Category - Training

Someone sent this to me recently, and I thought I’d tidy it up, add a few bits, and reproduce it here. It’s in the form of an open letter to a problem pupil. To be honest, I think it’s a composite of various pupils, but I think most of us can relate to at least part of it (note: I believe that the original came from somewhere around London and the Home Counties).

Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You recently accused me of shouting at you on a lesson when your test was only ONE WEEK away. I listened to you, and decided that the written word might convey my sentiments more diplomatically than what I really wanted to say to your face at the time.

You came to me barely EIGHT WEEKS ago. You told me on the telephone that you could already drive, and had been doing so on a full licence in your home country in Africa – and more recently in Europe – for “many years”. Your plan was to “learn the test routes” and the British roads.

On our first lesson you could barely move the car without either stalling it, or lurching off with a wheel spin. Each time you stopped, the contents of the rear seat transferred themselves to the front. Indeed, stopping didn’t initially appear to be a problem for you, as you did it every time you saw another car moving even vaguely towards us, in the middle of junctions and roundabouts where we had clear right of way, and in sundry other situations. However, once we moved to busier roads it was apparent that your stopping skills were less reliable around pedestrian crossings and red lights. At least once on each of the FIVE LESSONS you have had during our time together I have had to stop the car for you either to  prevent us hitting a pedestrian or in order to comply with UK Law regarding red lights. Your clutch control has improved, but even on our most recent lesson you once again found moving away from your house problematic. The ache in my arm by the end reminded me that I had spent more time controlling the steering from my side than you had from yours. If I suggest that you use the handbrake when we are stopped, you invariably forget about it and try to move off with it engaged. Conversely, if I let you do it your way, we invariably roll back – and then either stall or generate a wheel spin as you react to the roll. For all practical purposes, you are a beginner in all aspects of driving in the UK.

Your speed control is such that I often have to remind you of the speed limit. You frequently do not see road signs at all (you don’t know what many of them mean), and your ability to follow and/or interpret direction signs is non-existent based on the few times I have asked you to follow the signs to somewhere.

You were – and remain – unable to complete any of the standard manoeuvres to anywhere near an acceptable standard. The time available to practice these has been reduced by your issues with basic car control, roundabouts, and road junctions, and the need to address these. On our most recent lesson, and having only done it once before with me, I asked you if you remembered how to reverse around a corner. You furnished me with the answer which is common among your countrymen, who would apparently prefer to demonstrate that they can’t do something instead of just admitting to it up front, and gave me an emphatic “yes”. I expressed surprise, but you were adamant. You then proceeded to do exactly what you did on the first lesson before I had shown you how to do it properly, and moved off without even a glimmer of a safety check. By the time I stopped you we were about to mount the kerb on the opposite side of the road, although you were gazing fixedly at something in the nearside mirror (it certainly wasn’t our nearside kerb).

You are unable to adhere to any sort of lane discipline, and you frequently drive as though there are no road markings at all. Your solution to not knowing where to position the car is to put it “somewhere in the middle”. Having said that, we have had to spend a significant amount of time recently going over two particular roundabouts repeatedly, because no matter how many times you negotiate them, and no matter how many times I get you to tell me you’re going “straight ahead” and you need to be in the lane with the “straight arrow”, as soon as we get there you jiggle the steering and go into the lane with the “left turn” arrow and we end up going left. All this happens when you panic (and especially when the word “roundabout” is mentioned), but you refused to acknowledge that you are in any way “nervous” or “panicked” until the most recent lesson when you let it slip out.

Your uncertainty over your road position in these situations means that even if you appear to be handling a particular junction or roundabout correctly, there is a high probability that as we approach it more closely you will suddenly attempt to fling the car into another lane with no prior mirror checks or signals. Indeed, this has even happened on straight roads, and without warning, when new lanes have appeared in front of us. I am constantly saying “watch the kerb” or grabbing the steering wheel to prevent us mounting the pavement or veering into another road user (which is why my arm aches by the end of our lessons).

Unfortunately, and in spite of what I have mentioned above, from the first moment you got in my car on that initial lesson all you have wanted to do was book your test. You had made it clear you were poorly paid and couldn’t afford many lessons. I explained that being test-ready was about being able to drive, not about taking the smallest number of lessons possible, but my experience in these matters told me you were not listening and just wanted to take a test as soon as you could get one (you would happily have done one that afternoon if you’d have had the chance). I warned you that tests were booking 18 weeks out, but you said that that was too far away. I explained that if you were test-ready we could look for cancellations and 18 weeks would be fine for now.

On our second lesson, you still had not booked a test. Then you told me that one of your friends had informed you that test centre “X” was “easier” than all the others in the county (this was based on the sole criterion that your friend had passed there). I explained that this was factually incorrect. I also pointed out that I didn’t normally cover that test centre as it was further away, and that I wasn’t completely familiar with the roads around it. I advised you to ignore your friend and to book your test at one of the several centres I DID cover (I even explained that one of them had the ACTUAL highest pass rate in the county) . These were closer and we had already driven around some of the typical roads.

You ignored me and booked your test at test centre “X” – because you had come across a cancellation test date that was less than SIX WEEKS away. You then cancelled a lesson and I didn’t see you for more than two weeks. This explains why, having been with me for EIGHT WEEKS, and with only ONE WEEK to go to your test, you have only taken FIVE lessons.

