It\u2019s quite simple, actually. You charge money for lessons, and you spend money to get a car, run it, keep it on the road, and keep your business afloat. What\u2019s left over is your wage before tax and National Insurance. Anyone higher than a squirrel on the evolutionary scale will use yearly figures for comparisons, and not short-term spikes in their earnings as a guide to future profits. I mean, over a typical financial year my monthly hours worked might look something like this.![\"Hours](\"https:\/\/www.diaryofanadi.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/hours_pm_worked.png\" "\\"Hours")
<\/p>\n
It is equivalent to an average over 52 weeks (we call that \u2018a year\u2019) of about 30 hours of lessons per week. I have done busier years than this, and I have done quieter ones. And I have had more erratic ones\u00a0 But this is typical \u2013 an \u2018average\u2019, if you like.<\/p>\n
My current lesson rate is \u00a329 per hour. So my takings for the year \u2013 my turnover, <\/strong>which is how much money I take from pupils \u2013 would be \u00a345,240. But not all that money is my wage.<\/p>\n Right now, doing a week like that would cost me about \u00a380-\u00a3100 or so in fuel costs (which varies depending on the cost of fuel at any given time). Over a full year, I\u2019d have to spend about \u00a35,000 on fuel just to be able to give these lessons.<\/p>\n Then there is how much it costs me to have a car in the first place. Let\u2019s consider this in my<\/strong> world \u2013 and not the one populated with unicorns prancing across candy cane fields under a sky full of rainbows. The absolute minimum cost to anyone<\/strong> is going to be at least \u00a330 per week to keep a car on the driveway \u2013 and that\u2019s for an older car which never goes wrong, which in all honesty is<\/strong> in unicorn territory. Over a year, that would cost you over \u00a31,500. A newer car, or one which is leased or on PCP, or from a franchise, would cost at least \u00a380 a week (over \u00a34,000 a year), and up to \u00a3200 a week (over \u00a310,000 a year).<\/p>\n So if you subtract the fuel cost and the yearly cost for keeping even a perfect banger which never goes wrong\u00a0 on the road, your theoretical wage would be \u00a338,700. Realistically you will have a proper car \u2013 one that still reflects sunlight and has at least something<\/strong> inside it which is electrically powered – and your theoretical wage would be more like \u00a330,200-\u00a336,200.<\/p>\n There are other overheads you need to subtract from that, but let\u2019s stick with this theoretical set for the purposes of this discussion.<\/p>\n Now, just for a moment, let\u2019s take a totally separate path. IF<\/strong> I charged \u00a350 an hour, my theoretical wage would leap to around \u00a367,000. IF<\/strong> I charged \u00a3100 per hour, it would be as much as \u00a3145,000. But reality has a big say in all this.<\/p>\n In 2016, a survey showed the average lesson price in the UK was \u00a324 per hour (mine was \u00a325), with a higher range of \u00a328, and a lower one of \u00a323. In 2020 \u2013 and without knowing what effect COVID-19 has had yet \u2013 these figures are typically about \u00a35 higher. I stress, these are averages, and at any time there are always some people who are charging either well below or well above the average. But when I say \u2018well above\u2019 or \u2018below\u2019, were talking a few pounds \u2013 not tens of pounds. Anyone charging double that is not<\/strong> doing normal lessons with normal people.<\/p>\n I recently saw someone claim that it was possible to \u2018earn\u2019 \u00a374,000, and they even cited an example of someone who \u2018had done it\u2019, and that they did so working 36 hours a week over 48 weeks. Straightaway there is a problem, because 48 weeks isn\u2019t a full year, and 36 hours per week over 48 weeks actually equates to a weekly average of 33 hours per week. That would means someone \u2018earning\u2019 \u00a374,000 would be charging the equivalent of \u00a343 per hour which is almost double the normal lesson rate. Alternatively \u2013 and without knowing the full details – another way of looking at it is that \u00a374,000 over 48 weeks scaled to a full year equates to \u00a340 an hour at 36 hours per week. This is what happens when the clueless start throwing random and incomplete figures around.<\/p>\n The second problem is that they are not \u2018earning\u2019 that at all. That is their turnover,<\/strong> which the person who made the claim admitted to later, though not initially when they were in full-on bragging mode. Turnover is absolutely meaningless unless you have someone\u2019s detailed accounts. The worrying thing is that supposedly professional people are bandying these figures around for purposes best known to themselves, but they are totally ignorant to what it is they are actually pushing.