During the initial Covid lockdown, I was worried that my car might have a flat battery when I started to use it again. I’d taken it out a couple of times, but not for a significant run – once to the Post Office, and once to fetch fuel.
Traditionally, I have used jump leads if I ever had a flat battery, and although I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I’ve had to do it, the major drawback is always that you need someone else to manoeuvre their car so the jumps leads will reach between your battery and theirs. And jumps leads are a menace in the boot – they get tangled up and take up space.
As a precaution, I bought a battery-powered jump starter unit – the NOCO Boost HD, shown above.
As it turned out, I didn’t need it once we got moving again. But a few weeks after we had, I was on a lesson with a pupil one evening in Morrisons’ car park in Bulwell. Someone came up to us and asked if we had any jump leads. My first answer was that I hadn’t, but then I remembered I had the jump starter in the boot and took it over to him. His white Transit had died as he was leaving. Here was a chance to see if the starter actually worked.
As soon as the unit was connected to the battery terminals, the van’s lights came on and it fired up first time. The two blokes in the van were grateful, and I was well impressed. Money well spent.
The NOCO Boost can be charged from the 12V socket while you’re driving, or from a USB charger at home. It also has USB sockets of its own, and can be used to charge mobile phones and other devices. It’s basically a massive power bank. Mine’s the GB70. Highly recommended.
This article was originally published in early 2012 and was based on an even earlier article in which I talked about the most common phrases I seem to use when I’m conducting lessons. That earlier article was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but my stats tell me that – from time to time – buzzword bingo becomes an important topic for many ADIs out there. We seem to be in one such phase again at the moment.
One of the biggest problems faced by many instructors is their educational background – and getting confused with what is actually required to teach people to drive. I remember when I was doing my Part 3 training, with many lessons of a 2 to 1 nature, hearing ex-miners and labourers trying to talk like Prince Charles (now King Charles, of course) when they were delivering their briefings. They obviously didn’t understand what they were saying – they just thought it needed to sound ‘posh’. It would literally be a case of the blind leading the blind if they tried to teach real pupils.
In spite of all that, people with such backgrounds often become ADIs.
A driving instructor’s job is to teach people to drive to a standard which is good enough to get them through their driving test, and start them off on a lifelong learning curve as they start driving on their own, gaining experience along the way. Nowhere is it written that the training has to be delivered according to Debrett’s.
In a similar vein, if you listened to the Coaching and Lifestyle hawkers out there, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you can’t be an ADI unless you utilise homeopathy, aromatherapy, and psychotherapy in your lessons. It’s all a lot of bollocks, of course, and these people are just scammers after your money (or in some cases, idiots who actually believe the nonsense they peddle). She wasn’t around long, but there was an ADI advertising on the internet about seven years ago who genuinely provided aromatherapy as part of her pink-themed lessons!
Just Say What You Mean
The key to effective communication is to say what you mean and not to worry too much about how you say it. For example, don’t keep using the word “observations” if it is alien to you – and especially don’t use it if it is alien to your pupil. Just say “look all round”, or something that fits in with the local lingo (or a lingo the pupil understands). Use the occasional fancy word by all means, but make sure you define it first. A lot of pupils have a nasty habit of not telling you when they don’t understand something, and that means your message never gets across – even though you might plough ahead thinking it has.
Communication has to lead to understanding, and when it doesn’t the implications can be frightening. Take the Show Me/Tell Me question about testing your brakes. Just imagine what might happen if a pupil passes their test without understanding what ‘spongy or slack’ actually means (and many don’t). It’s far better that they use more familiar words like sloppy, soft, loose, floppy, and so on – the examiner isn’t going to mark them down for it.
Proper communication isn’t just about reading a lesson plan out loud using a flowery dialect you or your pupils are unfamiliar with. Your perceived eloquence has to be as well received as it is delivered.
And Understand What You Say
For God’s sake, don’t say something if you don’t understand it! Keep it simple enough for your pupil – and yourself.
Give Me An A
Some ADIs collect acronyms and sayings as if their lives depended on it. Periodically, one of the forums will light up after someone decides to harvest some new ones and asks for contributions. It’s usually a new ADI who does it, but it is clear that many people absolutely live for the damned things. Unfortunately, most haven’t stopped to consider the effect this has on their pupils. Many learners have enough trouble remembering to put the clutch down when they stop without having to decipher SCALP or whatever brilliant acronym their instructor has pulled from their tickler file for the occasion.
Rigid systems are not the best way to produce safe drivers – all they do is produce people who can follow a rigid pattern under set circumstances. However, if circumstances change they often have no Plan B, and that kind of of driver is probably the most dangerous type on our roads. Acronyms might allow someone to remember what something is – but they do absolutely nothing for understanding.