During our lessons your mobile phone chirps merrily away in your pocket. On the most recent one I made you silence it, because it was just too distracting. However, in spite of apparently being at the hub of the technological universe, you steadfastly refuse to answer any of MY texts – and I’m thinking especially of the ones where I was trying to clarify the actual date and time of your test for my diary. I only obtained this information from you on the THIRD lesson, and even then you had to look it up from the DVSA email on your phone. This suggests that you don’t give a damn about MY business and are only interested in what YOU want.

On that third lesson I took you out to the areas covered by test centre “X”, which is very busy. Even though you refused to admit it, you were terrified of every roundabout and every junction. You later claimed that it was because you were on “unfamiliar roads” – I refrained from pointing out that it was YOUR choice to book your test over there, though to be fair to you ALL roads are “unfamiliar” as far as the problems we are encountering go.

Fixing your driving would have been fairly straightforward over 18 weeks. Fixing it over 6 weeks, then losing 2 weeks when you stopped lessons, and concurrent with all this realising the depth of your problems, made it pretty much impossible. On our most recent lesson, I believe that it was my repeated intervention for the reasons mentioned above (most notably, where you AGAIN turned left at one of the roundabouts after telling me clearly what you had seen, what lane you needed, and which exit you should take), combined with your own dawning realisation that there just might be a problem, which led to your accusation that I was “shouting” at you. You also accused me of “not teaching” you. You actually said – with only ONE WEEK to go before your test – that “you should be telling me what to do so I can learn”.

Just for once, and before my blood boils off completely, you will consider MY concerns and do as you are told.

You ARE NOT taking your test next week. You WILL cancel it and move it back. A LONG WAY back. If you don’t like it, you can find another instructor.

I have been “telling you what to do” since the first lesson – and that is part of the problem. I should not be having to “tell you” anything this close to your test, particularly as you keep claiming to “be able to drive”. I have tried to let you drive independently and you can’t. Even a simple left turn can blow up into the most convoluted disaster imaginable if I don’t tell you exactly what to do, and you have learned almost nothing from these instances. You are not as good a driver as you seem to believe, and you are not a particularly fast learner. As I say, I can fix you in 18 weeks, but definitely not within the time frame you have in mind.

When the examiner gets in the car with you, you are ON YOUR OWN. If he has to tell you what to do, grab the wheel, use the brakes, etc. then you WILL fail.

My livelihood depends on retaining my licence to teach. People like you who only want to use my car for a driving test, could easily interfere with that. I have tried to get you ready for your test and – as a result of your complete and utter selfishness in booking a cancellation slot – have failed. Therefore you ARE NOT using my car next week.

Personally, I’ve lost count of the number of poorly-paid overseas pupils I’ve had who reckon they can drive and only want to go to test. Ones who do it in their own cars are the bane of DVSA examiners, as they take test after test with no proper lessons in between. Many are just dangerous, and the frightening thing is that if the examiner doesn’t see anything that the system says he should award a serious fault for, he has to pass that candidate.

I believe that the proposed changes to the driving test – while welcomed by certain inexperienced and naïve instructors – will just make the situation worse. We need a test which can weed out as many bad drivers as possible – not one which helps them pass, which is precisely what the proposed new test will do.

WARNING: This is an old post which my no longer contain accurate information about the Part 3 test. It is still relevant, but some details may no longer be correct.

I’ve been watching a forum thread regarding the Part 3 test and dealing with crossing the path of other traffic. It’s amazing how something so simple can be made so complicated when so many people get involved and then refuse to budge an inch on whatever it was they said in the first place.

Take a look at the Part 3 PST Sheets, which I have made available on this site. Then note the relevant tick box labels, as follows:

• PST 1 – Phase 2 – Crossroads – “Cross approaching traffic”
• PST 2 – Phase 2 – Meet, Cross, Overtake – “Cross approaching traffic”
• PST 3 – Phase 2 – Approaching junctions – “Cross approaching traffic”
• PST 4 – Phase 2 – Junctions emerging – crossing NOT MENTIONED
• PST 7 – Phase 1 – Approaching junctions – “Cross approaching traffic”
• PST 8 – Phase 2 – Meet, Cross, Overtake – “Cross approaching traffic”
• PST 9 – Phase 1 – Crossroads – “Cross approaching traffic”
• PST 10 – Phase 1 – Meet, Cross, Overtake – “Cross other traffic”

So each of these PSTs has a tick box where “crossing” is marked. Now, the Part 3 test is hard enough – and complex enough – without examiners mixing and matching from all the PSTs as the whim takes them on the day. So much so that they don’t mix and match on a whim – it’s just that some trainers argue that they do, and this gets blown out of all proportion.

In theory, a candidate can only be marked against what is on the PST marking sheet. Furthermore, they only have about half an hour to cover each phase – barely enough to cover the essentials, let alone some made-up stuff inserted by the examiner.

Let’s take a look at the ADI 1 document – Guidance for driving examiners carrying out instructor tests. DVSA sometimes doesn’t do itself any favours (it’s aimed at examiners anyway), but what it boils down to is not just PST numbers, but exercise numbers which make up each PST.