<\/p>\n Someone charging anywhere near \u00a343 an hour is not<\/strong> going to be driving a banger with faded paint. They will not<\/strong> be giving normal lessons to normal people \u2013 there will be some unique selling point (USP) they are involved with, or they will only be covering a special area with very rich clients. And if they have a cat in hell\u2019s chance of sustaining that model from year to year even in those circumstances, they will be highly experienced to the extent they can get away with it. If they are inexperienced (or bad) instructors, even posh and rich people will tend to realise any shortcomings sooner or later.<\/p>\n Taking overheads into account, the person they mentioned would have been \u2018earning\u2019 at least \u00a310,000 less than that \u00a374,000 \u2013 even without knowing the full story. If they were using a high-spec or specialised vehicle \u2013 which is likely if the hourly rate really was \u00a343 \u2013 it could have been \u00a320,000 less, or even more. So it is misleading, and unprofessional to push a high figure like this as a potential salary. It is no better than me quoting a friend of mine who charges \u00a360 an hour \u2013 he\u2019s a plumber.<\/p>\n The bottom line is that most ADIs \u2013 the vast, vast, vast<\/strong> majority \u2013 cannot possibly charge \u00a343 and hour. That majority is so vast that individuals who can<\/strong> get away with it for whatever reason are irrelevant. Furthermore, the vast majority of ADIs struggle to maintain even 20-30 hours, and that’s especially true right now. You can see my real world example, which dips between about 80 hours and 160 hours per month over a year (20-36 hours a week) even when there’s no pandemic to deal with. Back in the last recession, you could easily halve those figures for many people, and at the opposite end I once did a year where I was averaging 40 hours a week \u2013 which nearly killed me. I would never quote that year as in any way \u2018typical\u2019 \u2013 because it wasn\u2019t, it isn\u2019t, and it shouldn\u2019t be. It happened by accident, and I deliberately pulled back as a result of it, hence \u201830 hours\u2019.<\/p>\n You see, that\u2019s another complication which the person boasting these figures missed. In terms of workload, an average of 36 hours over 48 weeks is precisely that \u2013 for 48 weeks, the instructor would be delivering that<\/strong> number of lessons. And that is hard to do, especially if it is week in, week out. If they worked 7 days a week, they’d be doing 5 hours every day (the person who made the claim said they were ‘doing 2 hour lessons’, which doesn’t quite fit). A 6-day week would be 6 hours a day – which does fit. And no cancellations, urgent appointments, or family issues? It’s unicorn territory even with that. But whatever, financially<\/strong>\u00a0it has to be gauged over 52 weeks to make any sense in salary terms.<\/p>\n And I stress again the phrase \u2018theoretical earnings\u2019. In reality, an ADI has other overheads he or she will have to subtract from their turnover before they can call it their wage. These will vary for each individual \u2013 with the likelihood that someone charging \u00a343 per hour and getting away with it will have a lot more to pay out than everyone else.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re thinking of coming into this business, do not listen to poseurs who quote these outlandish figures. If there is any confusion between \u2018turnover\u2019 and pre-tax profit when they comment, walk away and blacklist them. They do not have a clue \u2013 no matter what title they give themselves.<\/p>\n A decent instructor teaching normal pupils should be looking to earn a proper wage somewhere around \u00a325,000-\u00a330,000 in 2020 (COVID-19 and Brexit effects notwithstanding) \u2013 if<\/strong> they\u2019re doing an average of 30 hours and if<\/strong> they\u2019re charging around \u00a330 an hour. You can worry about USPs, rich clients, and doubling your fees later.<\/p>\n Oh. And \u2018turnover\u2019 is not<\/strong> your \u2018wages\u2019 or \u2018earnings\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although it might have a say in how long you remain one! My article, Should I Become A Driving Instructor is quite popular \u2013 25,000 views since I published it. It is a very long article, and some people probably don\u2019t have the attention span to read it all, but in it I explain how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80,98,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adi-related","category-brexit","category-covid-19"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diaryofanadi.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}