Personally, I explain MSM-PSL-LADA to my pupils at some point simply because it (the MSM part) is in the Highway Code several times. But not at the beginning of their lessons – only when they’re already doing it later on. The only other times any acronym or silly saying gets discussed is when one of them brings it up, having heard it from a previous instructor or one of their friends. My favourite is the tyres-and-tarmac (TAT) one – which invariably results in at least a 5m gap between us and the car in front (which is far too much), and which inevitably leads to one or two fewer vehicles getting through that annoyingly brisk set of lights during the evening rush hour!
If a Picture Paints a Thousand Words…
…then don’t assume people will want a song and dance, too! I am aware of at least one ADI who considers his singing ability – which isn’t shared by those who have heard it – is worthy of using on driving lessons.
I am an introvert, and if someone performs in front of me – and especially if they try to involve me, or if they are not as good as they think they are – then I usually want to curl up and die. I am intelligent enough to know that at least half of my pupils would be equally uncomfortable having this forced on them. Christ, many of them are uncomfortable even being asked a question! In other words, know how far you can go – don’t go as far as you can, because you (think you) can.
Take The Next Turn…
It’s easy to overlook the importance of clear and unambiguous directions to pupils during lessons (and on their tests). Not doing so is a mistake that all of us will have made at one time or another.
Years ago, not long after I qualified, I was doing a roundabouts session with a pupil. As we sat at traffic lights just before this one particular multi-lane roundabout I was emphasising that she should stay in lane and follow it around to the second exit. She queried it, and I naively said ‘just follow that car in front’. She did, and we negotiated the roundabout perfectly. Yes, I know what could have happened, because half a mile further on it did. She unexpectedly turned off into a side road. When I asked why she’d done it, she replied ‘you said to follow that car’. Rule #1: make sure you cancel an instruction when it is no longer valid – even if you think a later instruction has superseded it. And don’t ask them to follow other cars – they’ll do that often enough without any encouragement.
Much more recently, I had a pupil with an irritating habit of asking where we were going before we got anywhere near a junction. On this particular day I’d asked him to stop it because it was causing confusion. Anyway, we were driving back to his school and, as we got near it, we sailed past the normal turn-off (he’d been routinely driving this route unaided on lessons). I thought he may be taking an alternative route and didn’t say anything, but a little further on – when I realised how far out of our way we were heading – something dawned on me, and I asked: ‘did you deliberately go straight ahead back there because I told you not to keep trying to guess where we’re going?’ He replied: ‘yes’. I wasn’t pleased. Rule #2: pupils can be stupid and childish – don’t make it easier for them to do it.
Some learners are so highly strung that they’re like firecrackers next to an open fire. The slightest spark – even just saying something – can be enough to make them go off with a bang. A few years ago, I had a guy who had social and personal issues. On one lesson we were accelerating on a 40mph road, and I said calmly: ‘now put it into 3rd gear’. I’m not exaggerating, but his hand spread out like a trawling net, and he went first for the handbrake, then the radio, brushed the gear stick, and then attempted to pull something non-existent under the dashboard just to the left of the steering column. Rule #3: pupils can be very unpredictable – be ready for anything.
Allowing for these types of behaviour, the ADI has to be really careful not to make matters worse. Even the best pupils can begin to act on a direction before you’ve finished giving it. Therefore, directions such as ‘turn right at the end of the road’ could quite literally lead you up someone’s garden path (or into a canal). A much better structure is ‘at the end of the road, turn right’. That way, there’s nothing they can act on until you get it all out. For this reason, it makes sense to sit in on a few tests and listen to the way the examiner gives instructions. Also, look up the terminology in the examiners’ SOP (DT1).
Hear, Hear
Most pupils can hear their mobile phone in their handbag when it receives a text message over the sound of the engine, wind, rain, and a full-on rock concert. Indeed, most can hear it vibrate even when it’s switched to silent. But if you say something like: ‘at the roundabout, we’re going straight ahead 2nd exit. Follow the A52 markings towards Nottingham. Stay in the left-hand lane’, what they actually hear is more like: “blahblahblah blahblahblahblah blah blahblahblah blahblahblah blah LEFT blahblah blahblahblah”. Be prepared for the possibility of a James Bond style left turn on two wheels. This gets better over time for most of them, but it is a genuine issue that the ADI needs to be aware of.
On a related note, most pupils – especially the girls – can see a squirrel in a tree three quarters of a mile away and are more than happy to execute an emergency stop to avoid any possibility of harming it. They’re not quite as good when it comes to seeing pedestrians on a crossing just in front of them.
Cut To The Chase
To summarise, you don’t need a whole encyclopaedia of clever sayings and phrases. In all honesty, if that’s what you consider makes someone a good instructor then you’re not going to be around for very long. A good instructor cuts through the crap and gets his or her message across clearly and concisely, and in a way the particular pupil understands (so concentrate more on finding out what vocabulary they have) – and so gets on with the important business of teaching people to drive.
This article was originally published in 2013, but it’s been popular recently, so I have updated it. I’ve also written a more detailed explanation about why fuel is priced in tenths of a penny, here.