Take PST 1. It contains exercise 1B for phase 1 and 10T for phase 2. Exercise 1B is “Safety Precautions on Entering the Car and Explanation of Controls” and the “B” means it is a beginner you’re dealing with (ADI 1 explains this on page 48 as of mid-July 2016). Exercise 10T is covered on page 51, and refers to “Dealing with Crossroads “ for a trained (“T”) driver. This is the important part:

This is a one-part exercise in which the PDI would be expected to deal with the points listed on the relevant ADI 26/PT. Time and conditions permitting the exercise should cover going ahead, turning right and left at all types of crossroads e.g. major to minor, minor to major etc..

You will note once more that the PST marking sheet has a tick box for “cross approaching traffic” on phase 2, and ADI 1 says that if time permits then all aspects of crossroads – including minor to major (i.e. emerging) – should be covered. So “crossing traffic” applies to emerging as well as turning major to minor at crossroads as far as exercise 10T is concerned.

For PST 2, exercise 11T is the one we want. The subject is “meeting, crossing the path of, and overtaking other vehicles”, and although ADI 1 doesn’t explicitly state it, the implication is that you are “crossing” the path of traffic that you’re “meeting” – or in other words, turning right from a major to a minor road. Remember this one, though, as I will discuss it further later.

For PST 3, it is exercise 7T – “approaching and turning corners”. The examiner is directed to use the following wording:

I would like you to instruct me in approaching corners, concentrating particularly on turning right and left into side roads, that is major to minor, assuming that I am at the ‘partly trained’ / ‘trained’  stage’.

The examiner doesn’t explicitly say not to deal with emerging – just to concentrate on left and right turns. Remember this one, too.

For PST 4, exercise 9T does not mention crossing traffic on the PST marking sheet for emerging from T-junctions. ADI 1 says much the same as it does for exercise 10T:

This is a one-part exercise in which the PDI should be encouraged to deal specifically with emerging at T-junctions emerging as distinct from turning right and left into a side road (which is dealt with in exercise 7).  They would be expected to cover the main points mentioned on the relevant ADI 26/PT and, time and conditions permitting, emerging should be applied as many times as possible to the left and to the right at both open and closed ‘T’ junctions.

For PST 7, it is exercise 7P (“P” is for partly trained) – “approaching junctions to turn left or right” – which carries the same description as for 7T on PST 3.

For PST 8, exercise 11T – “meet, cross, overtake” – is used again (as in PST 2).

For PST 9, exercise 10P – “crossroads” – carries the same description as for 10T on PST 1.

For PST 10, exercise 11P – “meet, cross, overtake” – carries the same description as for 11T on PSTs 2 and 8.

What is clear from this is that not all exercises are equal. Some are, of course, but some most definitely aren’t – “crossroads” appears in two PSTs and specifically lumps entering and emerging in with the subject of crossing the path of other traffic; and both occurrences of  “approaching junctions” hint that crossing when emerging may be an issue even if it shouldn’t be the main focus of the PSTs which feature it. Only one exercise – paradoxically, the one that’s actually to do with emerging from T-junctions – specifically implies that crossing traffic is not an issue which needs to be covered on the PST (although in real life it would be – and is – absolutely critical, since T-junctions are closely related to crossroads). It’s also worth noting that the section of ADI 1 which deals with the testing of LGV trainers, and which uses different PST exercises, directly refers to crossing other traffic when emerging, thus emphasising the importance of the subject.

The image I’ve used at the top of this article comes from a news item from 2010. A motorcyclist was knocked off his bike when a Porsche emerged from a side road into his path. The police are quoted as saying:

It appears the bike has been on the main road, the car came out from the side road, and they collided.

Over the years there have been numerous safety campaigns aimed at this precise scenario. It’s still part of the current THINK! campaign. There is no way in hell that emerging from a side road does not involve “crossing the path of other traffic”, and although it might not feature as the subject of someone’s Part 3, anyone who doesn’t cover it at T-junctions when they’re teaching real pupils ought to hand their green badge back.

However, getting back to the main subject, when someone takes their Part 3 test, the PST they have to deal with may contain an exercise which involves “crossing other traffic”. If it does, then that exercise will involve crossing the path of other traffic when emerging if it’s the crossroads one. It may involve an exercise where crossing other traffic while emerging might need to be dealt with if it is the “approaching corners” one (depending on the circumstances). If the PST is the one dealing with T-junctions then crossing the path of other traffic is not involved in the marking at all.

To be completely honest, I don’t think all PDIs are aware of these differences, and they assume that “crossing” is the same whichever PST it appears in. Going further, I don’t think all ADIs who provide Part 3 training realise it either, and I think that’s why some will claim that examiners are throwing in faults that they shouldn’t be, when all they’re doing is exactly what is required by the PST involved – and the circumstances at the time.

But here’s the rub – and remember how I said I’d refer to certain PSTs later. Anyone who is doing their Part 3 test is potentially less than an hour away from being let loose on real pupils. It is reasonable to suppose that they should be able to handle anything which comes up on the test since they’re going to have to do it if they have a green badge. Unfortunately, too many PDIs are completely wound up in scripts and set pieces which collapse completely if the examiner does something out of sequence. So if something fairly mundane – but not specifically part of the PST involved, like crossing the path of a car which is heading towards them as they emerge at a T-junction – comes up on the test, the PDI should be able to handle it. If they make a complete hash of it as a result of it not being a part of the predefined script they’re following, should they still pass their Part 3?

