How To Find The Best Driving School – FAQ

There is no one answer to the question of which is the best driving school for you. It depends on where you live or intend to take your driving lessons. Sometimes a recommendation will work, but maybe only for the person who reccommended the driving school to you. You will need to try a lesson or two first to see if you are compatible with your instructors teaching methods.

This method is the way most people search for a driving school. However you need to be aware that the first 4 results of the search will normally show the driving school agencies that pay Google to be there. What’s wrong with that you may ask? Nothing is wrong if you prefer to pay more for a driving course by going through an agency. These agencies will charge for their services of finding an instructor and booking your theory and practical tests for you. The instructor will be an independent self-employed driving instructor who teaches in the area that you will carry out your lessons. The instructor is completly independent of the agency and you pay for your lessons direct to the instructor. The agency deals with booking a theory/practical test for you. Driving lessons are then arranged with your local instructor.

For example the conventional local driving school will charge a local price for their lessons and usually provide free advice about booking a driving test. They may even book it for you and charge only the test booking fee, rather than charging for the actual service of arranging a suitable date.

A driving school that pays to be on top of the search results needs to charge a lot more because of the cost of advertising. A driving school that appears in 5th place of the Google search, has reached that position because their website conforms to the requirements of being a Google Search Friendly Website

This type of driving school can usually be found in the first 4 paid adverts in Google search results. They are not conventional driving schools, they are agencies that bring pupils and instructors together to provide an all in one package service. Saving you the trouble of looking around for a driving instructor. You obviously pay more for this type of service, but at the end of the day, you will still be allocated a local instructor who charges the local lesson price rate. But you have paid as much as £300 more than necessary for a package you could have completed yourself with the help of your instructor.

There are two main National Driving Schools that have been established for many years and a third driving school that is being seen more often in the last 4 years.

The two major driving schools British School of Motoring (BSM) and the Automobile Association (AA) cover most of the UK and their instructors are professionally trained in the art of customer service as well as of course the requirements of an Approved Driving Instructor (ADI). The AA uses only Approved Driving Instructors whereas the BSM uses both qualified an part qualified instructors.

The 3rd driving school mentioned earlier is RED driving school which is a driving school that uses both qualified ADI’s and trainee instructors. A lot of RED trainees, once they pass their final exam go on to strart their own driving school.

Trainee Driving Instructors Compared To Qualified Instructors

Driving instructors are required to be registered with the Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). A qualified Approved Driving Instructor (ADI) has passed 3 very strict exams. A theory test, a driving test and an instructional test of the ability to teach. A trainee driving instructor (PDI) Potential Driving Instructor can charge pupils for their driving lessons once they have passed 2 of the required exams and completed at least 40 hours of training with a DVSA approved instructor. A trainee licence lasts for 6 months, during which time they should sit the final exam.

A trainee instructor will obviously not have the experience to that of a qualified insructor, but they will provide a lot of useful information using the latest driver training methods. Most of the professional instructors would have been a trainee instructor at some point in their career.

As you have read it seems to be challenging trying to find the best driving school because you can have varying degrees of instructors within any one driving school. The best solution is to book one or two lessons with a driving school and see how comfortable you feel with the way you are being taught. Ask questions about the task of driving a car and see how your instructor delivers the information to you. If you are comfortable with the reply and think you will eventually grasp the concept then book another lesson to see how consistent your lessons will become.

The question “How to find the best driving school”, should really be “How to find the best driving instructor”.