I’ve noticed that sometimes – and I stress sometimes – the petrol pumps at my local garages jump by 1p after I’ve finished filling my car. I usually notice it if I’m trying to put a round number of pounds worth of fuel in – so if I’m aiming for £40.00, I’ll just hit it, and when I get inside the amount payable is £40.01. Looking on the web, other people have noticed it too, and they are putting it down to some sort of scam. But it isn’t.
Q. When I put the petrol nozzle back the meter clocked up one penny when I was not delivering any fuel, is there a fault on the pump?
A. Sometimes the price advances when you close the nozzle and return it to storage. This can be caused by the hose swelling slightly which allows a fractional amount of fuel to pass through the meter. Because of the high price in petrol only a very small amount of fuel is needed for the price display to change by 1 penny therefore this problem is much more prevalent now than it used to be. One penny’s worth of fuel only equates to a very small amount and is well within the permitted tolerances of -0.5% and +1%. However, if the price increases by more than 1 penny please let Consumer Direct know on 08454 04 05 06.
Those tolerances mean that for every 1,000mls (litre) of fuel you pump, you can legally get anywhere between 995mls and 1010mls. If fuel costs £1.20 per litre, that means you might get 0.6p less fuel than you paid for, or 1.2p more. On a full tank in a standard car, that works out at up to 24p less or 48p more fuel than you actually paid for, respectively. I stress again that this is perfectly legal and is due to the reliability and accuracy of the pumps. Coventry Trading Standards explains it this way. As Trading Standards say, it is well within all the legal tolerances.
A tick over of 1p is insignificant within this legally acceptable range.
Most of the time it is perfectly possible to put an exact value of fuel in and it doesn’t click over. In fact, it happened more back in 2013 – when the price of fuel was up around £1.40 a litre – than it does in 2017 (I haven’t noticed it recently). And yet people are still convinced that there’s a small bloke wearing a striped jersey and a mask sitting inside the pump doing it on purpose. It isn’t a scam, and it isn’t deliberate. It’s just a combination of maths and science.
If you’re worried about it, don’t put piddling amounts in your tank – fill the damned thing up once a week instead of putting a tenner in every other day. One penny on a tank full is a lot less significant than it is on each of four lots of £10.00. And it means you won’t keep snarling up the forecourts for the rest of us as you pay for it on one of your bloody Visa cards.
And one more thing – a tip, really. You often find that the nozzle has got well over 1p of fuel sitting in it when you lift it out of the holster – so turn it upside down to drain it into your tank before you pull the trigger. And do the same thing before you put it back. That should be enough to stop all the sleepless nights you’re having over those pesky 1p muggings you reckon you’re getting – you’ll be getting someone else’s fuel for nothing!
Why do pumps always jump by 1p?
They don’t. They just do sometimes, for the reasons I’ve explained above.
It never happens when I put in 20 or 30 litres of fuel, instead of £20 or £30
Actually, it can. But because of the 0.9p or 0.7p they tag on to fuel prices, aiming for a specific price instead of a quantity puts you close to the tick over point, whereas aiming for a round volume probably puts you somewhere halfway between two points. Pumping 20L at 119.9p per litre will give a nice round £23.98, whereas £20 works out at 16.6806L of fuel. That 0.6ml is going to get rounded up.
It’s definitely a scam
No, it isn’t. Do you really think they designed them with a line in the software that says:
if (ran == 0) then price = price + 0.01;
The 1p is just an occasional rounding up. It is not a scam.
This is a complete rewrite of the original 2018 article. It applies to my own renewal process this year which – in the end – ran quite smoothly.
I received an email from DVSA at the start of April 2022 warning me that my Green Badge (my licence to teach) expired later in the year and would need to be renewed. It informed me that the first thing I needed to do was obtain an up-to-date Enhanced Criminal Record Disclosure. DVSA provided a link to the company which now handles this – First Advantage (FADV).
I immediately set about applying, only to find that FADV’s website was down. However, after some emails to DVSA and FADV, the latter kickstarted the process.
Step 1 is to complete the FADV online form. I made sure I used the date I passed my driving test (because of what happened last time) as the ‘valid from’ date, and that my bank statement was dated from at least yesterday (also because of what happened last time). My passport was my third document. Once I was happy with everything, I printed the form off.
Step 2 is to take the form, along with your documents, to a suitable Post Office to have it officially checked. Last time, the only office which did this check near me was the main Post Office in Nottingham city centre, which is an absolute pain to get to, and an even worse one to have to endure. Fortunately, it now seems that almost all small Post Offices (other than the really tiny ones in some village stores) can do this check, so I took mine to a local one I use regularly after checking (and was surprised to discover) that it provided the service. It’s called the Branch Verification Service, and you can find out which Post Offices near you provide it here.
Last time, they were intent on rejecting my application (the ‘valid from’ date on my driving licence being a major annoyance), and I had to make two visits – which I was not at all happy about. This time, they completed the check in less time than it takes to send a parcel.