I would say no.

Originally published in April, 2012. Furthermore, I have seen a few posts on a forum with ADIs fretting over pupils who aren’t making progress. They really ought to consider ADHD as a possible reason for this. I had another one recently who has all the necessary hardware to drive well, but who struggles when the software (the mind) becomes involved. After completing the questionnaire referred to later, previously undiagnosed ADHD entered the frame very strongly indeed.

In 2011 I had a pupil who was a dream to teach, with the single exception that she was extremely nervous and literally hated driving. We had to agree that in the debrief following each lesson the baseline started at “I hate driving” and only ever went upwards from there – it was the only way we could identify and acknowledge any improvements. Prior to that, whenever I asked her how she felt a lesson had gone, it was always “not very good” or “terrible” because she was equating a good lesson with enjoying it 100%. We were never going to achieve that merely because she hated driving. She was actually a brilliant driver.

In the course of our chats I discovered that her mum was the same. She said that her mum was a nervous driver, and would always drive round the block to make sure the car was pointing in the right direction in order to avoid having to turn around in the road. She also told me about her brother, who had taken and failed his driving test 5 times up to that point, apparently because he went to pieces on his tests. It seemed that whatever it was that ran in the family also extended to him.

She passed easily at the end of summer that year, and a couple of weeks later I got a call from her brother asking me if I’d take him on, which I was glad to do. His sister called again and asked me not to tell him that she’d passed – the family wanted to keep it from him to avoid upsetting him. She told me there was no need to lie, just not to mention it to him (he was in his late 20s). Anyway, he started lessons with me in September, 2011. At that time, I just assumed he was nervous like his sister and mother.

Soon after I’d met him and started teaching him, it quickly became clear that his general driving wasn’t actually that bad. However, he couldn’t do any of the manoeuvres to anywhere near test standard, and he had real problems with roundabouts or any “complex” junction. He could talk forever and you couldn’t shut him up, and this was a major source of distraction to him – he invariably started talking at the precise times when he should have shut up to concentrate on what was ahead. His favourite subject was how many lessons he’d had, how much it had cost him, and other topics connected with his lack of driving success. Just about everything we did he could somehow relate back to this, and it always fired him up once he started, thus distracting him further. Even if there was no obvious trigger he’d just blurt it out at some point in every lesson.

A couple of months after he started I also began teaching his girlfriend. It turned out that she was a good driver, and it was clear that she was going to get up to test standard very quickly. More about this later.

I discovered that he found it very difficult to learn anything “different” – he couldn’t parallel park at all using whatever previous method he’d been taught (which meant I couldn’t help him fine tune that method, since I didn’t know what it was, either), but trying to teach him a new method was met successively with frustration and anger at not being able to do it. Even when we’d apparently made progress on one lesson, his first attempt next time would invariably result in him defaulting to his original confused method, leading to more anger. I lost count of the number of times he told me he was “stupid”, how he had “always been like it at school”, and how he couldn’t learn things. Me telling him he wasn’t stupid had little effect.

We’d had his test booked several times – but moved it for various reasons (money issues, working overtime due to money issues, and having to spend money for his two kids at Christmas). When I looked it up in March, 2012, he’d only had 9 one-hour lessons over seven months, with long gaps between some of them. However, he still wanted to pass quickly, and in talking with him there was an inner struggle between his desire to pass his test and fear of failing if he tried.

One test booking which did have him fired up was the one that would have ensured he passed before his girlfriend. He was absolutely desperate for that to happen, but he ended up not booking any lessons so his girlfriend and me eventually persuaded him to just cancel it and not rebook until he was really ready.

As I’ve already mentioned, I’d told him that he wasn’t stupid. But I broached the subject of learning disabilities, because it had become clear that it wasn’t just “nerves” affecting him.

It turned out that he had problems in his normal life. Apparently, he had ripped doors off hinges at home when he got angry at something. He often got so angry that he had to stop himself hitting people if they “wound him up”. He had been in trouble at work for throwing things in anger. He had a home gym to help him work off his anger and frustration (one thing he told me that makes me laugh even now is how one time he squared up to his girlfriend during an argument – he is about 6′ 3″ tall, and about the same wide; she is roughly the size of a Barbie Doll. She cracked him on his jaw, and he was subsequently frightened of her). It also turned out that he’d been tested at school because of his behaviour, and he was told that there was “something wrong” but they didn’t know what!

Early on in his lessons I’d suggested that he see his GP to explain his problems – I had beta blockers in my mind while nerves were still on the agenda. I’d mentioned counselling a few times. But when I found out about his problems outside driving and his school’s assessment, I wrote “ADHD???” on his driving record. He said he’d often thought about that even though it “only affected kids”.

