, the less the number of errors during a driving test, the less likely your are to fail.

Even though you might have failed or been close to passing this time, you must not give up, because if you work on improving your driving skills by taking professional driving lessons, practising those manovers over and over, deal with those major multi-lane roundabouts, minimising the errors, and building your confidence in your weak areas, then you will not fail the driving test on your next attempt.

Related Articles
How many driving test attempts?

Driving instructor advice

Is your driving school instructor giving you the correct advice as far as learning to drive safely and passing the driving test is concerned?
As someone paying an ADI to guide them in their quest to obtaining a full UK driving licence, you would expect that the information you are being given is correct and true, well there are a few bad apples in the driving industry, and it is in your own interest to make sure you don't ignore your responsibilty as a learner driver to cross check any information you are given against the DSA criteria on their website.



Many learner drivers belive that their are secrets to passing the DSA practical driving test, and that driving schools have special insight into the workings of the DSA examiner. The truth is that the driving standards agency has fully publicised all information you need to pass the driving test either on their website, or in books that are freely available to buy on the open market.
One of the most important documents a learner driver can read when preparing for the practical driving test is the DL25 report form explanation notes. This is the form normally given to any test candidate not successful, and it explains in detail what the examiner is looking for during the driving test.

Getting a good understanding of the DL25 form can go a long way to ensuring you pass the test on your first attempt, and any information your driving school instructor gives you must not contradit the information given by the DSA.

Driving Schools and Credit Crunch

The month of December usually signifies the beginning of a slow down for driving schools as people start to concentrate more on their christmas shopping and they normally put having driving lessons on the back burner, unless getting a full UK licence will enchance their job opportunities. Things couldn't be much worse with the economic downturn and credit crunch biting hard, so business owners have to find ways of getting through these hard times and maintaining income levels.



Here are some ideas that you as a struggling driving instructor can try to boost your tuition income during the lean winter months.

Special Offers: You could offer special discounts to your existing learner drivers for the months of December and January such as for every lesson you take, you can have the second half price provived you pay for both in advance (make sure you have a cancellation policy they are aware of).
For new pupils, or those who haven't had lessons for a while, you could offer discounted lessons for these months as well.

Pass Plus: Contact pupils who have used the driving school in the past, and have passed, offering them this post driving test tuition, you could even give them a discount, like pay for 5 hours, get six hours. Even if they don't want the whole pass plus, how about a 2 hour motorway lesson?

Refresher Lessons Make sure you advertise the fact that you offer these for people who haven't driven for a while, especially if you know of someone about to buy a new car, surely for the sake of a couple of pounds, they can be more confident while driving a new car worth thousands of pounds, credit crunch or not, there are still people getting bonuses or sales commissions, and you can get in on the action.

Be on the lookout for opportunities to expose your business such as career fairs at local schools where you can talk about life of a driving instructor, and maybe offer a couple of lessons as prizes for raffle draws.

With a little bit of effort and work on your part, you can make sure that your driving school business survives the credit crunch.