Having the right person by your side to help and support you as you acquire the life-long skill of driving is essential, and can make or break your entire experience as a learner driver. It can be the difference between passing first time, and taking four attempts – between being a confident, competent driver, or losing your confidence and needing extra support and tuition.
Rather than be in a lottery situation, hoping you get a ‘good one’, there are several important things you can focus on to ensure you’re enlisting the services of an excellent driving instructor.
Here we’re sharing our top four key things to look out more when choosing a driving instructor!
1. Reviews and testimonials
Whoever you are considering, be sure to check out their reviews and testimonials online before deciding to spend money with them.
The best possible indicator you can have of an instructor’s competence and the quality of their tuition is word of mouth recommendations. Everybody can put reviews on their website, but when you are speaking to someone and get a recommendation, that’s the best source of realistic feedback on the quality of their driving tuition.
Always do your own checks to make sure, and bear in mind that everybody’s experience is different and priorities also vary from person to person, so what may be for them might not be right for you.
You can check out some of the reviews our driving instructors have recieved on our TrustPilot page!
2. Red flags
Sadly there are still a lot of below-par instructors out there – and they’re sometimes hard to avoid even with your new-found knowledge of grades. Red flags include inappropriate language or behaviour, unprofessional comments, references to cutting corners or cheating the system, being overly laid back or disinterested. As soon as any of these red flags occur, look into switching to another driving instructor. Sometimes they occur straight away at the initial session, at other times they manifest throughout your first few lessons. A red flag is always a sign to be respected and taken note of, so be sure to act on them if you notice anything that isn’t quite right (or as a parent if you hear about anything concerning from your child).
3. Answers your questions
Upon first enquiry, a driving instructor or school should be happy to chat with you informally about your expectations and requirements. You’ll get a feel for how they operate from this first conversation – and should expect them to be open and willing to answer any questions you may have about the process and their qualifications, grade and experience.
4. Gut feeling
If your gut is telling you no, don’t go with them. We get lots of learners who have come from elsewhere because they weren’t satisfied with the quality of tuition, or had an incident involving the instructor. So many times we hear people say ‘I had a feeling…’ or ‘I thought it was funny when…’. Sadly there are still instructors out there who are inappropriate, unsafe, slapdash – the list goes on. If your gut is warning you away from someone, follow your instinct and leave them alone.