When his girlfriend passed her test first time he went into a real depression – “everyone is passing before me”, he said, “and I’ve been taking lessons since…”. And off he went on his favourite topic. He made me laugh again when he said he would refuse to get in the car with his girlfriend “on a matter of principle”. When I asked what principle, off he went again on the same topic – “it’s not right she should pass before me, after all those…” To make matters worse, he then asked me outright if his sister was still taking lessons (I’m sure he must have suspected something during those seven months, as he had never asked about her until then). I didn’t lie, and told him she passed the previous summer. And off we went again.

He suddenly started taking things much more seriously. On his next lesson he told me he’d found this website – and a questionnaire about ADHD. The subject had stuck in his mind and he’d followed it through. Basically, the questionnaire scores you between 0 and 100 – when I did it, I scored 8. He scored 80 (anything above about 30 ranks as likely ADHD).  He contacted the relevant people and they arranged for him to be assessed properly.

I’ve used the questionnaire on several pupils with driving issues, and they’ve scored between 40 and 95.

By the way, that image on the sweatshirt sums up what appears to be going on inside people’s heads when they have ADHD. It’s no wonder it affects their ability to learn. However, once you know what IS going on in their heads you can find ways of dealing with things, as they affect everyone differently.

You can buy various shirts with that design from www.zazzle.co.uk.

He had his assessment and was offered the following two options:

• go via the NHS, and wait up to TWO YEARS for a consultation
• pay more than £500 to go private (plus whatever the medication costs) and get a consultation within a fortnight

I remember years ago, someone I knew had a hernia. He was told by the doctor that the NHS waiting list was about 18 months – but if he went private “I can fit you in next week”. Same doctor wielding the knife.

I should point out in closure that he passed his test on his first attempt with me a few months later! I like to think that at least some of that was down to me.

I occasionally see him when I go shopping in Asda, and he never followed up on the treatment for his ADHD. Just knowing what the problem was at long last seemed to make all the difference. He’s driving around quite happily, having had no accidents.

ADHD isn’t a show stopper as far as learning to drive is concerned – but it can seem like it is if it isn’t picked up. Someone with ADHD cannot be taught the normal way, because they can’t learn the normal way.

This is an older article, and the lesson prices given are not current – though they were correct at the original time of writing. Current hourly rates (2022) are £31.

Another recent forum discussion referred to unreasonable demands for lesson refunds by pupils.

I mentioned in my recently updated article on becoming an ADI that there are some very strange people out there. Imagining slights where none exist is definitely one manifestation of their strangeness, and for some it’s only natural that this will stretch far enough for them to attempt to make money out of it. Such an approach is most likely when someone desperately wants to pass their test, but has issues with driving which mean that passing inside 12 months is optimistic. So, when they decide that they “don’t think they are making progress”, they automatically blame their instructor. It would appear that an unfortunate ADI has recently fallen foul of this type of comedian, with a pupil stopping lessons – and then demanding a refund, including the money for those already taken! Naturally, this was then followed with threats to “take it to the small claims court”, even though the instructor in question seems to have been readily prepared to refund all outstanding monies.

The first thing most other instructors do when they read this sort of nonsense is immediately run with the assumption that a small claims court would even entertain the matter. Let’s just be clear on something, here. Unless an instructor was refusing to refund for unused lessons, a pupil demanding money back for lessons they’ve already taken wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. They’d need to demonstrate conclusively that their instructor spent whole lessons disembowelling squirrels or something instead of teaching them to drive. Small claims courts are not going to start poking into whether or not driving lessons were up to an acceptable standard – only whether they were given or not.

Speaking personally, I want as quiet a life as possible so that I can concentrate of teaching people to drive. If someone triggers my late-cancellation clause, they get a lecture and one or two more chances. In the absence of any mitigating circumstances, if they do it again after that, they’re history. There’s no point trying to hold on to them, because once they’ve shown their true colours they’re just going to cost you more and more money. And if you actually try to claim the cost of the lesson the majority of them will just stick two fingers up at you and go elsewhere. I’m not prepared to give them the satisfaction, and I think I’ve claimed for missed lessons maybe six times since I became an ADI (that’s out of many thousands of hours). All of those occurred after agreeing to it with the bill payer (at least three times, at their insistence). In almost all cases it was because the pupil was hungover or comatose following a late night.

As unpleasant as it might be to hear it, many instructors get themselves into a mess over these issues because they’re either too desperate or too greedy (often both) to deal with it logically or professionally, and end up trying to claim for lessons where discretion is needed (pupils with learning or mental health issues, bereavements, and so on). That drives pupils away and sets up a refund situation, the amount of the refund being complicated by the “claimed” hours. Even more worrying is the fact that far too many ADIs these days take block booking payments, spend the money immediately (or it gets sucked into the black hole that passes as their bank balance), and then effectively go AWOL when the pupil tries to book those prepaid lessons. This happens because once the money is spent, they are effectively working for nothing, and they would rather give lessons to those who are paying on the day. Thus, they become un-contactable via phone, text, or email – or they become unreliable and cancel lessons so they can take on paying pupils.

If you take block bookings, it is essential that you put the money away and only dip into it as each lesson is taken. If you don’t, any refund will have to come out of your own pocket – and not being able to cover that is another reason why ADIs go AWOL when pupils attempt to contact them. The pupils’ money doesn’t belong to you until they’ve taken the lessons, and you’ve got to be able to refund it immediately if they request it.