I monitored the progress of my application, the trigger for which is when the Post Office approves your application. After about a week, I got an email from First Advantage informing me I had moved to ‘the next stage of processing’. The same day, I got an email from DVSA, advising me that my criminal record certificate had been accepted by the Registrar and I could remain on the Register until my current badge expired. It also clearly pointed out that I should apply for my new badge early in the month my existing one expires. I set an alarm in my online calendar for 1 October 2022.
A few days later, my own copy of the Disclosure arrived in the post. You need to make sure you don’t lose this, because you’ll need some details from it when you eventually apply to renew your badge.
All of this took under one month (and it would have been less if it hadn’t been for the usual issues getting a paper copy of my bank statement, which added over a week to the timeline).
Step 3 is the application for renewal of your badge. I began mine on 1 October 2022, and since that was a Saturday, nothing happened until 3 October, when it showed up as ‘pending renewal’. By 6 October, the expiry date on my licence shown by IRDT had changed from October 2022 to October 2026. My new badge arrived on 10 October 2022.
The renewal process uses the IRDT system, so make sure you are registered with it, and that you can log in, well before you need to do it for real. You will need the reference number and issue date from your Enhanced Disclosure in order to complete the application. Also don’t forget that there is a renewal fee of £300 (current for October 2022) to be paid upon application. There is also a GOV.UK link to renew your approved driving instructor (ADI) registration, which simply links to IRDT.
IMPORTANT: If anything goes wrong at any stage in all this, get it sorted quickly by phoning or emailing either FADV or DVSA. Do not let time run out. Make sure that each stage goes to completion and is not left hanging, because the next one won’t be triggered if the one before it has stalled.
I get quite a few queries asking what to do now when someone can’t log in somewhere, or has just left it far too late. One person a couple of years ago hadn’t even applied for their DBS at the start of the month their licence ran out!
Just a word of advice to anyone who is starting driving lessons.
Right now, in Nottingham, if you wanted to book a practical driving test and there were any not yet taken, you would be looking at March 2023 for your test date. It’s six months – and when new dates are added each week, they disappear quickly.
You cannot book your practical test until you have passed your theory test. The waiting time for these is much shorter, and I am advising my new pupils to pass it as soon as possible so we can book a practical test and work towards it (six months is usually more than enough for most new learners). I point out that each week they delay booking their theory test just adds another week to whenever their practical test will be once we can get one booked.
Driving tests are government-issued events. They are not like candy you buy from the store.
And if you want to change your practical test booking, use only this link.
DO NOT search for how to do it on Google or any other search engine. If you are really so stubborn as to insist on doing so, go to GOV.UK – and nowhere else – and do it from there. Because if you DO go anywhere else, you will be scammed – at least out of some money, and quite possibly by not even getting a test. If you book through the government website, you get a test immediately (if any are available – if they’re not, you can’t book). If you are told they will ‘get back to you’ then you have been scammed, and it’s your own fault. Only GOV.UK can officially provide driving tests.
Yes, it is possible you might find a cancellation date sooner than six months hence. But this is in no way guaranteed – more people are looking for them than there are cancellations, so getting one is a matter of luck.
And yes, you can sign up to a cancellation checking service, but with these you have less control over the date and, in many cases, the venue. People who use them often get dates before they are truly ready to pass, often at as test centre they aren’t familiar with, so they fail, and then have to go through the whole process yet again, spending more money (and taking longer) than they might have done if they’d have just stuck with a normally booked driving test date at the test centre nearest to them.
It is also worth noting that DVSA is trying to block many of these services. After all, the dates available have to come from somewhere, and if the cancellation checker has them, you – and the tens of thousands of others learning to drive – don’t unless you pay the cancellation checker for them.
My only conditions concerning accepting cancellation bookings, however obtained, are:
it must be at Colwick, Chilwell, or Watnall – you can forget Derby and Loughborough
if it’s at Chilwell and you live in Hucknall, you’re not doing 1-hour lessons anymore
likewise, if it’s at Colwick and you live in Long Eaton, change it or find another instructor
if it overlaps with another test, I can’t do it
it must be when you are test ready – not before
if you’re crap with roundabouts right now, think twice about cancellations at Watnall
you are not just ‘going to have a go’ in my car
I don’t give a damn what your mum or dad has said
I am opposed to these services for the same reasons as DVSA. They are unfair on the majority, and they mess up learning schedules. I tolerate them – but not if the original test date of next year, which gave me time to teach someone to drive doing 1 hour a week, has been switched to three weeks away and they’re still beginners. And especially not if they then cancel their next two lessons (and yes, I blocked someone a few months ago for precisely that).
So, in summary. When you start your driving lessons (this is current for October 2022):
start revising for your theory test as soon as possible
book your theory test as soon as possible
do regular driving lessons
as soon as you have passed your theory, book your practical (assuming a 6-month wait)
do not book a cancellation date – you can try that later
accept that it takes time to learn, and six months is not that long once you live it
I had a test booked for next Monday, and when I found out that The Queen’s funeral was that day I wondered what would be happening – particularly as momentum has been building with planned closures by other businesses.
