[olduser]

I came across this news item;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd0jzd09d7jo

Doe's this qualify as a bad day at the office?

[TC1474]

Serves then right. The instructor should have known better, so got what he/she deserved.

But then I am not surprised as the standard of instructor these days in many cases leaves a lot to be desired.

[Drivingforfun]

It seems to be a race to the bottom with regards to price

My lessons were £20 per hour about 10 years ago and apparently even that was quite expensive, but today if you took minimum wage from that it'd leave you £8 an hour to run the car, assuming you do 7 hours of lessons in a 9 hr day and the rest is travel you have to run the car on £1,100 a month ... £500 for petrol, probably £400-500 for a high mileage lease (my instructor said he does 50k a year) so £200 to service and maintain it ... my instructor said he got through about 2-3 clutches a year

I know they can expense a lot of it against tax but I can't really see how they make much money at all

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by Drivingforfun

It seems to be a race to the bottom with regards to price

My lessons were £20 per hour about 10 years ago and apparently even that was quite expensive, but today if you took minimum wage from that it'd leave you £8 an hour to run the car, assuming you do 7 hours of lessons in a 9 hr day and the rest is travel you have to run the car on £1,100 a month ... £500 for petrol, probably £400-500 for a high mileage lease (my instructor said he does 50k a year) so £200 to service and maintain it ... my instructor said he got through about 2-3 clutches a year

I know they can expense a lot of it against tax but I can't really see how they make much money at all

My brother in law is an ADI (and not very good one at that IMO) and he makes a very good living.

He charges silly £ per lesson, has a queue as long as your arm, and even with maintenance, insurance, (which includes public and employer liability policies) he does very well.

He teaches people to pass the test and does not feel that drivers need to be taught the skills for life, which given what he charges for a Motorway lesson (a subject he knows absolutely nothing about) makes it all the more embarrassing.

These are the people teaching our youngest and most vulnerable road users and yet they are no better (in some cases worse) than the people they are teaching.

I even saw an instructor the other day tell his student to overtake a queue of traffic and continue through the red light. He did not seem bothered when the camera flashed, but I bet he will be whinging when the NiP and FPN lands on his doorstep

[Rolebama]

There was a time when people who drove as part of their profession were held to a higher standard. Those who had a profession entirely involving driving were held to an even higher one. The article says 'they' were fined, and I bet 'they' had the same fine. So assumingly the lesson passed on by the instructor in this case was - you pay me for lessons at your own risk because I am a complete idiot!

[olduser]

Australia seems to organise learning to drive much better.
It varies a bit between states, but the law and rules of the road have to be studied and a test on these passed before a learners permit can be obtained.
With the permit, learners have to drive up to 120 hrs with a driver with a full licence (20 of these hrs have to be in the dark), the learner has to keep a log book.
They then apply for a provisional licence, this allows them to drive with P plates for from 1 to 3 years (depending on which state they are in) the number of passengers they can carry is limited.
When this period has expired they are then apply for a full driving licence.
They do not have a driving test, so they are not taught to pass one.

Their education system, also sets out to teach the students to live rather than pass exams.
They have one examination in the main subjects at the end of their time at school, this then is the key to employment or higher education.

Of course, most drivers will eventually drive in the bush, I think this makes people more aware of their vehicle, breaking down in the bush can quickly become a life or death situation.

[TC1474]

Originally Posted by Rolebama

There was a time when people who drove as part of their profession were held to a higher standard. Those who had a profession entirely involving driving were held to an even higher one. The article says 'they' were fined, and I bet 'they' had the same fine. So assumingly the lesson passed on by the instructor in this case was - you pay me for lessons at your own risk because I am a complete idiot!

Professional drivers are still held to a higher standard, but the trouble is that the bar has been lowered.

Once upon a time HGV drivers were the knights of the road. They drove to a high standard and they knew when they were stopped to hand their tacho charts over so we had control of them, but these days the standard has dropped to an unbelievably low level as has been proven by the number of crashes where the HGV driver has been held responsible.

The same can be said of driving instructors (as proved by my brother in law) and even the standard of driving in the Police service is the lowest I have ever seen as they have even done away with a 4 week course to drive a Panda car to a 30 minute assessment, and traffic crews who used to have to do 12 weeks of training to get to their class 1, now do 3 weeks and just get an advanced pass grade.

We used to be required t do a 12 week traffic law course (which was 2 weeks longer than our basic training when we first joined) and every Monday you needed to get an 85% mark in your weekly exam otherwise you were sent back to your force and you would be alking the streets with a tall hat the following day. They now do 5 days.

Its all about money and reducing the level of professionalism and things are only going to get worse and in my opinion professional standards no longer exist.

[Rolebama]

I remember some years ago a tv prog where an ADI drove for thirty minutes giving a narrative as he drove. I can't remember for sure, but I think it was on BBC2. Before his half-hour was up their switchboard was jammed with complaints from the public, decrying his actual driving as being either thoughtless to other drivers or just plain dangerous. The series was promptly discontinued. The point of the prog was to help teach learner drivers how to drive.
It just happened that he used to visit someone local to me, and as I was passing his parked car, he pulled away from the kerb. No indication and whether he checked his mirror, I don't know, but he was driving the same Triumph Stag as used in his prog. I braked to fall in behind him and saw the badge on the back of his car: Proud Member of Hillingdon Association of Advanced Driving Instructors.

[NMNeil]

Took my motorcycle test in California and the test was conducted in the DMV parking lot. Despite all the arrows on the parking lot showing it was all one way motorists simply ignored the arrows. After nearly being hit by 2 cars within minutes of taking the test I stopped and told the tester it was too dangerous to continue. He agreed ans asked how long I had been riding motorcycles, I told him well over 20 years in the UK. His responce was "Congratulations, you passed"