Another mistake instructors make is rooted in their desire to maximise their income and minimise their perceived losses at all costs. A pupil who sees an offer for a 10x block of lessons costing £200 is automatically going to conclude that lessons cost £20 per hour, even if the instructor’s single hourly rate is clearly stated as £25. This holds true no matter what complex wording is hidden away in the Ts&Cs (“refunds are calculated based on φ > Ω, but only when ϕ is less than 3, and not otherwise”). The thing is, if you are offering block booking discounts of £5 per hour in the first place, you are already “losing” £50 against your single-lesson rate. You have to face the fact that your hourly rate is £20 – not £25 – for those who block book, and it’s no wonder that a pupil who takes two hours of lessons out of such a block booking, and who then asks for a refund, becomes angry when you return £150 instead of £160. They’ll immediately start telling everyone that they’re being “ripped-off” which, while not being absolutely true, is definitely an understandable comment.

I offer block booking discounts which drop my current single-hourly rate of £24 down to £21.81 (if they book 10 hours) or £20.87 (if they book 20). I do this by giving them a free hour when they pay for 10, or three hours if they pay for 20 – but I make it clear that the free hour(s) are a gift, have no monetary value, and are taken at the end of a block only after the paid lessons have been used up. Thus, if they need a refund, it is at the £24 rate – they only get the benefit of the discount if they take all ten (or 20) lessons plus the free ones. They all happily agree to that, and it has never been an issue. Quite frankly, if anyone ever turned it into one, it’d be me sticking two fingers up at them! I certainly wouldn’t be worried about any threats to “take it to small claims”.

As a bit of an aside, being able to take card payments has an unquantifiable but very positive effect on pupil satisfaction. Almost everyone – and especially those who have had lessons elsewhere – expresses surprise at the fact I can take such payments. This week alone, at least two of my regular pupils have said for the umpteenth time that “this device is incredible” when I’ve given them my card machine to slot their card into – or even zap it from their phone. The fact that they can have a receipt via email or SMS amazes them, as does the fact that those buying single hours can just wave their card at the machine and complete a contactless payment. All of this has a strange knock-on effect among those who can’t afford block bookings, and they seem much happier being able to pay without physical money changing hands. As I have said before, the amount I save by not going to the bank anymore to pay in cheques offsets the transaction fee somewhat, as does the fact that I have put my prices up by £1 and fuel prices have fallen by so much [this is an older article, remember]. And you can’t really really put a price on the convenience of it all.

Occasionally, you will get someone who wants to barter over price when they enquire about lessons. In those cases I simply point out that I am running a business and cannot cut my prices any lower, and that I already offer discounts. I also point out that anyone offering lower prices compared to me will be making less profit with similar overheads, and will therefore be looking for ways to reduce their expenditure – which usually means less driving and more lessons needed to reach test standard. And I also emphasise that I take card payments, so they don’t have to keep going to the cash machine to withdraw money. If they don’t call back after that I consider that I am well rid of them.

A good instructor should have to refund pupils to the extent that over a typical year the amount of income lost is negligible. I usually only need to do it if someone moves away, and I provide any refund immediately by bank transfer, PayPal, cash, or (as a last resort) postal orders since I don’t use personal cheques anymore. On the rare occasions when someone just isn’t happy – yes, it does happen, and the feeling is often mutual when it does – I don’t want them hanging around like a bad smell. Taking a small (and theoretical) financial hit to get rid of them is actually a sound investment.

Note that this is quite an old post, and the figures given are not correct in 2023).

I saw a comment recently on one of the forums where a newly-qualified ADI was asking if anyone had “considered” working after 4pm and weekends, since these apparently counted as “unsociable hours” and so a premium price could therefore be charged.

I immediately thought of the way Scott Adams depicted the “new guy” in a Dilbert strip some years ago. All arms akimbo and gushing with enthusiasm.

I mentioned in my recent update about becoming an ADI that to succeed in this business you have to start out with a wide open diary and a flexible approach. If you started as an independent right away, you’ll find it hard enough to charge even normal hourly rates, so the last thing you need to be doing is deterring people with “premium prices” before you’ve even got enough income to cover your bills. Working evenings and weekends – at least until you are established, which can take years – is pretty much mandatory if you expect to stay in business very long.

Once you’re established, of course, you can do whatever you bloody well want. If you want to put people off booking certain times, then by all means up your prices for those times – but just remember that anyone landing on your website home page who is confronted with an intimidating price structure that looks like it could be part of a Mensa test probably isn’t going to stick around long (nor are they likely to be impressed if they get their calculators out and realise what you’re doing). If you’re a newbie who sees it as a good way of making extra money to offset having too little work – no one else will have thought of it before you, naturally – just switch off your moral compass and go right ahead.

People who do it to deter pupils from booking certain times really need to think before they begin telling newbies, who are looking to earn extra pennies, that it’s all right to do it. The two reasons are poles apart. A newly qualified ADI is more likely to end up having to cut his prices than he is to be charging premium rates. You need to be a premium-performing ADI with a premium reputation before you can even entertain charging premium prices. Most pupils know if they’re getting a good service or not, and newbies need to accept that they will not be performing like someone with many years’ experience.