I just received this email:
DVSA services suspended on 19 September 2022 following sad death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Our thoughts are with His Majesty King Charles III and the Royal Family at this sad time. In line with National Mourning guidance our services will continue during the mourning period. We are suspending all but our most essential services on 19 September due to the Bank Holiday and State Funeral, allowing individuals, businesses and other organisations to pay their respects to Her Majesty.
We appreciate your patience and understanding during this period of national mourning.
Practical tests
We will contact your pupils with a test booked on 19 September 2022 to let them know their test has been suspended. Tests will be automatically re-booked for the first available date. If you booked a test for your pupil on 19 September you need to let them know that their test will not go ahead.
Theory tests
All theory tests have been suspended on 19 September 2022. We will be contacting all of your pupils who are affected to let them know how to choose a new date for their theory test.
ADI part 2 and 3 tests and standards checks
All ADI part 2, 3 tests and standards checks have been suspended on 19 September. We will contact all affected ADIs and PDIs with the earliest possible new test date.
You can move your rescheduled test on GOV.UK for ADI part 2 and 3 tests or by emailing standardschecks@dvsa.gov.uk for standards checks.
Driving lessons
There is no obligation on you to suspend your business during the National Mourning period. However you may wish to consider closing, especially on the day of the State Funeral, however this is your choice.
Online services
Our online services will be available as usual on Monday 19 September.
I originally published this article in 2010 during the last recession, when people had been finding the blog on search terms along the lines of “can I go bankrupt as an ADI”, and “can I become an ADI if I’m bankrupt”. I updated it in March 2020 when the Covid Pandemic started as a result of a sudden spike in interest – I have changed that part to italics in the post below (it is still valid but no longer current).
Bankruptcy is a legal process involving a person or business which is unable to repay outstanding debts. So, in short, if you can’t pay your bills then yes, you can easily become bankrupt as an ADI. If you are relying on self-employment to earn money the responsibility for success (and failure) lies entirely with you.
Technically, bankruptcy is intended to help both the debtor and the creditors. It takes away the debtor’s debts, and attempts to recoup at least some of the creditors’ outstanding money. However, by having been declared bankrupt, the debtor may find that life is harder in future. They will find it extremely hard to get any sort of credit, for example, and even opening a bank account might prove troublesome.
Unfortunately, it is usually the debtor who comes off worse. In the case of driving instructors, their business probably has very few assets with which to offset their debts (no buildings, factories, machinery, etc.) apart from their car. However, if they own a house, that is worth much more and might be at risk if things go that far.
There is no barrier to being self-employed (which 99.9% of ADIs are) whilst bankrupt, but you can’t be a director of a limited company. As a sole trader you won’t have any trouble though – but make sure you fulfil your duties to HMRC (the taxman) in accordance with your bankruptcy terms. Read up on this carefully.
For prospective ADIs, I would doubt that previous or current bankruptcy would affect your chances of being accepted on to the register of ADIs. In some cases, if your bankruptcy was a result of unscrupulous or even criminal activities, then it might. It is whether you are a fit and proper person that counts, and only DVSA can decide on that. I can’t tell you, and certainly none of the comedians on social media can, though they’ll have a fine old time trying to. However, being a declared bankrupt seriously affects your credit rating, and you may run into issues sourcing a car or even being able to sign up to a franchise (I’ve already mentioned the likely difficulty opening a bank account if you don’t already have one).
The short answer is yes, you can be an ADI if you are bankrupt – but it isn’t definite, and there may be other obstacles to contend with.
Now we come to the present situation. Once again, no one can tell you what is going to happen – there are still idiots claiming that this is ‘just flu’ and saying it will all blow over. To anyone who isn’t still swinging through trees and eating bananas as a career, though, it is clearly very serious, and there is every likelihood it will last for some time.
Most ADIs will be extremely concerned, and worrying how they are going to manage.
The most important thing is not to sit back and do nothing. You need to contact your creditors – whoever they are – and ask for help and advice. Do that as soon as possible. Remember that they are fully aware of the situation, and contrary to what those swinging through the trees will tell you on social media they are not trying to destroy you or your business. Frankly, and I’m thinking well ahead now, if any do refuse to help, just plan for when all this does end so that you can sue them into oblivion (or at least have the satisfaction of telling people what they were like on social media and review sites)!
Every conversation you have will be different. Don’t be confrontational, and work to a mutually acceptable payment plan. If you can do that, you’ll stave off bankruptcy. It’s when you can’t pay anything at all that the likelihood of it happening increases. Propose a suggested payment scheme, and bear in mind that they all know what the situation is right now and will probably surprise you with how accommodating they are. So don’t panic.
