This article appeared in today’s Daily Mail in a sort of agony column for people who think they’re middle-class investors. A woman – presumably at least middle-aged – from Surrey, writes:
I paid for my grandson to have driving lessons with the AA and feel I have been taken for a ride.
He has had 38 lessons and in that time has reversed round a corner once, has had no parking tuition and has not done an emergency stop.
It appears he spent long periods parked up talking while his instructor was having a smoke.
He changed to an independent instructor, who said his driving standard was the level of someone who had received only six lessons.
My complaint to the AA has been going on for nearly 11 months, in which time they have replied just twice.
Obviously, the most likely first reaction from many people is “tut-tut. Shocking” But it’s worth pointing out a few things.
It’s virtually impossible to prevent people from learning when you are teaching them to drive. So if this learner is only as good as someone who has had 6 lessons, the signs definitely don’t point to him being that quick out of the starting gate when it comes to driving.
On the same point, any instructor who thinks he can make such an assessment is an idiot! I can imagine this “independent” wetting his trousers when the opportunity to bad mouth a national driving school came his way.
I’ve said before that ALL (close enough to 100% for me to use the word) instructors are self-employed. It doesn’t matter if an ADI is franchised to the AA, BSM, Red, a local school, or if he’s independent. You’re as likely to get a good/bad one wherever you go. The only genuine difference between an AA instructor and an independent one is that the former will pay money to the AA to supply him with a car and pupils, whereas the independent one will supply his own car and pupils. The chances of either of them being complete pillocks is identical.
It’s worth remembering that many, many, MANY independent ADIs were once franchised to one of the national schools. In these inclement economic times, many of independents are going back to franchises. They’re all still the same people. All that changes is the rubbish they come out with depending on which way they’ve jumped.
If this instructor stopped to have a smoke in pupils’ paid time, my own opinion is that he should be struck off the register and be tarred and feathered. It’s a filthy habit, and if you’re so pathetically desperate that you can’t wait for an hour or two to have a smoke, then you’re a weak-minded prat who has no business doing this job. But that’s just me.
The old granny who writes about her beloved grandson is probably under the impression that independents don’t smoke or something stupid like that. Well, I can assure her that we’ve got one up here who does (many of instructors do, in fact). He smokes on lessons and he stinks (many do). He’s even smoked in the Colwick toilets before (several have done). It was because of him – and several others – that the manager had to put signs up, which quite clearly state that people had been doing it. When you’re sitting in the test centre, many of them have to walk down the driveway to have a smoke (and some just do it outside, in spite of the signs there).
So in a nutshell, the problem is a grandma who wants to blame her grandson’s limitations on someone else. The only issues of any relevance, though, are the instructor smoking and maybe the lack of communication from the AA.
The columnist, Tony Hazell, makes some idiotic comment about the average number of lessons – erm, Tony, an “average” has a spread BOTH sides of it. Think before you offer stupid advice to someone who is already confused.
My fastest ever (no previous experience) was 17.5 hours. My longest was in the mid hundreds (can’t remember if it was 140 or 160 now). The Golden Grandson does not appear to be sub-20 hour material, though Doting Granny obviously thinks he is.