Charging more for lessons at times you don’t want to do is fine (I suppose, and as long as you’re still prepared to do them if someone falls for it). But charging more for weekends and evenings just to try and make money is – in my opinion – stupid. There’s no law against it, of course. It’s just… well, stupid. You’ll never be able to quantify it, but one thing you can be sure of is that charging premium prices for what you imagine are “premium times” is never going to get you any extra work. You simply have to face the fact that no one shopping around for lessons is dumb enough to be positively attracted to an instructor with a complicated price structure who charges them more for evening or weekend lessons. On the other hand, simple logic dictates that many pupils will be repelled by high or confusing prices so it’s almost certainly going to lose you work though – as I say – you won’t be able to quantify it and will probably go around promoting the idea instead.

Incidentally, I asked one of my pupils – making clear it was hypothetical, and explaining to her what I’d read – if she would be prepared to pay £5 extra for her occasional evening or weekend sessions. She initially surprised me by saying it wouldn’t really matter to her, but after a pause she added that she would have to think about it if her friends were paying less. There’s the rub: do you really want to introduce that sort of uncertainty to what is already an uncertain business to be in?

Evenings and weekends are the most popular lesson times on average. The last thing I’d be wanting to do is piss off potential customers of those slots.

In the past, I’ve worked as late as 11pm and 12am – both times for the purposes of completing night driving modules on Pass Plus courses taken in summer. I often take on pupils who can only do 8-10pm due to work, and when my diary is full many of the others are happy to do late evening lessons too. I prefer to start at 10am, but again when my diary is full many will happily book 8-9am lessons. I do explain at some stage that I am not naturally a morning person and that I hate getting up early, but I also make it clear that I am prepared to do it if that’s best for them, so I make no serious effort to prevent pupils booking these lessons or, indeed, 8.10am tests (which means picking them up at 6.30am). I tell them that they’re paying me for a service, and it’s what they want (within reason) that matters – not what I want. I’m smart enough to make sure that 9.30-10pm finishes dovetail with later starts the following day. Most days, I start at 10am and finish at 7-8pm. I charge the same prices… and I have a full diary.

I’m well established, but even so I cannot just hike the price for my existing pupils whenever I feel like it. I make it a point never to increase how much a pupil pays during the time they’re with me (it’s one of my selling points). My price has increased in stages by about £3 an hour since I became an ADI (2023 update: my prices are now about £10 higher than when I started out), but I am also acutely aware of the dividing line beyond which the price is too high for my area, and which would – logically – impact my work load. I have definitely lost enquiries as a result of the price I charge over the years and putting them up further has to be managed very carefully or just shelved.

Why do some instructors tell me to charge a premium price for evening lessons?

It’s quite possible that this job isn’t their main source of income, and losing work through being unavailable doesn’t matter to them as long as they have work when they want it. You, on the other hand, are probably quite new, desperate to get work, and are looking for ways of maximising your income. Putting your prices up – for any reason – in your situation is a very risky strategy, and the people advising you ought to understand this, though many don’t.

There’s also the fairly remote possibility that someone is telling you to do it because they know it will perhaps harm your career. It’s a horrible thought, but there really are people out there who are like that.

Is it wrong to charge more for evenings and weekends?

It’s not illegal. The morality of it is debatable and my personal view is that weekend and evening lessons are no different to weekday ones. The only time I would ever charge premium prices for any lesson – and I’ve been asked about it a few times – is if someone wanted to book me on the days I take off over Christmas. I’ve made it clear that it would be triple-time, which has successfully prevented anyone from taking up the offer, but which would also make it worth my while if they ever did (we all have our price).

Won’t I make more money if I charge more for weekends and evenings?

If people were prepared to pay, yes. However, most of them will not.

Look, there is no way that I am ever going to persuade you using mere words that people won’t pay, and that it would almost certainly end up being detrimental to your business, so why don’t you just go ahead and try it and see what happens. When someone skims through your website and is immediately put off by what they see, at least the rest of us will benefit even if you don’t!

Just remember that putting your prices up for any reason is almost certainly not going to bring in extra work. At best – and if you’re very, very lucky – you simply won’t lose any.

What if I just want to put people off booking evenings and weekends?

I can think of far more effective ways of not working evenings and weekends. Just saying “I don’t do evening or weekend lessons” is one that springs instantly to mind. Other than that, it’s not quite as morally questionable as just trying to make money.

This question crops up regularly in the search terms used to find the blog, but since just before Christmas there has been a noticeable spike. It’s often asked in relation to specific models of car, so I am seeing people repeatedly asking how many turns they need for full lock in Astras, Corsas, Fiestas, and so on.

The obvious solution – to me, at least – would be to sit in the driver’s seat of the car in question and try it. However, if this job has taught me one thing, it is that simple logic is a difficult concept for many people, and you should never assume that what is obvious to you is obvious to your learners.

Full lock is when you turn the steering wheel as far as it will go in one direction. Sometimes even this information is not enough, and pupils need to be told – even shown – what full lock is. It’s not uncommon to have to demonstrate right and left full lock separately, as the pupil hasn’t made the connection that doing it to the left is just the opposite of doing it to the right! On other occasions, I even have to demonstrate the clunk-clunk-clunk you get when the wheel won’t go any further.