Another option is to use a debt management company, who can handle all of this for you. Ignore people on social media who tell you to avoid them – this is bankruptcy we’re talking about, which is never to be taken lightly, and you need all the help you can get. When I lost my previous job all those years ago I had a lot of debts (almost £30,000), and it was such a company who got me through it without declaring bankruptcy (and this is just the one I used, so there are others you could consider). It is also worth nothing that at the time, my credit rating was almost zero, whereas now it is as high as it could possibly be. You can survive, and you can recover. But not if you listen to people on social media. Remember that the clue is the word ‘social’ – you’ll be getting a collective opinion, most of which is wrong in the first place.
A word for the future. Being self-employed is always high-risk when situations like this arise. It’s not just when epidemics, the like of which no one has ever experienced before come along, but personal illness and injury. The cash flow can stop in an instant, putting your home and other assets at risk.
I survived the Pandemic, but many didn’t and gave up instructing. I’ve written about this elsewhere, but far too many instructors assume that every penny of their lesson fee is theirs once they take fuel costs off it. It isn’t. For every £25 an ADI takes (assuming a 30 lesson week), probably only around half of that is his once his business overheads are covered. And then, about 20% of what’s left belongs to the tax man. But far too many spend that £25 as if it’s all theirs.
About a month ago I was rear-ended by some idiot at a pedestrian crossing. As a result, my car went in for repair and I had a replacement/courtesy car supplied – which was totally different to my normal car. It took me a few days to properly figure out how it worked (absolutely everything was controlled from a touchscreen system). It scared some of my pupils shitless.
I had one pupil whose test was approaching. She was away with the fairies as far as lane discipline was concerned – she simply had little or no awareness of them when she was driving. But we’d already postponed her test once as a result by over six months, and to be fair I had managed to improve her a lot. But I still wasn’t 100% happy.
But she didn’t like the substitute car. She texted me and told me she was going in her own car as a result. I fist-pumped and shouted ‘yesss’ when I got that text. We did a few more lessons and I made sure she had everything she needed to give it her best shot. And she only went and bloody well passed! Quite a high number of driver faults, it has to be said, but at least my badge wasn’t involved.
Then, I took on another pupil. He’d been taught by his parents and his driving was outstanding – seriously good. The only significant issue was the manoeuvres, none of which he had been taught, and his theory test (which he hadn’t done). So I got him to book his theory, and started covering manoeuvres with him. We did four lessons, during which he passed his theory first time, and then I got him to book his practical – which was in November.
I got a text a couple of weeks ago and he’d got a cancellation date. But it coincided with another test I had booked (ironically, I turned up for that one today and then discovered DVSA had cancelled it and moved it to August), and it was at a test centre outside of Nottingham, which I didn’t cover. So we agreed he would go in his own car with his mum. My only concern was we hadn’t polished the manoeuvres, but I pointed out that apart from that he had a bloody good chance of passing.
And he passed with a clean sheet! Zero faults. In a place he’d never driven before.
His parents are singing my praises and have already referred someone to me as a result. I’m happy with that, of course, but I am quick to point out it was his parents who actually taught him (and the whole family is really nice) – I just polished a few rough bits, aided immeasurably by the fact he was an outstanding driver. And he’s going to do Pass Plus with me.
So, apart from not getting official DVSA credit for the passes (especially the clean sheet), I’ve avoided the higher faults of one against my name, and got what is likely to result in a lot more work from the other.
Someone found the blog on the term ‘what bank should I use as an instructor’?
The answer is simple: It doesn’t matter who you bank with.
All you need to be able to do is pay money in and get it out when you need it. As a sole trader, you really don’t need a business account (which usually has a monthly fee of attached to it, and extra fees for depositing cheques), but if that’s what you want then it’s up to you. Some banks will try to insist you have a business account if you bank with them, but my advice would be to find another one unless you’re happy to be charged for something most will provide to instructors and sole traders for free,
Personally, I bank with Halifax, and all my money goes into and comes out of the same personal account. The vast majority of my driving instructor income goes in either via my card reader or as cash deposits. Slightly less often, it goes in via bank transfer or via a direct PayPal payment. I never accept cheques as lesson payments now.
This article was originally written quite while ago, and at the time cheques were the only source of payment problems I ever had. I can’t ever remember any ‘bouncing’, but how they were filled in quite often meant they weren’t honoured by the bank and I had to get a replacement (creasing, smudging, and incorrect or incomplete information were the usual culprits). This was made worse by the bank’s Victorian efficiency, which meant failed cheques might take weeks or months to get back to you, and you’d have to chase them up. In at least one case, the pupil had passed their test and was no longer with me. It created annoying administrative issues getting it sorted, and cheques have no immediate value until you have banked them. Nowadays, the banking apps let you scan them, but they still get rejected if the signature is smudged, and the three working days to clear if they’re accepted.
About 10-20% of my turnover is still cash, and I can easily accrue as much as £1,000 in my wallet, so I still have to physically pay money in occasionally.
