So, they say that you should have 47 hours of professional training and 20 hours driving with parents or guardians (remember you’ll need learner driver insurance for this). Based on average of £24 on average for a driving lesson, this means it will cost a whopping £1,128 to pass, excluding all the driving test fees and what have you. Picking the right driving instructors VITAL, but once you’d found him / her, how do you get the most out of the lessons.
Introductory driving lessons
Always always always ask about introductory driving lessons, remember you are hiring them and YOU expect excellent customer services. This way, you get to try them out and reduce risk of committing to someone long term. We don’t like dodgy driving instructors and good driving instructors will have no problem offering them to the learners. It also might be worth asking what Grade the driving instructor is and ask for proof, don’t worry if you sound cheeky, 6 is usually good and 1 would be poor. You need to be totally confident other risk changing driving instructors during the learning process, which isn’t good.
Block Booking
Now, I know not everyone can’t do this. But, it might be a good idea to save up to pay for all driving lessons THEN start learning to drive, because, you’ll get more for your money basically. In reality, you could save up to £2 per lesson, which might not seem a lot initially, but if you times that by the number of lessons required to pass on average, you’ll end up with £94. Not bad!
Naturally, be wary of any instructor who is noticeably cheaper than others in your area as there have been bogus driving instructors who are not qualified to teach. The average cost of a lesson in the UK is around £24 (for one hour) so use this as a guide.
Updates & Progress
Most driving instructors will actually update you with how things are going. But some, will be happy with you just doing the same things each week. If you ask how you’re getting on, you could then develop on your weaker points in your parents car and be ready to move on next week with your instructor. Also, the Driver record is produced by the DVLA to help new drivers identify where they need to work on. It has the 24 key skills you need to learn for the practical driving test and can it be downloaded from the DVLA website.
Another way to save money on driving lessons is to attend an intensive course where you spend anything from three to seven days doing nothing but learning to drive. These courses have their advantages, such as immersing you in driving, but some learners find it too much to take in all at once.