I think that some people have so much trouble with this because they see what they’re trying to do as an abstract concept. When I’m doing it, I simply steer as much as I need to in order to make the car do what I want it to do, and if I want the car to turn as much as possible, then I steer as much as possible. However, learners think in terms of “how much did I steer last time?” and not how to make the car do what they want – and that’s where their problems start. That same sort of thinking also explains why the question of how many turns are needed for full lock keeps cropping up.

If I get into a different model of car to the one I normally drive, I never – absolutely never – worry about how many turns I need for full lock. If I need it I just do it – you know: clunk-clunk-clunk, where it won’t go any further. How many turns it actually is is completely irrelevant to me. In my tuition car, the only reason I know how many turns equal full lock now is that I have to keep explaining it. What usually happens is that a learner will merrily flail their arms and break into a heavy sweat when they put full lock on, but when it comes to taking it off they do a wimpy little quarter turn – oblivious of the fact that the car is still swinging out when they start to move. It’s all down to that abstract reasoning, again.

Indeed, when it comes to straightening up a pupil will often be staring at the steering wheel, not at what the car is doing, and somewhere in the recesses of their mind a little voice will say that when the Ford logo in the middle of the wheel is the right way up they are straight – with no consideration of the fact that the logo is the right way up when you have one full turn to the left or the right (as well as straight). Sometimes, what I get them to do is count how many hand movements it takes to get full lock on in any direction, then point out that it’s going to need approximately the same number of hand movements the other way to straighten up again (assuming they have the appropriate steering technique).

Another problem that can manifest itself is pupils’ inability to translate steering wheel movement into fractions. The diagram at the top of this article shows a “straight” steering wheel on the left (the white dot at the top helps to illustrate the point). A quarter turn to the right shows the dot moved by 90° to the right (2nd image), a half turn of 180° (3rd image), and ¾ of a turn (270°, 4th image). A further quarter turn results in one whole turn of the steering wheel. Although the idea of quarter turns, or multiples thereof, can be confusing and should be avoided in some cases, it is ironic that those who have the greatest problems with steering can often be helped if they understand the concept of fractions of a turn (well, sometimes – it depends on the pupil). Some instructors go so far as to put a piece of tape on the steering wheel, much as I’ve used a dot in the diagram, though I don’t do that myself – I just refer to the Ford logo.

How do I full lock the steering wheel?

Turn it as far as it will go in either direction. Full lock to the left means steer as far as it will go to the left. Full lock to the right means steer as far as it will go to the right. You’ll know when it has gone all the way because a) it will make a clunk sound, and b) it won’t go any further.

So how many turns IS full lock?

In my car, it is just over 1¼ turns. However, I’ve used Ford Focuses since the MkII model, and back then full lock was almost 1¾ turns. On one of the intermediate models it was just over 1½ turns. I haven’t a clue what it is on a Fiesta, a Corsa, or any other car out there – you’re sitting in one so work it out for yourself.

How many turns to straighten the wheels after full lock?

I can’t believe someone actually asked this – and also wanted pictures to explain it!

You’re going about this all wrong. You need to stop overthinking it. If you look at the steering wheel in your car and turn it to full lock from the straight-wheel position, count how many turns are involved. It really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to discover that in order to straighten your wheels up again from full lock, you turn the steering wheel the opposite way by the exact same amount. Conveniently, the logo in the middle of the steering wheel is the right way up when your wheels are straight (it is also the right way up with one whole turn left or right, but you can deal with that).

How far do the car’s wheels turn?

It varies from car to car. You may have noticed that the large taxis (Hackney cabs), for example, can do a U-turn on roads where you might have to do a three-point-turn instead. It’s because their wheels turn further than they do on your car.

For most vehicles, the angle the wheels can turn to varies between about 30° and 50°. Because of the potential dangers – and I’m only guessing on this – I would imagine that cars capable of higher speeds would be limited to the lower end of that. Steering too much is dangerous in the first place, but being able to do it at high speed has alarm bells ringing all over it.

How much do I need to steer on corners?

It depends – but you’re thinking about it all wrong.

How much you need to steer on any given bend will vary from car to car, because it depends on how much the wheels move when you turn the steering wheel a set distance. But it isn’t case of memorising how much you need to turn the wheel. What you should be doing is turning the wheel enough to make the car do what you want it to do, and you assess that with your eyes and brain.

Learners initially have difficulty understanding that if the car isn’t going round a bend as much as it needs to, then it needs a bit more steering. That happens because in the early stages they aren’t seeing what’s happening in front of them. This often then develops into not realising that if you do add more steering, it only needs a small amount – not a dramatic yank towards the kerb, and that is usually because they are going too fast to be able to think about it calmly.

It all comes good with practice, though.

I got a nice email this afternoon from a reader I’ve not spoken with before called Elaine. She just passed her driving test at the first attempt, and she believes that the advice on this site helped her stay calm while she was learning.

Over the years, a few people who have contacted me via the Contact Form have thanked me for help they believe I have given them. I like to think their judgement is correct, but it isn’t something I would claim for myself.

The thought that what I write actually helps people makes me very happy indeed. Congratulations, Elaine, and you’re welcome!