I have to be honest and say that Halifax is utterly crap at branch level. For a start, there aren’t many branches left, and those that there are will be located in busy pedestrian areas. You have to find somewhere to park, and in West Bridgford that means having to pay (the traffic wardens hunt in packs, ready to pounce on anyone whose ticket has a crease in it or is placed crookedly on the dashboard). In Arnold, you might find a roadside parking space, but otherwise you have to pay there, too. West Bridgford town centre during the day is like a geriatric village of the damned, and even if the car park has spaces, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to get to any of them because of elderly and disabled drivers blocking the road waiting for a disabled bay to become available, or trying to avoid buying a ticket while they wait for their partner to come back from shopping. In the afternoon, mummies in Chelsea tractors do the same as they pick their kids up in the car park, or wait for a space nearer the shops instead of driving 20m round the other side where there’s lots of empty places.
If you do manage to park and get into the Halifax branch before it’s random early closure on random days, the size of the queue at the till (and the complexity of the transaction each member of it is trying to complete) is inversely proportional to how big a hurry you are in. There’ll be women with pushchairs whose kids are running around screaming, people with bags of coins, those making withdrawals as if they’ve never heard of a cashpoint, and several elderly people with bank books who behave as though they’ve never done this before when they get to the till (and who immediately go straight to the cashpoint to make sure the money has gone in, and often to take some out again).
The number of cashiers on duty is not proportional to anything. They only ever have one unless the number in the queue is approaching three digits. Then they still have one. But sometimes two, although that isn’t proportional to anything either.
On the now-rare occasions I have used the cashier, the simplest possible act of paying cash into your account takes five minutes. This, too, isn’t proportional to anything. It just takes five minutes – possibly a bit longer if you have a lot of cash and what they count isn’t the same as what you counted. The vast majority of that five minutes is taken up by their printing device, which takes nearly that long to chisel your receipt on to small clay tablet of a non-standard size somewhere between a business card and a coaster.
Of course, there is the Fast Deposit machine. This miracle of technology does exactly the same thing as the cashier, and it even takes exactly as long as the cashier. All without involving the cashier at all. Brilliant. Except that Halifax branch staff have been encouraging as many people as possible to use it to try and keep the queue for the till inside the building, and this also meant training people how to use it. Christ, the first time I used it I did it with no help and just followed the instructions. I was also in possession of the knowledge that anything with rollers (like scanner and photocopier feeders) tend to respond badly to staples and paper clips, and this thing would be similarly vulnerable, so the clear warning label not to put staples and paperclips in it was unnecessary. However, people are stupid, and the machine is not working at least half the time because some prat has got a staple jammed in it, and the branch staff can’t fix it themselves and have to call in an engineer (which takes a week).
But even when it is working, if there’s more than one person waiting to use it, you’re no better off than standing in line waiting for the cashier. It was that which led to my last ever visit late last year.
I went in, and there was the usual queue of at least eight people for the single cashier. There was only one person at the Fast Deposit gizmo, but it quickly became clear he was having a financial discussion of some sort on his phone. He had several cards and a thick wad of cash. He wasn’t actually using the machine, but he was going to, and the supernumerary cards suggested the money wasn’t all going into the same account. So he was effectively three or more people – all of them f***ing stupid – all by himself. I stormed out – I swore audibly – and when I got home began looking for another bank.
If I’d have calmed down a bit, I would have realised that it was going to be the same whoever I banked with if I needed to visit a branch. Years ago, while I was with HSBC, I went into the now closed branch in Keyworth, only to get stuck behind a local farmer who was paying in hundreds of pounds in coins! And whenever I used to go in NatWest or Barclays, the cashier getting up and disappearing in order to deal with whatever the idiot at the front of the queue was trying to do would make my blood boil. But it was while I was angrily looking for a new bank that I discovered I was now able to pay into my Halifax account at the Post Office (several years earlier I’d checked, and at that time I couldn’t).
At first glance, this might not seem the panacea it has turned out to be. The kinds of people who frequent Post Offices are typically a hundred times more stupid than those queuing at the bank branches. I mean, I recently got stuck behind someone in a Post Office (Clifton) who was apparently an eBay seller, and they had at least 30 small packages, each of which had to be individually bagged and labelled for some unfathomable reason, even though most would have readily fit a Post Box opening (when I sell on eBay, I bag and label at home, and only use the Post Office as a drop off if they won’t fit in a post box). Another time, in a different branch (Farndon Green), the elderly Postmaster-cum-village-shop-owner was having a chat with an elderly customer. They both stared at me as I entered, and carried on with their conversation. I nearly walked out. And another time, in still another branch (Tollerton), I went and stood at the Post Office counter whilst the shopkeeper (and his wife) dealt with customers at the shop counter. It became clear he was conducting the Post Office from the shop counter, and more people had come in. As I went to walk out, he said ‘can I help you?’ I replied ‘no, it’s OK’ and left. I will never go in that place again. But the major advantage of Post Offices is that there are a lot more of them than there are bank branches, parking is usually a doddle, and there is always one either very close to home, or along the route as you are driving between lessons. And paying cash or cheques in at a Post Office is quick – I am usually in and out in less than two minutes.
Why don’t you accept cheques?
There is no need. Anyone who uses cheques to pay for stuff will have a cheque guarantee card, and these days those things are chip & pin cards. Since I can take card payments, a cheque is a pointless complication. The only possible benefit is for someone who wanted to defer payment by however long it takes for me to bank it, plus however long it takes my bank and theirs to process it. If I didn’t pay it in immediately, there’s an increased chance that they will be skint again by the time I did. For me, there is no benefit at all, since it forces me to risk a rejected cheque and all of the hassle that follows.
Other instructors take cheques
That’s because they can’t take card payments, meaning that unless they get paid in cash (including driving the pupil to a cashpoint to obtain it), or do it by bank/PayPal transfer, a cheque is the only alternative. Getting pupils to pay by bank or PayPal transfer is a hassle in itself, as is driving to cash machines a lot of the time (especially when they’re out of order or there’s traffic). When mine do it by transfer, I often have to keep chasing them because they ‘forget’. I’ve got better things to do,
What if people can only pay you by cheque?
That’s a complete non-issue these days. The number of people in the entire country who are truly in that position could be counted on the fingers of one hand. If they can write cheques, they will need a cheque guarantee card, and that doubles as a chip & pin – which I can accept directly. If the bank won’t give them one, there is probably a damned good reason for it, and I have no desire whatsoever to find out why by accepting non-guaranteed cheques from them.
I can handle cheques. I choose not to as a routine method of payment because there is no good reason for them except to delay money leaving someone’s account.
Why bother with a card machine?
It’s quick, and I get paid immediately. There’s no chasing, and no risk of loss to me. Since I started using such a device nearly I have taken several hundreds of thousands of pounds with it (and yes, it all gets declared when I do my taxes, as does any cash I take). It also means I have good records for tax purposes. Frankly, I wish everyone would pay by card, but it isn’t uncommon for people to have their own reasons for insisting on cash – even if it involves as much as £700 for a complete course!
Isn’t it illegal to use a personal account for business transactions?
No. You only need a business account if you are a limited company. Sole traders – such as ADIs – are operating perfectly legally if they use a personal account. The only reason for choosing a business account would be that it is separate and might keep things simple for when you do your tax return – but it isn’t that hard in the first place for instructors.
Note also that some banks don’t like it if you use a personal account this way and will expect you to open a business account – and close your personal one if you don’t. That’s between you and the bank’s policies, and not a legal issue.
HMRC will audit you if you use a personal account
That is completely false. I’ve been doing this job for a long time and I have never been audited. I wouldn’t be worried if I was, because my accounts are clear (and true). HMRC are far more interested in you if your numbers don’t add up properly – if your profit ratio isn’t what it should be, or if your declared turnover doesn’t ring true, for example.
I’ve not written about Covid in a while, though I have had to deal with many situations involving it in working as an ADI.
I’ve explained previously, but I am carer to my two elderly parents, both of whom have age-related health issues which put them in the ‘extremely vulnerable’ group as far as Covid is concerned. I make it absolutely clear to all my pupils that they must tell me if they test positive, and I explain clearly why. And all of them have done so.
Two weeks ago, a pupil who is pregnant got it. So we cancelled for ten days. Although it may not be related (though evidence suggests it could be), she is now suffering from pre-eclampsia and has been in and out of hospital with high blood pressure and the other symptoms. I hope it works out for her and her baby.
But that is an aside. I got a text from a pupil this morning cancelling her lesson tomorrow because she has just tested positive for Covid. I also got a message from another pupil – who is a work colleague of/referral from the first – cancelling her next lesson on Saturday (she also had one Sunday and Monday, as her test is coming up).
I casually texted back that her friend had tested positive, and would she do a LFT before our Sunday lesson, and she came back with ‘yes, I know. She caught it off me’!
The penny didn’t immediately drop, since she told me she was back at work tomorrow (Thursday). But once it did drop, I asked her when she tested positive herself. Saturday – less than five days ago! And she has symptoms – she’s all croaky – and yet her employer (she’s a teaching assistant) wants her back tomorrow.
If you have COVID-19, you can pass on the virus to other people for up to 10 days from when your infection starts…
You should:
try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for 5 days
avoiding meeting people at higher risk from COVID-19 for 10 days, especially if their immune system means they’re at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19, even if they’ve had a COVID-19 vaccine
This starts from the day after you did the test.
I spoke with her this evening and she fully accepts the need to suspend lessons for the 10-day quarantine period.
But I cannot believe her employer wants her back while she is still unwell.
This article was originally published in 2013, but it’s been popular recently, so I have updated it. I’ve also written a more detailed explanation about 
I originally published this article in 2010 during the last recession, when people had been finding the blog on search terms along the lines of “can I go bankrupt as an ADI”, and “can I become an ADI if I’m bankrupt”. I updated it in March 2020 when the Covid Pandemic started as a result of a sudden spike in interest – I have changed that part to italics in the post below (it is still valid but no longer current).
Sometimes you couldn’t make it up.
